Chew before swallowing
How was he a dictator? As I recall, his elections were indisputably transparent and honest.
His polling numbers were always well over 80%, closer to 90%.
The proof is that he used to walk the streets of Damascus stopping to chat with passersby and food vendors, attended Christmas celebrations in churches despite being of a Muslim sect.
When was there EVER a western leader (JFK and Olof Palme made a costly mistake thinking to emulate such examples) who could mix with his people openly and with impunity?
Another such "dictator" as I recall was Fidel Castro, whatever you may think of him, I saw him walking along Obispo, a narrow pedestrian street in Old Havana, maybe 2-3 bodyguards rather discreetly on both sides of curb, people yelling greetings, everybody relaxed.
When Jew calls a leader a "dictator" feel free to translate to "not a Rothschild agent", a nationalist, populist, in service of his own people, not the global rootless elite.
In true Orwellian fashion, what is up is down, what is good is bad, free speech is hate speech and so on, universal inversion of precepts in order to disorient the already wobbly mind stumbling into the devil's snares.