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Adam Carolla Show

PodcastOne / Carolla Digital

Comedy, Talk Radio

4.5 • 36.3K Ratings

🗓️ 4 May 2025

⏱️ 34 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Introducing Is Syria on the Right Path? from Counterpoint.

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Late last year, Syrian opposition forces captured Damascus and put an end to the regime of Bashar al-Assad. The Syrian dictator, whose family had ruled the country for more than 50 years, fled to Moscow. Across the country, Syrians celebrated.

Assad’s fall exposed the brutality of his regime, including gruesome discoveries in government prisons, tens of thousands of disappeared people, and mass displacement. But the group that replaced it also has a record of violence—and a former affiliation with al Qaeda and the Islamic State.

Welcome to Counterpoint. Each week, we look at one pressing question facing world leaders—from two opposing points of view. Today, we’re tackling the question: Is Syria on a path to realizing the hopes of the revolution?

With us to make the case for viewing Syria’s new government with skepticism is David Adesnik, the vice president of research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

Arguing that Syrians are capable of securing a democratic future for themselves is Alia Malek, a journalist, former civil rights lawyer, and the author of The Home That Was Our Country: A Memoir of Syria.

Counterpoint is hosted by Sasha Polakow-Suransky, a deputy editor at Foreign Policy. The show is a production of Foreign Policy, in partnership with the Doha Forum.

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DISCLAIMER: Please note, this is an independent podcast episode not affiliated with, endorsed by, or produced in conjunction with the host podcast feed or any of its media entities. The views and opinions expressed in this episode are solely those of the creators and guests. For any concerns, please reach out to [email protected].

Transcript

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0:00.0	Amazon offers term time working to their employees, like Anton,
0:05.0	who's home to look after his daughters during their holidays.
0:10.0	Hello!
0:11.0	To him, this is the best sound in the world.
0:13.0	Daddy!
0:14.0	Actually, maybe that's the best sound of all.
0:23.2	Now that's term time working.
0:24.6	Offered at Amazon.
0:26.9	Ten weeks off guaranteed per year.
0:29.1	Mix of paid holiday and unpaid time off.
0:29.9	Conditions apply.
0:41.3	Late last year, Syrian opposition forces captured Damascus and put an end to the regime of Bashar al-Assad. The Syrian dictator, whose family had ruled the country for more than 50 years, fled after midnight and flew to Moscow.
0:49.3	Across the country, Syrians celebrated.
0:57.0	Assad's fall exposed the brutality of his regime, including gruesome discoveries in government
1:02.1	prisons, tens of thousands of disappeared people, and mass displacement.
1:07.2	Most of them were arrested by Aksand's security services.
1:14.5	Many families are now searching for their missing loved ones in morgues.
1:19.6	It also marked the beginning of a new chapter in Syria's history, a very uncertain one.
1:28.7	The rebel group that took control of Syria, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, once had ties to al-Qaeda and the Islamic State.
1:34.0	Though it has managed to stabilize Syria, some of its fighters have carried out revenge killings against Aloites, the minority sect that Assad belongs to.
1:38.3	Now, there are growing fears that Syria stands on the edge of a return to widespread violence
1:43.2	after days of sectarian bloodshed.
	...

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