Action is heating up.
That's the thing though, that's how his brother Jamal, his father, people like Saddam Hussein etc.. all ruled. Bassam thought by showing compassion he might be able to break the cycle. They are now showing us that sometimes the tyrants get pushed into being tyrants by the populace themselves and the constant hate on both sides.
Yep, Saddam may have been legit evil when he fully rose to power, but he learned those lessons from a super fucked up, hateful group of ideologues. While the story here is very simplistic comparative to the real thing, it really does clearly (Which is good for a show) illustrate the cause and effect of how the Mujadeen tend to fight. If you study the Israeli conflict, there are tons of video showing them specifically setting up mortars around schools and hospitals, at some points even threatening the families there that they HAVE to stay. (In fact, the whole Israeli roof tapping? Was twisted into a kind of psychological warfare by propaganda, but in reality, it was a way for Israel to try and limit casualties by literally warning people to run because they needed to destroy a mortar site.)
