Sam Dagher > Quotes

“Bit by bit, the uprising that had brought out the best in Syrians and projected their aspirations and yearnings was vanishing as pain, vengefulness, and war took over. It was yet another page from the playbook of Hafez as well as all the despots who clung desperately to power at the start of the Arab Spring: civil war is acceptable and even desirable to defend the leader.”
― Sam Dagher, Assad or We Burn the Country: How One Family's Lust for Power Destroyed Syria

“What the police state nurtured in people was fear, paranoia, mistrust, and the acceptance of corruption and bribery as an inescapable fact of life.”
― Sam Dagher, Assad or We Burn the Country: How One Family's Lust for Power Destroyed Syria

“Morsi, who was strongly supported by Qatar and Turkey, was eventually ousted in a military coup in the summer of 2013 by army generals and former regime figures backed by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates”
― Sam Dagher, Assad or We Burn the Country: How One Family's Lust for Power Destroyed Syria

“The uncontestable truth was that the regime had meticulously planned the assault on Hama in 1982, completely subdued a few hundred Islamist fighters in about ten days, then vengefully massacred thousands of civilians, raped women, looted homes, and razed neighborhoods, and then at the end wanted victims to believe that “terrorists” had done it to them. It was a scenario repeating itself in 2011”
― Sam Dagher, Assad or We Burn the Country: How One Family's Lust for Power Destroyed Syria

“The UN is not the protector of Syrians in Syria—they are under the protection of the state,” said El Hillo, who worked from a suite at the Four Seasons”
― Sam Dagher, Assad or We Burn the Country: How One Family's Lust for Power Destroyed Syria

“Syrians are being slaughtered on the altar of international agendas,”
― Sam Dagher, Assad or We Burn the Country: How One Family's Lust for Power Destroyed Syria