"It was the Alawites" is an astonishingly reductive conclusion. Assad himself is has a Sunni wife; many non-Kurdish Sunnis - perhaps a plurality - continue to

"It was the Alawites" is an astonishingly reductive conclusion. Assad himself is has a Sunni wife; many non-Kurdish Sunnis - perhaps a plurality - continue to support his government, just as do many Christians. And even if that wasn't true, how can you blame "all Alawites" when not even all Alawites support Assad?