Download or read book Syria--a Decade of Lost Chances written by Carsten Wieland and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Syria's President Bashar al-Asad was an outspoken opponent of the US and Israel. In March 2001 when Arab Spring came to Syria, Bashar reasoned that his support among Syrians was deep and wide because, as he told the Wall Street Journal a few weeks earlier, he was "closely linked to the beliefs of the people." He was dead wrong.In Syria - A Decade of Lost Chances, author Carsten Wieland lays bare the web of influence, alliance, power, and ethnic presence that the new president promised to turn into a functioning democracy. He failed, clearly. And now the question is asked, Was he sincere in the first instance? Or, was he - from the beginning - a happy face for a regime that never had any intention of conceding power?