Assad Interview by Diane Sawyer (ABC)

Good Morning America showed this dramatic interview yesterday morning.
Josh Landis supplies the link.
Assad is as beguiling as a serpent, but what he says seems so reasonable that he might be a Democrat running for president. It is difficult to reconcile this image with the reports we have been reading about Syria and its involvement in the rest of the Levant.
A spirited argument ensues in the comments thread.
I just watched the video and it's a must-see.
Lest anyone be fooled by this silver-tongued, smiling, English-speaking Syrian Godfather, take a look at Anthony Badran's post.

Sawyer: The Americans, of course, would say that they are not the occupying force, that they are in fact a force trying to regain security so that American forces can go home.

Assad: Militarily, yes. But politically, no, because they are responsible for the political situation and they haven't embarked any policy inside Iraq here. They only talk about sending more troops or less troops. They only talk about troops and power, not about political process.

Sawyer: Because Americans would say they voted, they now have the beginning of democracy there.

Assad: What's the benefit of democracy if you're dead? Now after the war, more than 700,000 Iraqis were killed. So is it democracy for killing or for having better standard of life? For starvation? For insecurity? For all this? So democracy is a tool to have a better life.

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Sawyer: But in America they believe that you are all powerful, and you say the word and the border will stop.

Assad: Powerful is different from being omnipotent — power that you can control everything completely. You cannot control your border with Mexico, can you? You're the greatest power in the world, you cannot control it with Mexico, so how do you want Syria to control its border with Iraq?