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The transition from tyranny to democracy is very hard. The Syrian people have to handle this in a way that works in Syria. And the brutality of the Assad regime is unacceptable.

Assad is the president of Syria. He enjoys fairly effective control over his country.

Assad has to go. I mean, the way that ISIS can recruit, and the rebels that are in the north, and all the chaos that's happening through a lot of Syria circles around a lot of people that do not like Assad.

Unless there is meaningful change in Syria and an end to the crackdown, President Assad and those around him will find themselves isolated internationally and discredited within Syria.

It's difficult to see how Syria can have any long-term future with Assad there as president. Many people would never return to that country if that were the case.

The situation in Syria is quite different from Libya.

Da'esh and Assad are not separate problems.

According to this view, democracy is a product of western culture, and it cannot be applied to the Middle East which has a different cultural, religious, sociological and historical background.

It would be hard to ignore the absence of democracy in any Arab nation.

It's not a democracy here, it's the Middle East.