Let’s start with a proper disclosure. I also thought that his days were numbered. Maybe he had more than two weeks left, but I followed the rebels’ reports, even if they sometimes bordered on manipulative propaganda, and I came to the conclusion that the man, his family, his government and his ethnic community were all living on borrowed time.

I was absolutely wrong about that.

By now it’s obvious. Like so many others, I reached the conclusion that the wimpy leader who was the butt of everyone’s jokes, and who gave the impression of being like a leaf blown about by the wind, would not stay in power for long. By now it’s quite clear that he not only survived the storm that was the Arab Spring, but that he even managed to repel it with his blood-stained hands.

Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce you to Syria’s new strongman, Syrian President Bashar Assad. The “wimp” has exited stage right. He has fallen on the sword of a media that elevated his opponents. And from the ruins and battle smoke that continues to hover over Syria’s cities — Assad has risen; Assad the Stubborn, Assad the Survivor, the man whose premature obituaries were greatly exaggerated.