FOUR DICTATORS — Part 3: Assad, The Man Who Chose to Fight

History Onion · 2:59

Bashar al-Assad was an eye doctor in London when his older brother died in a Mercedes crash and pulled him back to inherit Syria at thirty-four. He inherited a minority-state police system built by his father — fifteen percent of Syrians running the army, the intelligence, and the palace. For thirty-two years before him, that system had worked. Then in March 2011, schoolboys in Daraa sprayed graffiti on a wall: "your turn has come, doctor." The Mukhabarat tortured them. Their parents protested. The security forces opened fire. Eight months earlier, Bashar had watched Gaddafi die.