Los Angeles Times: Pressure grows for Assad to step down. But in Damascus, his backers say the alternatives may be worse

“Why would the United States attack Syria? I don’t understand it,” Havera, an august merchant of textiles, antiquities and other Syrian handicrafts, said from his musty second-floor aerie, up a series of narrow stairways that wind past sundry craftsmen’s workshops. “I knew this Trump liked women,” Havera added. “But it seems he likes bombs too.”...
http://www.latimes.com/world/middleeast/la-fg-syria-damascus-mood-20170412-story.html