ALL A WITE WASH:

'Inheriting Syria' in the Modern Age (Terry Gross, 3/31/05, Fresh Air)

Flynt Leverett is a senior fellow at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution. As Syria is prodded to withdraw its troops -- and influence -- from neighboring Lebanon, the region faces potentially drastic changes.

A veteran expert on Middle East policy -- from the National Security Council and the State Department to the CIA -- Leverett has also written a new book, Inheriting Syria: Bashar’s Trial By Fire, about Bashar al-Assad's rule of Syria after following his father as the country's leader.

For today's priceless moment with the Realists, Ms Gross asked Mr. Leverett if Bashar Assad and his father could be called "brutal" rulers. Mr. Leverett was, naturally, unable to say any such thing, though he did go on to explain that 10 to 20, 000 Syrians had "died" at Hama. One wonders how many of your people you have to murder to qualify as brutal in his book. Meanwhile, by the end of the program he was almost sobbing at the thought of the challenges that poor Baby Assad faces.

Posted by Orrin Judd at March 31, 2005 8:33 PM