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(LONDON) I first met Bassel Issa in February 2012. At the time, he was leading a group of rebel fighters who called themselves the Syrian Liberation Army. In reality, they were more local militia than army. Most were farmers or workers, ordinary hard-working men who had grown up together and decided to join the fight for a free Syria.

Producer Ben Plesser and I had traveled illegally from Turkey to the city of Idlib, in Northern Syria, to live for a week with these men and their families. Bassel immediately caught my attention -- not because he was the leader of the group but because he was quiet and thoughtful and not partial to the braggadocio one so often encounters in rebel leaders. Wiry and lean with a broad toothy smile, he stood sucking down cigarette after cigarette, taking in everything that was going on around him.

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My Comment: When this civil war is over, I suspect there will be tens of thousands of such stories ... and on both sides.