Syria crisis: rebels condemn opposition coalition

[pampango]

30. Perhaps more like the Shah than like Pinochet or Amin.

The Shah was a ruthless and brutal dictator but a secular one and an anti-fundamentalist one - which is what is often given as a defense of Assad's dictatorship in Syria.

I was not around during the 1953 CIA-sponsored coup that put the Shah in power, but I do not remember any sentiment among American liberals during his last year in power that he should have plunged Iran into a civil war to preserve his secular dictatorship and protect Iranians from the fundamentalists. Perhaps their are modern liberals who wish he had done this so that his son or grandson could rule Iran today as a secular, anti-fundamentalist dictator rather than the current Iranian form of government. I doubt there are many modern liberals who would take this view, however.