Assad, our nation’s “father,” wasn’t born of loyalty; it was a survival tactic, rooted in generational terror that he was passing on to me. As I learned more about my country’s history, the imposed paternal connection between me and “Baba Hafez” began to fuel my already budding daddy issues.

Syria’s iron-fisted leader Bashar al-Assad is the second generation of an autocratic family dynasty that held power for more than five decades and his disappearance amid a lighting rebel advance cap an astonishing reordering of power in a strategically vital Middle Eastern nation.