Make sure your enemies don't ask for help. Buy them off (or worse) if need be, but make sure they keep their mouths shut. The last thing you need is for foreign powers to get a sense that a democratic alternative exists in your country or that your people would cheer on a Western-led military intervention.
Although anti-Assad Syrians haven't been silent by any measure, their rejection of foreign intervention has been one major factor that has forestalled serious consideration of a military option there. Last week, TV show host Stephen Colbert asked Ambassador Rice why the United States had not intervened to save the lives of Syrians. She replied that Robert Ford, the U.S. envoy in Damascus, had heard from the Syrian opposition that "what they want from the United States is more leadership, political pressure, and sanctions, but very clearly no military intervention."
If your enemies do ask for outside military intervention, pray that it will be limited in scope. Six days before the NATO-led intervention began on March 19, rebel leader Mustafa Abdel Jalil notified the world that "We want a no-fly zone and a naval blockade ... [but] we don't want boots on the ground." Remember: The longer you can hold on to power -- whether you're fighting internal protests or external intervention -- the more likely your enemies will tire, or begin fighting each other. In the case of Qaddafi, however, he just couldn't hold on long enough.
AZZOUZ BOUKALLOUCH/AFP/Getty Images
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