I confess. I never watched The Sopranos. I didn’t need to; I already had my fill of blood, murder, mayhem, fratricide and evil by observing the Assad family saga since the early 1970s, when Hafez Assad carried out his coup in Syria. I admit that as an intern reporter for the Near East Report, I predicted that, as was the way of Syrian leaders up to that point, Assad’s tenure would be brief and would probably end with acute lead poisoning. Of course, he went on to lead Syria for almost 30 years, and then passed on the gavel – and stiletto, bomb and pistol – to his son Bashar in 2000.
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