Assad and his wife lived in the UK. His wife is from there. He studied to be an eye doctor and then had to go back.
When he became President, he was lauded as a reformer even until 2011!!
To be honest we are all one of them till we become aware if iur surroundings and act towards our own interests rather than "liberal democracy"
Democracy used to have bad conotations usually refering to mob rule , today democracy means having elections and alllwing the west to dictate your laws and economic policy.
If you oppose the west you are a dictatorship, a regime
No matter how democratic you are.
If democracy is a bad word these days then liberal is a disgusting insult.
The west has appropriated words like democracy and liberal and today they have an entirely different meaning like how gay used to mean happy.
By refusing subservience and following the program set by Isreal for syris, assad became the new target of 5 minutes of hate.