https://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=624048133
https://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=624048133
Hey, I'm Kelly McEvers, and this is EMBEDDED. I usually don't get very excited about the latest Washington memoir. But there's this new book out that is different because it's a book I've been waiting for for a long time. It's called "The World As It Is." It's by a guy named Ben Rhodes. He was a deputy national security adviser and a speechwriter for President Barack Obama. And he helped shape the administration's policy on Syria, a place I covered for years, a country where hundreds of thousands of people have been killed by their own government and are still being killed by their own government. And until recently, it seemed like the U.S. was standing by and doing nothing.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
MCEVERS: Every time I went into Syria, I was asked the same questions. What was the U.S. going to do to stop the killing? And if they weren't going to do anything, could they just tell us why? Now, reading this book and talking to Ben Rhodes, I know what people in the administration were thinking. I know how decisions were made in the White House, how sometimes they were deliberate and sometimes they happened almost by accident.
I know that Ben and some other young idealists in the administration really wanted the U.S. to do something, anything. But eventually, he realized that the world as it should be is different from the world as it is. And in that way, our stories are alike - two Americans who believed a little too much in our abilities to change the world.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
MCEVERS: The thing some people forget about the war in Syria is that it started with the Arab Spring.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #1: Wave of democracy protests in the Middle East…
MCEVERS: Which was literally tens of millions of people mostly in their 20s and 30s out in the streets protesting across the Middle East…
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #2: Popular dissent is sweeping across the region.
MCEVERS: …Calling for dictators to step down.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #3: They feel emboldened tonight like they're on the cusp of taking down this dictator.
MCEVERS: This happened in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Bahrain. Protesters even used the same slogan.
(SOUNDBITE OF PROTEST)
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: (Chanting in Arabic).
MCEVERS: "The people want the fall of the regime."
(SOUNDBITE OF PROTEST)
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: (Chanting in Arabic).
MCEVERS: The two dictators in Tunisia and Egypt were forced to leave, and protests eventually spread to Syria.
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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: You see a group of maybe 30 protesters walking very fast down a dark and narrow alley. You can hear them chanting in the background. We're going to catch up. Then you hear the cars.
(SOUNDBITE OF CARS HONKING)
UNIDENTIFIIED PERSON #1: The activist says that's a warning sign the security forces are coming. The protesters surge back toward us. Everybody's running down the street. Everybody's running like crazy. We're leaving.
(SOUNDBITE OF GUNFIRE)
UNIDENTIFIIED PERSON #1: Oh, jeez.
MCEVERS: Syria's uprising started when four teenagers were arrested for painting that slogan, (speaking Arabic), on the wall and adding it's your turn, doctor. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is an ophthalmologist.
(CROSSTALK)
MCEVERS: Then on a Friday after prayers, guys in the city where those arrests happened - it's called Daraa - go out and protest. Security forces come. Protesters throw rocks at them. Security forces start shooting.
(SOUNDBITE OF GUNFIRE)
MCEVERS: And four protesters are killed. I know this because of videos like the one you're hearing from that day and because I know a guy named Ibrahim Abouzeid (ph) who was there. One of the four guys who was killed was his friend.
IBRAHIM ABOUZEID: I saw the blood. I saw how they lose them life.
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