ABSTRACT
Bashar al-Assad had improved his own and his country's image; earlier in the decade, and particularly in the aftermath of the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri, which was widely blamed on Damascus, that image had been severely tarnished. Bashar al-Assad does not typically act or decide on important issues in an expeditious fashion. It is difficult to discern exactly what was going on in those first few days and weeks, as the Syrian decisionmaking apparatus is fairly opaque. In addition, the fact that Assad did not punish his cousin, the governor of the province of Deraa, at least as a symbolic gesture in reaction to the civilian deaths in the city of Deraa, reinforced the view that any real concessions by the government would be few and far between.
