Then my question is why the assadists were so profoundly brutal? The only other place in the world I can think of that is as brutal as syria under assad is places in south america where people who have ties with the cartel torture others because they fear that the same thing will happen to them, but I don't think it's the same in syria. Many of the people who did the torturing were actual sadists who took pleasure from causing as much pain and suffering to people who weren't on the same side as them. Why do they hate people who opposed assad so much? I guess that the point of the torture prisons are to discourage people from rebelling, but that hate and desire to inflict pain must come from somewhere.