The rebels are essentially the Muzzie bro'hood.
Assad might be a tyrant, but he's a secular tyrant and you need a tyrant to keep those kind of animals in line. Assad also tends to keep most of his business inside Syria.
Look at the mess that evolved in Iraq post-Saddam.
Not only Iraq...Syria & Libya too...Egypt would be included except that a military guy took control to keep the bastards in check...sad to say, but you're right. It takes a tyrant/thug to keep all the other thugs from going feral. Most of us know this & some have witnessed it first hand...an hour or two on youtube watching restricted videos of the vicious brutality over there should be enough to convince the most hard core sympathizer that they have the wrong perception of those poor repressed muslims....
