I've read a lot of transcripts of Assad interviews over the last few years, it's easy to see why he and Putin enjoy such mutual respect while western leaders are on the outside of that particular loop. By all accounts he was well on his way to reforming and modernizing his country when shtf, pity such secular leaders in the Muslim world are so hard to control or cajole or coerce that we simply cannot tolerate them in our arrogance. How dare they have a backbone and stand up for what's right for their people while we barely comprehend the culture and history from which they emanate.