If he left Syria whilst countries may help him get out alive as a short term measure to convince him to leave once he is out of Syria he is going to be indicted for crimes against humanity and all his assets will be frozen. The good times will be over for Assad if he leaves. While he is in Syria he has a fighting chance to stay in power if he can actually use the right strategy which he has failed to do from the start and why he is in this position today. I don't want him to but if Assad is smart the thing he would do right now would be to invent an excuse to go to war with Israel. Get the public anger focussed on Israel not him. He can call up the reserves ( people who are protesting ) and stick them in the front lines and so the more killed the better. He knows he would lose but he can rebuild an army once the war is over but if it will allow him to stay in power then it was worth it for him. If only the man was smart he would have become a hero by creating jobs which is how it started and when they started demanding change he could have just set up a phoney committee to look into what political reforms he can make and it will report back in a year. People are happy there will be this committee now so they will settle and the thing will just never report back and if it does it will just say your doing a good job Mr President. Instead this moron who has a western education so should know better decided to try bully boy tactics like his father did and try killing people. Reminds me of Saddam Hussain wanting to fight the mother of all battles rather than getting out of Kuwait on conditions like Kuwait writes off his debts.

Interesting that you point out that Assad's "western education" in the context of a comment that trumpets Assad's lack of smart-ness. Then you assert that if he was smart, he would use subterfuge and deceit to deflect critics (my evaluation of your words). I am no Assad lover/respecter, but I think your evaluation points out one important difference in occidental and oriental thought--"smart" or not, I have to respect (perhaps the only thing I respect) his "stand toe-to-toe and fight it out" posture. At least it is straightforward and honest (even if murderous). It may be naive, and I by no means claim to speak for the "west," but being devious on top of murderous does not make one "smart."

I believe I recognize the "occidental versus oriental" terms. I believe I heard that this morning!

in his London flat...

Now thats not fair you know he has a crush on Sarah B. Assad needs a strong woman to put him in his place when he is a bad boy.