Unloved

In the end, Bashar al-Assad slithered onto a Russian plane and found sanctuary in Moscow.

- ALEX MAGNO

One of the most brutal dictatorships humanity had ever known collapsed spectacularly in the face of a well-organized uprising. No one mourns the regime's end.

The 54-year Assad dynasty ended Sunday morning with the Syrian Army dissembling and rebel forces marching into Damascus unopposed. By Monday, victorious rebels still had to break through the lower three levels of the notorious Sednaya Prison where thousands of prisoners remained trapped and left to die.

Bashar inherited power from his father Hafez in 2000 after his elder brother and designated successor met an untimely death. Hafez took power in 1970 and was installed president in 1971.

For over half a century, the father and the son ruled Syria with unbridled brutality. Over a decade ago, Bashar used nerve gas on his own population, killing children huddled in basements. He had protestors shot at point blank and thrown into rivers. Whole cities were leveled through the use of "barrel bombs" that killed indiscriminately. Both Hafez and Bashar ruled with contempt for their people.

Bashar's exceeding brutality forced millions of Syrians to flee abroad. Many of them are now poised to return home to a society that, hopefully, will have real institutions and the rule of law promised by the emergent leaders of the anti-Assad forces. Only these will check against the return of the unrestrained cruelty of the Assad regime.