The New York Times on Assad trying to act like a grown-up dictator: “Last week, though, his picture was on every street corner as Damascus held a well-orchestrated rally celebrating his rule.

The posters are the most visible and recent sign that Mr. Assad, 39, has shifted tactics, starting a campaign to consolidate power and shore up his position in the midst of the international crisis over Syria’s three-decade domination of Lebanon.

`Bashar is learning that his father did things for a reason,’ says Joshua Landis of the University of Oklahoma and the Web site Syriacomment.com, who is spending 2005 in Damascus. `If you’re going to be a dictator you’re going to have to act like one.’”

And here is a guess at his Lebanon strategy: “In fact, despite his foot-dragging, the pullout – if it occurs – may end up being one of his less fraught decisions. Mr. Assad and his advisers are betting that Mr. Lahoud and Hezbollah, the militant Lebanese Shiite party nurtured by Syria, will oversee Syria’s interests even after it withdraws. Meanwhile, Damascus will have staved off international sanctions, pinning responsibility for disarming Hezbollah on the United Nations.”