Any attempts at playing Good Samaritan in Syria must be tempered by the fact that this is the Levant, where Asia touches the Mediterranean.
Ba’ath Party rule is as despicable a form of Government as is possible to find. Ruthless in their tyranny, Ba’athists employ every possible means of torture known to humankind, even when it comes to torturing women. Its ubiquitous secret service, the Mukhabarat, sniffs everywhere. But that is not a Ba’athist monopoly, even if the latter takes its use to another level of degradation.
The Ba’ath Party also controls the every organ of the state, much like it is done in North Korea. For Ba’athists, party and state are two sides of the same coin. In that is then born an elite of rulers, bound by clan, marriage, or village. Ba’athists also believe that they are the epitome of Arab nationalism. All others are simply mouthing slogans of Arab unity, whereas the Ba’athists actually live that unity. So they like to believe.