Syrian government falls in end to 50-year rule of Assad family

I'm not really aware of what's going on in Syria, and not really sure who's worse - Assad or the rebels, but it seems clear that Iran & Russia, which were main backers of Assad regime, appears extremely weak.

That's understandable for Iran which may want to avoid to overextend itself following the recent events, but it's hard to comprehend why Russia was unable to do anything at all.

In any case, it seems like there are several very important events happening recently that may reshape the world for the years to come.

I would love to hear what the Syrian hacker news community has to say about this. I’m reading so many comments here but not sure how many are from actual Syrians who probably have a deeper understanding and hope/fears about what comes next.

More than anything this shows how terrible a shape Russia and Iran are in. A 15 year long proxy war ended with a whimper.

It's interesting that everywhere, the government forces simply abandoned their posts, and none of Syria's allies appear to be willing to intervene in any way. Maybe there's something else going on we don't know yet.

Assad dynasty was just a symptom of the problems in Syria.

Syria is a Sunni majority country. During the Assad dynasty Alawite minority (population 2-3 million) was the ruling ethnic class in Syria. They have their own sect of Islam (Alawism). Alawites were stuck with Assad family even if they came from competing factions. If Assad falls, they get massacred.

The insurgents fight under the flag of Syrian National Army, backed by Turkey, but the fighting has been mostly led by jihadi group Hayat Tahrir al Sham (HTS).

This analysis helped me understand the situation better: https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/how-to-think-about-the-...

It's a place where there's no good guys to root for. I fear for its citizens, and especially for women.

Who are likely to control Syria now? Will Syria become an islamic state?

What are the chances the Kurds will get their own land out of this?

Biggest strategy for any government is not to resolve a conflict immediate but to post pone a the conflict for a better time. "Well come up with a solution later but for now slow down or stop". Conflict is essential for some of these countries it's part of how they change and form to something else. We can relate in the U.S. Becuase we have a different history and different threats. But if history tells us anything we've already had our conflicts and civil wars that brought us to today. As you can see the country Is yet again confused with what it wants. Regulations are crippling companies and the very sectors that made America what it is or used to be. So we have our fair share of problems but for now we'll deal with It

I’m shocked that the ruling dynasty fell as quickly as it did, along with the military being ineffective and unwilling to stop the rebels given how long the civil war has been going on for. Incredible.

Interesting times intensifies.

Assad was backed by Iran & Iran has been bad news for that region for some decades. the new coalition is backed by Turkey, and since they share a border it makes a lot more sense than Iran ever did.

way too early to say much more right now. next few weeks/months should be interesting though.

This is a huge blow for the russian regime. Things are really starting to look bad over there. We might see a second collapse in 2026. Putin has destroyed a country.

Good and bad news. Ukrainian sacrifices lead to liberation of Syria.

I guess you can’t have everything good. Chinese sacrifices in 1989 lead to collapse of USSR after all

Great. So when are the elections?

There are going to be elections, right?

50 years is honestly not that long. When you look at historical dynasties even the shorter ones tend to be ~100 years, if they don't immediately implode.

That was a lot of suffering and chaos of what's actually a fairly trifling dynasty in the grand scheme of things.

Syria successfully fought against ISIS and Al-Qaeda for decades. It will now be turned into another dreary caliphate.

Syrians will regret this.

Much though I want to view this as good news I keep finding myself steelmanning that it's actually bad news

* destabilising a region already in flames

* replacing a secular evil government by.. jihadists in a loose coalition. WCGW?

* Russia used port and airfields to maintain a presence in the Med and for nefarious purposes in Africa. What do they do now, to replace them because I doubt "nothing" is the answer.

* does Iran feel a need to do "stupid things" now to prop up regional Shia politics?

* could this be bad for Ukraine?

* how will Turkey negotiate with this facing the pkk and Kurdish nationalism?

Nassim Taleb (in Lebanon not far from Homs right now):

"The strangest thing is that after 14 years of war, the Syrian rebels walked into the entire country faster than if they were on a tourist sightseeing tour. Except at the beginning, there was no fighting."

(from his X Account)

If you compare the Assad regime to your own western country, you'd think what happened here was a good thing.

But that's the wrong comparison to make. The rosier Dutch government won't be taking over control here. The rebels will be.

And if you compare the Assad regime to the actual alternative, the rebels, you'll instead realize: the hard times have only just begun [1].

[1] https://medium.com/opacity/the-syrian-war-condensed-a-more-r...

This post about Syria has more Russia vs Ukraine comments than Syria.

Can anyone explain which one is the bad side?

Why are we cheering this? Is it because Russia supported Assad and now Russia has been defeated? Because we love Ukraine right? Also, Assad and Russia don't like LGBT persons? Can someone spell it out for me in plain words please, I'm on the spectrum.

Rebel? How about we just call them for what they are, Turkish proxies in the north and US proxies in the east.

It is a bit surreal to read people cheering for islamist head choppers who overthrew a secular government. Remember this 10 years from now when these same head choppers blow something up in NYC. The fundamental invariant of governance stands undefeated: religious head choppers, whether they are on "our side" or not, are always worse in the long run than the secular governments. See the "freedom fighter" Osama Bin Laden for a particularly vivid example.

Despite reading it 5 times, I fail to understand the meaning of the title, "Syrian government falls in end to 50-year rule of Assad family"