Never mind how his rule provoked the Civil War
The Syrian Civil War started in the context of the Arab Spring.
Starting in Tunisia, the tumult then spread to Egypt, Bahrain, Libya, Yemen and Syria.
Tunisia was the only one to reap any kind of success. It democratized and did away with the worst excesses of the Ben Ali regime.
Libya turned into flaming hellhole, being torn apart by warlords and Islamic fundamentalists.
Yemen, though this may be difficult to believe, descended into an even worst state than Libya. Then it got invaded by Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Now millions of children go hungry daily, and a generation has grown up that knows nothing but war.
In Egypt - the "Revolution" so lauded by Obama - brought to power a literal retard - Mohammad Morsi. Forget that the guy was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood - he was simply retarded. Totally unqualified to take children on a field trip to the zoo, let alone run a country the size of Egypt. He got replaced through a military coup, and the ruling junta by all appearances is much better than Morsi.
Syria and Bahrain were the two places that managed to "hold on". In Assad's case by the skin of his teeth, and with substantial Russian and Persian aid.
Remember, that before Jolani and friends rebranded into HTS, their organization was called the Al Nusra Front. The Al Nusra Front, was the official "branch" of Al Qaeda in Iraq - in Syria. Then, because it became so embarrassing for Turkey and Qatar to support "an Al Qaeda offshoot", those guys did a clever rebranding.
Al Nusra was only one of the factions Assad was fighting. He was also fighting ISIL. Somewhere along the margins, he was also fighting the practically non-existent "Free Syrian Army". The "Free Syrian Army" existed only in the imagination of State Department boffins.
The Kurds, who are the only decent people in this whole mess, ended up helping Assadist forces against the Islamists - when they realized that Turkey was attempting to use them as a proxy in crushing Kurdish separatism.
If you think Al Qaeda is better than Assad, I think you're going to be in for a rude surprise.