Bashar al Assad wasn't even supposed to be President of Syria, as he was thought of as a mild-mannered geek and doctor (opthamologist) without the temperment necessary to follow his very stern father Hafiz al Assad, the latter a career military officer and political plotter of the first order.

Like the Koreans say, "father tiger, son dog," as to the difficulties of the Prince anywhere and everywhere, which doesn't make Bashar al Assad all bad at all; what was he suppposed to do, join a commune in Big Sur.

There is something of a similarity in this tale to Saddam's sons Uday and Qassay, as to the "Sons of the Dictator" question, people whose fate Bashar ought to consider, along with Saif Gaddafi and Gemal Mubarak, none of them a happy ending compared to what is so easily available to Bashar, with no trials or humilation, or being dragged through the streets to meet a a random bullet like Muammar of rat infested jail like son of the dictator Saif.

As to the rise of Bashar al Assad, he was set for second place in Prince Hafiz's nice little empire, when there was a fiery car crash that killed the heir apparent Basil, Bashar's brother.

Things like that happen all the time in the world we live in, like the 15 or some large number of bullets someone put into Saddam's son Uday Hussein for raping their cousin.

People in Iraq thought Uday was the devil when he came limping back from 15 or so bullets, including in the back, and he definitely was a psycho with the Iraqi soccer team.

As to Syria, before Basil al Assad's unfortunate car crash, Bashar al Assad was headed for obscurity if in the honorable enough profession of opthamologist.

So, as to Bashar al Assad being a good guy or not, worst case, he had his brother killed to take his place in the timeless tale of sibling rivalry pushed to its logical conclusion. I've also never read that said, it's just car crashes, some inquiring minds wonder.

Who knows these things, and, to be fair to Bashar, dictators son's and high speed driving in Mercedes in the fog late at night go together like milk and honey, although so too do security details and armor, for the terminally suspicious of convenient car crashes among us. :) LOL.

We might add here that dictators, and their sons, should also not only be cautious in cars, but also take care on helicopters and airplanes known to conveniently have mechanical problems, and on trains known to pass by car bombs, and on ships known to explode, and be careful walking in open spaces exposed to rifle fire, and also pay and treat their cooks very well.

Everyone thinks its great to be king, right until you look at your cook a different way and say, "It tastes like almonds," as to another common historical risk of sudden illnesses among dictators.

But, back to our is Bashar al Assad a good guy or bad guy story, in which it is worth noting that Hafiz al Assad, Daddy Dictator, by all accounts knew that his Baathist dictatorship, was struggling with the issue of how to relate to the emerging world of the Internet and such; hence Bashar's late enthusiasm for computers, if of course also cyber war too.

So anyhoo, Bashar al Assad comes to power in the late nineties, as the western-educated modernizing reformer, which again might have been, or might not, have been the cause of a car crash even if Bashar had zero to do with that, as to differences of opinion within any such state as the Baathist one party rule created in 1969 by Daddy Hafiz.

Being a reformer like so many had hopes for in Bashar, really like a Syrian version of Gorbachev, is a tricky business, as its so easy to have the thing go out of control, which is what happened between 2000-2002.

The hardliners who alway say "Give an inch, they'll take a mile, so just kill a chicken to scare the monkeys," have the same point as the Chinese about the difference between riding a tiger and getting off a tiger, which is what happened to Bashar's first round of reforms, which leads to why he almost certainly has to go.

He has to go, hopefully not in a box in the middle of a failed state with WMD, which would be scary, since because of the first reform effort's reversal and the attempt to "re-Baathify" Syria, he's oo much like Mubarak, or Gaddafi for that matter, as to any of his political opponents really believing he'd really give up real power in any new reform, if, the Baathist Anniversary Conference is such the perfect time to show that rare quality of a politician anywhere and everywhere: knowing how to make a graceful exit.

That whole story therefore doesn't make Bashar al Assad all bad or all good, its just practical facts of being the heir to a dictatorship that had its day, and now is going to be replaced by something with some modicum of a reasonably happy ending, or not.

As to endings, it could finish with a very sullen population without hope waiting to rebel again if Bashar stays, a pointless exercise of his ego, if maybe a lot more than that too, as people have pride in family, like in Hafiz, or hopefully some brokered deal in which the Baath become a normal political party instead of a Leninist one, as the other scenario is a Mad Max one with chemical WMD, which would draw a lot of outside attention no Syrians I have ever talked with would want.

finis