On a personal note. To all my Syrian friends: may God bless Syria, and its noble people, and protect you always from all threats. تحيا سوريا وشعبها العظيم

The opportunity; the potential; the very possibility for positive change is there, in a way that has been absent from Syria for so long. There will be many looking to disrupt that, from within and without, so the efforts to realise that potential need to scale up immediately.

Going forward there will be many challenges. Things will be messy. But at some point, this was always going to erupt, and rather than engage in cynical (and frankly insulting to Syrians) determinism over what must happen, outsiders should do what they can to help.

Yes, there are good reasons to be cautious. But the idea that things could have stayed the same indefinitely is irrational and absurd. Blame Assad for that - he's most responsible.

Any constructive, durable, sustainable future for Syria simply could not include Assad. That wasn't a choice Syrians made - it was a choice *he* made. He could have easily taken different routes multiple times since 2011. He chose the worst one - and has himself to blame.

Bashar wasn't a source of stability; but a source, and the main source, of instability. Indeed, his regime and its backers were responsible for about 90 percent of the death toll in Syria. Even beyond the human cost, his regime was destabilising.

There is an overriding reality that too many are missing in the reportage and analysis internationally, at least from those who haven't followed Syria. As much as people might want to insist that Bashar was a pillar of stability, so better than anything else, this was false.