The Corner

Set Your Expectations Low in Syria

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Rebel fighters gather after Syria’s army command notified officers on Sunday that President Bashar al-Assad’s 24-year authoritarian rule has ended, in Homs, Syria, December 8, 2024.

Mahmoud Hasano/Reuters

A brief note tonight on the Corner, for I spent most of this incredibly newsy day translating the Carnival of Fools from my brain to the page like Al Swearingen passing a kidney stone on Deadwood. (I would provide a link to the scene, but you’re better off without one.)

After a half century of tyranny, the Assad regime in Syria has suddenly collapsed completely. Assad and his family have fled to Russia, the Baathist terror regime has fallen, and rebel militias led by the Turkish-backed Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) have seized control of the nation — always more of a geographical expression than a coherent set of boundary lines — and its major population centers in Aleppo, Homs, and the capital of Damascus.

Jeffrey Blehar

About the Author

Jeffrey Blehar

Jeffrey Blehar is a National Review staff writer living in Chicago. He is also the co-host of National Review’s Political Beats podcast, which explores the great music of the modern era with guests from the political world happy to find something non-political to talk about.

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