Assad inherited from his father a repressive police state, it was thought that given time and opportunity he would make reforms and change the Syrian regime from an authoritarian to a democratic, in the first months after he took over in Syria, a period filled with free expression broke out after he sent indications that he planned to relax the authoritarian control that was under his father, around 70 dialogue clubs were formed, met openly and published two critical opinion magazines
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However, this did not last, the regime cracked down on these clubs and arrested people involved in them, and economic reforms were stalled, what was once called the Damascus spring recoiled to a winter of discontent between the Syrian people and their new government. .
Almost 10 years later, protests broke out in March of 2011, the majority of the protesters were jailed or beaten or, in some cases, killed, the very possibility of organizing fully representative political procedures was ruled out, this is when the initiation of an armed struggle, as a last resort, was done by a majority of the protesters.
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The regime rejected to cooperate with the demands of the protesters, claiming that these are not the Syrian people who are protesting but terrorist groups that seek to disturb the national security of Syria. The regime has chosen to respond to these protests violently by unleashing the Syrian army on the protesters and giving them orders to kill anyone they suspect as a terrorist. .
This forced the opposition to see that a peaceful protest will not get their demands fulfilled and so they have resorted to violent retaliation, arming themselves and organizing a separate army called the Freedom Army.
Many of the generals in this Freedom Army were ex-military men who served in the Syrian regime's army and defected after being given orders to go out in the streets and kill their own people, the majority of the defectors are Sunni Muslim's while the loyalists to the regime are Alawites and Shi"ites who hold the high ranks in the Syrian military.
