You won't find me defending the crimes of the Syrian government. (Or of anyone else in the war!) But I think that there's a danger of letting your perfectly justified moral outrage distort your ability to predict. I do not think that the Syrian government will be as isolated as North Korea after the war. It's not as isolated as North Korea now and outrage will fade further after the war. I predict that there will be less diplomatic pressure on the government after the war. The EU and neighboring states will be more interested in stopping/reversing refugee flows than in punishing the Syrian government for wartime atrocities. Any stability will be considered good stability.

I predict that Assad, like most heads of state, will never be held accountable for his government's crimes. I do not even see how an outside force could bring him to justice without subjecting the Syrian people to even more misery.