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Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/syrias-reformer/2011/03/31/AFy4JFCC_story.html
Syria's "Reformer"
(Washington Post) Charles Krauthammer - It was hoped that President Assad would be a reformer when he inherited his father's dictatorship a decade ago. Wrong. Assad has run the same iron-fisted Alawite police state as did his father. Bashar made promises of reform during the short-lived Arab Spring of 2005. The promises were broken. There are rare times when strategic interest and moral imperative coincide completely. Syria is one such - a monstrous police state whose regime consistently works to thwart U.S. interests in the region. During the worst days of the Iraq war, this regime funneled terrorists into Iraq to fight U.S. troops and Iraqi allies. It is dripping with Lebanese blood as well, being behind the murder of independent journalists and democrats. This year, it helped topple the pro-Western government of Saad Hariri and put Lebanon under the thumb of the virulently anti-Western Hizbullah. Syria is a partner in nuclear proliferation with North Korea. It is Iran's agent and closest Arab ally, granting it an outlet on the Mediterranean.