I don't like Syria because of its policy towards Israel, but for an Arab country it was surprisingly decent. It was not particularly brutal towards its citizens until the uprizings started. It was not a religious teocracy, the government there is Social democratic with a touch of islam. Not particularly sinister even if it isn't a democracy. But democracies don't exist in the middle east, so that's not very surprising.

However Syria has been on the US "roadmap" for regimes to topple.
(See the famous the famous Wesley Clark interview). So I guess we all knew it was only a matter of time.....

I don't think the human rights situation there has been worse than anywhere else in the Middle East, and Syria has been very decent towards all its neighbours with the exception of Israel.

They are taking refugees from Iraq and Afghanistan by the millions, and actually taking relatively well care of them. Nobody is starving, everyone is educated and gets some form of half decent healthcare.

Probably, the citizens had some really legit complaints, but are those really worth going into a civil war for....? I hope they can force the existing government to reform or force it to concede to elections.