behal myseuld like to welcome you all on behalf of david lesch and myself. this is a wonderful session.our. we're so happy they your here.ss i wanted to introduce david lesch to you. he is a professor of middle east history at trinity university iy san antonio.nker a prolific writer and thinker ot the middle east and what is t' happening in the region.e it's a treat to have him here today. he has written his new bookyriat "syria: the fall of the house of assad", which i'm hoping you you sign all purchase debt and assigned. again and sign my copy first. he has met extensively witheadi president assad and leading bete syrian officials.n the he has been in the middle east,, studying the middle east, makin, connections and reason that's he important is, of course, hee'son knows of what speaks. to write n without understanding the players, and lucky for us professor lesch knows quite a bit about what is happening in syria and can answer some of the very important issues taking place today. in fact, this past month has been a lot of can aviate there he is going to

our last of the speakers before we turn to our respondents is david lesch, with the title of what guidesods under a syrian leadership. >> thank you, john, and it's always good to be here with my friend john duke anthony, and he was very influential in my early career about 20 years ago, and i'm catching up to you now in grey here. so that's always a privilege and pleasure to be within. i would say more nice things about him but i don't have time. i think my value added to this panel because particularly no newspaper eyed we with much of what she said. is to present a view of the world from damascus, from bashar al-assad and the leadership. and has some of you know, i met with him on a regular basis between 2004-2009. as well as much, not much, but a good many of the syrian leadership during that time and thereafter. so i think i have a fairly decent idea about how they do the world. i think it's important in terms of how to craft policy toward this particular leadership. obviously, the popular today is bashar has become the middle is tired. he unleashes a force on entire population at th

i think professor david lesch has great insight into bashar al-assad, and i agree with this analysis of the man. i think he came in thinking he could shake the regime, and instead he became a creature of the regime. you know, comparing him to michael corleone, he gives them too much credit for his savvy and his smarts. but in one sense he is like michael corleone because he came and believing he could reform an incredibly corrupt and truly mafia like system, and he found it very quickly that he was, if you was to remain in power he couldn't do it. and we can speculate whether he wanted to take a softer approach than some of those around him like his late brother in law or his brother, but it really doesn't matter. it's in material. we see the situation. we know what it is. and it's going to continue. i think increasingly there's a consensus at what the situation is in syria and what some of the pitfalls are. you know, i think there's much more realism now than there was a year ago. about what's going on in that country. and much more sober assessment on the part of u.s. officials and