The curtain has fallen on Bashar Assad’s regime. Fleeing Damascus for the safety of Moscow, Assad has left behind a fractured Syria.

Opposition groups — representing the country’s diverse mosaic of tribes, ethnicities, and religions — now hold the reins. The infamous torture chambers of Mezze and Sednaya have been opened, and the archives, hastily abandoned by Assad loyalists, reveal an apparatus of state-sponsored mass murder.

While Syria’s long and harrowing war is over, one cannot escape the thought: This moment could have come a decade earlier. The world could have been spared the cascading horrors unleashed by Syria’s descent into chaos.

The statistics are a grim testament to the war’s brutality. Over 600,000 lives have been lost, a number that could climb closer to a million. Millions more were displaced, many seeking refuge across Europe, triggering a crisis that toppled governments and claimed thousands of lives in the perilous Mediterranean crossings.

Amid this devastation emerged Daesh, whose reign of terror extended from Raqqa to Iraq and beyond, casting a dark shadow of extremism across the globe.

The bloodshed etched onto this chapter of history remains unparalleled, its savagery exceeding even that of Russia’s invasions of Ukraine. The Assad regime bears primary responsibility, but others share the blame.

Assad clung to power by enlisting foreign fighters, Russian airpower, and Hezbollah militants while employing sieges, starvation, and chemical weapons against his own people.

Markets, hospitals, and civilian infrastructure were reduced to rubble. Meanwhile, the regime transformed into a narco-state, enriching its elite through the drug trade while ordinary Syrians faced poverty and rationed electricity.

Russia and Iran backed Assad. Western nations faltered. Promises were made and broken, sanctions were eased, and tentative gestures toward rehabilitating the regime emboldened Assad’s brutal strategies.

The pivotal moment came in 2013, a year that could have altered Syria’s fate. The regime’s desperation became evident in August of that year when it deployed sarin gas in East Ghouta, killing over a thousand people in a gruesome act of terror.

President Barack Obama had declared chemical weapons a “red line,” hinting at dire consequences for their use. Yet, when the moment came, he blinked.