Rebel forces in Syria overthrew President Bashar Al-Assad on December 8, after an 11-day offensive. The Military Operations Command, a coalition of Syrian opposition groups, led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and backed by Turkey, began the offensive on November 27 in Aleppo, and encountered little resistance en route to the capital Damascus. Assad fled the country, and was granted asylum by Russia.

The Assad family ruled Syria for over 50 years, often being described as dictatorial. The Syrian Civil War began in 2011, when protests in the cities of Damascus and Aleppo escalated to violence and Assad responded to protesters with a violent crackdown. The rebel offensive broke a four-year ceasefire. The rebels likely struck now because the Ukraine-Russia war and the Israel-Lebanon conflict have weakened Russia and Iran, Assad’s main allies. 

Support for Assad’s fall has been bipartisan, with voices on the left and right covering Syrian refugees’ hopes of returning to the country, but voices on both sides of the aisle have also called into question what Syria’s future could be, and whether the opposition groups in Syria are fit to lead.

A writer for CNN Opinion (Left bias) reported, “On the streets of Syria, such concerns were eclipsed by scenes of excitement and mass celebration. Thousands of people assembled at the foot of the main square in Damascus, where rebels ransacked Assad’s residence. ‘After the fear that he (Assad) and his father made us live in for many years, and the panic and state of terror that I was living in, I can’t believe it,’ Omar Daher, a 29-year-old lawyer, told the Associated Press.”

The New York Post Opinion (Right bias) published an article saying, “Syrians awakened on Monday to a hopeful if uncertain future after rebels seized the capital, Damascus, and President Bashar al-Assad fled to Russia following 13 years of civil war and more than 50 years of his family’s brutal rule. The lightning advance of a militia alliance spearheaded by Hayat al-Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a former al-Qaeda affiliate, marked one of the biggest turning points for the Middle East in generations.”

The reactions are not all hopeful, though. 

The Guardian (Left bias) published an article arguing, “As jubilant as we should be to see dictators toppled, and as thrilled as we are to see those countries stumble towards liberation and justice, however clumsily, I am painfully aware that although women may have been at the barricades beside men, post-revolution, they are in danger of losing the rights they do have.”

Jeffery Blehar (Lean Right bias) wrote in the National Review Opinion (Right bias), “while disaster in Syria is by no means foreordained — if positive strides are made, they will receive their due acknowledgment here — my advice is to set your expectations remarkably low, with understanding that as horrible as the Assad regime was, there are still ways that things could get worse for Syrians.”