Marvel Rivals Hits 10 Million Players in Three Days

Bashar al-Assad of 2002 presented a starkly different figure from the brutal autocrat he would become, presiding over a fragile state founded on torture, imprisonment, and industrial murder. He had been president for just two years, succeeding his father, Hafez, whose name was synonymous with brutality. Reaching out to the West, he pursued a PR campaign to portray Syria under his leadership as different, showing the young Assad family as ordinary despite palaces and repression. Visiting Damascus, I was invited for coffee with Assad, curious about Syria’s image abroad. Suggesting uncertainty, he was keen on possibilities for change, including Israel relations. A carefully constructed version of the Assads – highlighting Asma’s charity work and Bashar’s Western embrace – aimed to transform Syria into a version of Jordan’s royal family. The world should know, Bashar insisted, that his father had been right in crushing Islamist insurgents. Twenty-two years later, Bashar is gone, swept from power by an offshoot of al-Qaida. Even then, Syria’s reality was a country with an omnipresent security apparatus, agents watching everywhere. Rejecting democracy, Bashar’s initial reform promise was economic, replacing monopolies with a free market, benefiting cronies. His political doctrine was dictatorship, concentrating power in the armed forces and intelligence agencies. Early on, Assad’s authoritarian chops were questioned, but soon the reality was undeniable. While Bashar released political prisoners in 2001, it was window dressing. Under threat, the last pretense vanished, revealing a regime willing to industrialize detention, torture, and murder, killing up to 13,000 at Sednaya prison. Despite attempts to burnish the Assads, Bashar’s rule became worse. Hafez, a military plotter, framed Assad values, endorsing violence against opposition, foreshadowing Hama’s massacre. His rule established his Alawite minority, with Hama’s 1982 assault, killing thousands. By 2011, the Arab spring had ignited, turning into revolution. Security forces fired, as militias emerged. Assad’s involvement in daily violence orders, even as a sense of unreality, prompting Asma’s father’s concerns. 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