President Barack Obama spoke loudly, calling for Mr. al-Assad’s ouster, but carried a small stick. He backed off from even symbolic enforcement of the red line he had set. Support for rebels was “nonlethal” at first, then the C.I.A. backed some rebel groups, but ultimately America’s goal was not to oust Mr. al-Assad but to put pressure on him to go to the negotiating table. Even that effort later took a back seat to an anti-ISIS campaign.

But the broader issue is how the United States views the region. It is not a binary choice between authoritarian rulers who torture their people — ones the United States actively supports, like in Saudi Arabia, or ones it opposes but ultimately tolerates, like in Syria — and toppling them with massive interventions that create power vacuums. Most people in the region, I believe, want more support for the ordinary people seeking to build a meaningful civil society and less support for the governments holding them back .

One user asked Ms. Barnard about the history of torture prisons in the Middle East.

Unfortunately torture and political imprisonment have been used through much of history, whether we’re talking about the Spanish Inquisition or the Stalinist gulag.

From Ottoman times through Western colonialism to the upheavals of the 20th century, such abuses have been prevalent in many Middle Eastern countries as well.

But even within a century rife with authoritarianism in the region, the current Syrian system stands out. Syria’s prison system and tight lid on dissent were among the harshest in the region long before the uprising in 2011. After the uprising, the system was vastly expanded and played a pivotal role in crushing the civilian side of the revolt.

Another asked how Ms. Barnard’s article contributes anything new to a global understanding of Islamic countries governed by Shariah law.

This isn’t about Islamic law; Syria is officially a secular state. Nor is it about Arab dictatorships writ large. The story in Syria is relevant because at this moment in time, the Syrian government has used these massive violations of human rights to put down a movement for reform and democracy, and has shown other leaders around the world, Arab or not, that such methods can be used with impunity.