So in the fifties and sixties these Syrians formed a sort of left wing Arab socialist party (but when I say socialism I mean like European social democracy). Then they did a thing with Egypt that lasted like a year and then the radical wing of the party took over and then Assad's dad took control. Then Assad took control and tried to do some liberalism and Europe, the US, and Israel took advantage of it to stage a color revolution and ISIL arose.
Is Assad good? He's okay. Syria has next to nothing in terms of capital so it isn't like he can build the USSR 2. There is truth to his favoritism of his fellow Alawites. Pan-Arabism and Arab socialism are pretty much dead ideologies so he doesn't have a lot of support, but he has prevented his state from becoming a theocratic death cult or a puppet of US imperialism despite Syria being under siege since at least the '67 war (really since the formation of Israel but that's a more controversial opinion). He and his father have almost always been on the side of anti-imperialism and for that he is worth our support.
edit: I want to be clear that our support means nothing as would our condemnation, the Syrian people have a right to self determination under Assad and that is a good thing.
So in the fifties and sixties these Syrians formed a sort of left wing Arab socialist party (but when I say socialism I mean like European social democracy). Then they did a thing with Egypt that lasted like a year and then the radical wing of the party took over and then Assad's dad took control. Then Assad took control and tried to do some liberalism and Europe, the US, and Israel took advantage of it to stage a color revolution and ISIL arose.
Is Assad good? He's okay. Syria has next to nothing in terms of capital so it isn't like he can build the USSR 2. There is truth to his favoritism of his fellow Alawites. Pan-Arabism and Arab socialism are pretty much dead ideologies so he doesn't have a lot of support, but he has prevented his state from becoming a theocratic death cult or a puppet of US imperialism despite Syria being under siege since at least the '67 war (really since the formation of Israel but that's a more controversial opinion). He and his father have almost always been on the side of anti-imperialism and for that he is worth our support.
edit: I want to be clear that our support means nothing as would our condemnation, the Syrian people have a right to self determination under Assad and that is a good thing.