Assad or We Burn the Country: How One Family's Lust for Power Destroyed Syria

by Sam Dagher

Overview

From a Pulitzer Prize-nominated journalist specializing in the Middle East, this groundbreaking account of the Syrian Civil War reveals the never-before-published true story of a 21st-century humanitarian disaster.

In spring 2011, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad turned to his friend and army commander, Manaf Tlass, for advice about how to respond to Arab Spring-inspired protests. Tlass pushed for conciliation but Assad decided to crush the uprising — an act which would catapult the country into an eight-year long war, killing almost half a million and fueling terrorism and a global refugee crisis.

Assad or We Burn the Country examines Syria's tragedy through the generational saga of the Assad and Tlass families, once deeply intertwined and now estranged in Bashar's bloody quest to preserve his father's inheritance. By drawing on his own reporting experience in Damascus and exclusive interviews with Tlass, Dagher takes readers within palace walls to reveal the family behind the destruction of a country and the chaos of an entire region.

Dagher shows how one of the world's most vicious police states came to be and explains how a regional conflict extended globally, engulfing the Middle East and pitting the United States and Russia against one another. Timely, propulsive, and expertly reported, Assad or We Burn the Country is the definitive account of this global crisis, going far beyond the news story that has dominated headlines for years.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780316556736
Publisher:	Little, Brown and Company
Publication date:	04/14/2020
Pages:	592
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.60(d)

About the Author

Sam Dagher has reported in the Middle East for more than fifteen years, most recently for The Atlantic. He was the only non-Syrian reporter for a major Western media outlet based in Damascus from 2012 to 2014, a period during which he was arrested by a pro-Assad militia and briefly held in an underground mukhabarat (secret police) prison. He was later expelled from Syria for reporting deemed unfavorable to the regime.

He has worked for the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the Christian Science Monitor, and Agence France Presse, and has covered the conflict in Iraq, the Arab Spring uprisings, and Libya. The Wall Street Journal nominated Dagher's work from Syria for the Pulitzer Prize and other journalism awards.

Table of Contents

Syria Map xiii

Damascus Map xiv

Inside the Palace xv

Outside the Palace xvii

Introduction xix

1 You're Next, Doctor 3

2 Embracing the Clouds 20

3 Creation and Punishment 35

4 Golden Knight 57

5 To Whom the Horses after You, Bassel? 78

6 New King and Early Spring 95

7 Hit Them Where It Hurts 120

8 Precious Interlocutor and Unavoidable Player 145

9 No More Fear after Today 161

10 The Conspiracy 179

11 Make Peace 191

12 You're Too Soft 203

13 The Hama Manual 225

14 Yalta Erkal Ya, Bashar! (Come On, Bashar, Leave!) 240

15 Don't Stay with the Butcher 260

16 Blood on My Hands 273

17 We Have to Win! 285

18 Exiting 300

19 No Role for You 314

20 Holy War: At Your Service, O Bashar! 330

21 The Clan's Knights and Soothsayers 345

22 Macabre Coronation 368

23 A Game of Nations 390

24 Abu Ali Putin 404

25 Daesh or Bashar? 423

26 Dictators Strike Back-but Hope Endures 442

Note on Characters 461

Acknowledgments 465

Notes 469

Index 537

What People are Saying About This

Syrian American doctor and President of MedGlobal - Dr. Zaher Sahloul

“The Syrian uprising has been one of the most consequential events in our new century—it has changed the world. Sam Dagher has been reporting from the heart of the crisis. His book, told through the eyes of two important Syrian insiders, a human rights activist and a former Brigadier General of the Syrian Republican Guard, is a vivid description of the crisis as it unfolded over the past 8 years. It is a must read for anyone who seeks to understand the complex world we are living in.”

Editorial Reviews

A New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice Pick
The Economist Bets Books of the Year
The Guardian Best Books of 2019
Kirkus's Best Nonfiction Books of 2019

"A moving and insightful account of the Syrian civil war."—Yuval Noah Harari, The Guardian

"A vivid and powerful account of the roots and course of the conflict, setting it in the context of Assad's personal history and approach to power."—Washington Post

"Dagher draws on history, interviews and his own experience as a reporter in Syria to depict an utterly ruthless regime."—The New York Times Book Review, Editor's Choice

"[An] impressively detailed account"—The Guardian US

"Sam Dagher's book Assad or We Burn the Country is a vivid and at times gruelling account of the suppression of the Syrian resistance...It is a powerful testimony of a war correspondent for the Wall Street Journal. His account carries the outrage and passion of a witness to atrocity."—Financial Times

"He was briefly held by pro-regime militiamen in an underground prison and was summarily expelled by the Mukhabarat in 2014. This gives his description of events a credibility lacking in many other accounts."—Patrick Cockburn, New York Times Book Review

"An important addition to the existing literature on the Middle East - especially Syria - by an astute Middle East watcher...It is absolutely indispensable to understand current Middle Eastern and Syrian situation."—The Washington Book Review

"An excellent book on the situation in Syria."—Former US National Security Adviser H. R.McMaster

"As with so much of Dagher's writing, what's striking about the book is it doesn't just confirm the worst that's been reported about Assad's regime in the much-maligned "mainstream media;" it unearths new ways in which the horror and criminality are in fact more terrible than previously understood."—Alex Rowell, Al-Jumhuriya

"Drawing on years of reporting and interviews with those at the top of the Syrian regime, Sam Dagher's book is one that readers won't be able to put down."—Kerry Breen, TODAY Show

"As the only Western reporter based in Damascus during the early years of the civil war, Dagher has a rich perspective on the inner machinations of the regime of Bashar al Assad. In this important book, he lays out in grim detail the staggering cynicism and ruthless brutality of the Assad family. In doing so, he provides readers with a timely description of the dynasty that precipitated the destruction of a nation."—Clarissa Ward, Chief International Correspondent, CNN International

"In this gripping narrative of the inner workings of the Assad regime, Dagher delivers a stunning portrait of the ruthlessness and brutality at the heart of the family that has dominated Syria for fifty years. Captivating in its detailed, first-person accounts from key figures inside Syria's corridors of power, his is the most complete and compelling account to date of Bashar's unlikely rise to power, and the relentless violence he has unleashed since 2011 to preserve his iron grip over the country. Essential reading from a noted journalist and one of the world's best-informed Syria watchers."—Steven Heydemann, Janet W. Ketcham 1953 Professor of Middle East Studies and Director of the Middle East Studies Program at Smith College

"The Syrian uprising has been one of the most consequential events in our new century-it has changed the world. Sam Dagher has been reporting from the heart of the crisis. His book, told through the eyes of two important Syrian insiders, a human rights activist and a former Brigadier General of the Syrian Republican Guard, is a vivid description of the crisis as it unfolded over the past 8 years. It is a must read for anyone who seeks to understand the complex world we are living in."—Dr. Zaher Sahloul, Syrian American doctor and President of MedGlobal

"A riveting chronicle from a courageous journalist who was there to witness and report the truth. A book that should deservedly garner significant award attention."—Kirkus, starred review

"An impressive feat of journalism." —Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher

01/01/2018
Middle East correspondent for the Wall Street Journal, Dagher has lasered in on the war in Syria since 2012 and for a time was one of few Western reporters and the only American based full-time in Damascus. So look to this account of President Bashar al-Assad's determined destruction of his country and his people.

Library Journal