Bashing Bassar al-Assad

Over at the Wall Street Journal, Reason Contributing Editor Michael Young–the editorial page chief at Lebanon's Daily Star–lays out the dilemma of the Syrian strongman who suddenly isn't as strong as he used to be:

Expectations of a liberal opening have been neutralized by the president's need to consolidate his authority. This is Mr. Assad's dilemma: to effect economic and political reform he needs more power; but in accumulating power, he becomes more of an autocrat.

Whole thing here.