Why is the Syrian regime viciously butchering protesters and forcefully crushing dissent?

The President (of Syria), Bashar al-Assad has ruled the country for many years after becoming President when his father died. His party, the Ba'ath party believes in "strong" single-party government and Arab nationalism among other things. The Syrian government wants to stay in power, and it's corruption means that government officials make a lot of money from their positions. In order to do this they are using their Armed Forces, who support the government, in order to crush popular uprisings by brute force - essentially, it doesn't matter to them how many die or whose lives are ruined if they stay in power. This is similar to the methods that Muammar al-Gadhafi is using in Libya, President Ali Abdullah Saleh is using in Yemen and the King of Bahrain is using in his country.