Why has the world consigned Syria to a brutal dictatorship?

How can people who have fought for their freedom for so many years be allowed to be defeated?

Mr. Assad is a war criminal.  He deserves to be tried and convicted in an international court, not to be given sovereignty over a country which he has tortured for the sake of his own power.  

If he is not stopped, others will follow his example. 

The United States' claim to be a democracy whose main principle is the human right to freedom is a lie if we let this happen.  We are not a democracy if we are bystanders to this atrocity; we are pretentious, imperialist deceivers, of ourselves and of everyone else who is naive enough to believe us.