This time, however, the plan backfired. Syria’s Sunni population, inspired by the revolutions in other Arab countries and outraged by the regime’s brutality, simply stopped being afraid –&#160;a potentially game-changing development for Arab authoritarianism.
阿拉伯之春开始发酵时，巴沙尔采取了相同的套路，希望能提振其阿拉维派支持者、把其他人民吓得投降。但是，这一回，巴沙尔的算盘落空了。叙利亚逊尼派人民受其他阿拉伯国家革命的鼓舞、出于对巴沙尔政权残酷统治的愤怒，变得不再害怕——这是巴沙尔独裁游戏的转折点。