How did a peaceful democratic uprising morph into a civil conflict and regional proxy war? Andrew Tabler, foremost expert on Syria and fellow in the Program on Arab Politics at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, talks with host Carol Castiel and Begum Ersoz, video journalist in VOA’s Turkish Service about the state of play in Syria. He says a combination of Syrian dictator Bashar al Assad’s brutality, US reticence to forcefully back the rebel opposition under the Obama Administration, and Iran and Russia’s timely interventions on behalf of Assad, contributed to Syria’s collapse, which has spawned the largest refugee crisis since World War II.