I'm doing some work with a woman from Syria, though she's not living there now. So the topic of al-Assad came up. She told me that he's a wonderful leader who loves the people, and that 80% of the people love and respect him. Apparently the war in Syria is because he's trying to protect the people.
At that point, I came very close to mentioning his use of chemical weapons. But I work with her, so managed to restrain myself. Anyway, she presumably knows and thinks that it's justified.
I'm finding it difficult to get my hear around this mindset.