I read it carefully and I was wondering whether the journalist who wrote it is too young to understand life, people and their connection to their homeland. Before the war erupted, Assad was truly dangerous only to those who openly opposed him (the journalist should have read the reports regarding Saydnaya prison or actually have tried to talk to a survivor). Syrians started fleeing when fighting put everyone’s life in danger. They are now heading back, as one of the sides has prevailed and there is a certain calm. The question is: would they have not gone back had the rebels won the war? “I just want to go home”. Is this surprising? Many Syrian people are going back because they love their homeland and not because they think Assad will take care of them. They’ve known the Assad family for decades now and things got truly bad when they tried to oppose them (peacefully). The was came after, when Assad refused to listen to his people. To say that “Syria has been at the center of what may be the most extensive propaganda campaign in human history” is, I believe, an insult to the Syrian people from someone who hasn’t felt Assad (or the rebels, for that matter) in one’s own skin.
