Syria stands as a text-book case of how not to change a society. When a few Syrians chose to use violence to rid themselves of the legitimate government, they put their country and their people on the deadly path of civil war and outside interferance. 

As was learned in the 1980s and 1990s, you bring tyrants down with the right of your argument and civil organizations, not with the barrel of a gun. The other day I witnessed an interview show on the BBC. A Syrian woman in her headscarf was asked do you regret the deaths (close to half a million or more) and she said 'no'.  Until people in the region learn from what people Eastern Europe learned, there will not be peace, or a peace worth having.