Syria’s President, Bashar Assad, ignored the lessons of the Arab Spring and, in fact, insisted in January that his country was immune to a popular uprising because he was in tune with the people. Today, the 46-year-old eye doctor who inherited power 11 years ago from his father is on the verge of being toppled — by the very people he thought he knew.

The 22-member Arab League decided to suspend Damascus because the president had refused to abide by the terms of an Arab-brokered peace plan. The United Nations estimates that more than 3,500 people have been killed in the eight-month uprising.

Assad, like Mubarak and Gadhafi, has been blind to the reality on the streets. Syrians, who began with peaceful demonstrations against the government’s heavy-handed rule, became more brazen in their public criticism and opposition to the regime as the military generally loyal to the president tried to crush the uprising with brutal force.

It is telling that in recent days, soldiers have deserted the military and have turned their guns on Assad loyalists.

Even Iran, which has been Syria’s most important and loyal ally, urged Assad to end the bloodshed and find a way of meeting the demands of the people.

The stagnant dictatorship that he inherited from his father, Hafez al-Assad, was never transformed into a modern state that many world leaders had hoped it would become.

— The Vindicator,

Youngstown, Ohio, Nov. 19