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"A first-rate analysis of the domestic and foreign policy challenges facing the Bashar al Asad regime, and Asad's mixed record in meeting these challenges" Dr. Robert O. Freedman"
Product Description
Is Syria a rogue state? How important is it to the fates of Iraq, Iran, Israel and Lebanon? This is the inside story. David Lesch has had unique and extraordinary access to Syria's President, his circle and his family. At a critical juncture in the history of the Middle East this is the essential account of contemporary Syria and its enigmatic leader. Bashar al Asad succeeded his father, Hafiz al Asad, as Syrian president in 2000. Inheriting a worn-down dictatorship, he soon encountered momentous regional and international issues involving the global war on terror and the growth of democracy in the Middle East. While Bashar seeks a seamless integration into a changing political environment, many in Syria fear the loss of the political and economic power they enjoyed during the reign of Hafiz al Asad. David Lesch's account of contemporary Syria and its leader is vital to an understanding of Syria's current place in the world, its past, present and future. The fate of Syria says much about what type of Middle East will emerge in the near future, and that fate is very much tied to Syria's young ophthalmologist-turned-president, Bashar al Asad.
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8 reviews
19 of 27 people found the following review helpful
An apologetic praise of the Syrian regime
22 May 2007
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
As in Seale and other Western intellectuals who take off to Syria to write a book there, the generosity and good treatment of the regime toward these people make them fall in love with the regime. You can tell from the very first page when Lesch was very much impressed when Assad replied to his emails.
Needless to say, I couldn't finish this book due to the enormous amount of praise that Lesch hails on the young Syrian president, the Damascus Lion. All that is good in Syria came from Assad and all that is evil came from Syria's enemies in the West. According to this book, the good-willed, kind-hearted Assad is sincerely planning to modernize and democratize Syria, had it not been for the Western anti-Syrian conspiracies that have so far thwarted all such attempts. What an analysis.
Also like the reviewer EDowson (MD) wrote here before me, there is no information about Syria. Perhaps if the author had access to some numbers, like the percentage of people living in poverty while Assad and his group enjoy accumulating enormous wealth, or the number of years anti-Assad opposition figures have spent in the prisons of the Syrian regime, perhaps then Lesch would have changed his opinion a bit. Most important of all, when Lesch writes about the lack of democracy and the nature of the tyrannical regime in Damascus, he does so without even blinking. As if Syria is destined to live under dictatorship and that the dictator himself should be given the chance to renounce his unlimited powers and initiate change. Don't buy this book!
Needless to say, I couldn't finish this book due to the enormous amount of praise that Lesch hails on the young Syrian president, the Damascus Lion. All that is good in Syria came from Assad and all that is evil came from Syria's enemies in the West. According to this book, the good-willed, kind-hearted Assad is sincerely planning to modernize and democratize Syria, had it not been for the Western anti-Syrian conspiracies that have so far thwarted all such attempts. What an analysis.
Also like the reviewer EDowson (MD) wrote here before me, there is no information about Syria. Perhaps if the author had access to some numbers, like the percentage of people living in poverty while Assad and his group enjoy accumulating enormous wealth, or the number of years anti-Assad opposition figures have spent in the prisons of the Syrian regime, perhaps then Lesch would have changed his opinion a bit. Most important of all, when Lesch writes about the lack of democracy and the nature of the tyrannical regime in Damascus, he does so without even blinking. As if Syria is destined to live under dictatorship and that the dictator himself should be given the chance to renounce his unlimited powers and initiate change. Don't buy this book!
2 of 5 people found the following review helpful
OK, but . . .
30 Mar 2011
Format:Hardcover
for a more balanced, up-to-date, first-person account, read IN THE LION'S DEN: An Eyewitness Account of Washington's Battle with Syria, by Andrew Tabler, which will be coming out in September 2011. The wait is worth it for the behind-the-scenes perspective. http://www.amazon.com/Lions-Den-Eyewitness-Account-Washingtons/dp/1569768439/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1301520629&sr=8-1.
5 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Timely
14 Nov 2008
Format:Hardcover
A well researched and very informative book about Syria and it's new president. Syria is a strategic country in a very important part of the world. Mr.Lesch shed a bright light into that corner of the world
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