Friday, April 18, 2003
Syrian Power Play (washingtonpost.com) Charles Krauthammer has some thoughts on Assad's Syria - why they're behaving in what may be construed as an irrational manner at this point in history - and what we should do about it.
Why is he being so bold? First, because he fears that if the winds of freedom are allowed to blow from Iraq, they will topple him, yet another Baathist dictator who survives on terror and fear. Second, because having American military power next door might give encouragement to democratic opponents at home and constrain his capacity to support terrorism and suppress Lebanon (which Syria still occupies).
Nonetheless, it is still a bit crazy to take on the world superpower the morning after a most astonishing demonstration of arms and will. Which brings us to Reason Three: Assad is not very smart. By training, he is neither a military man nor a politician. Relatively new on the throne and with little legitimacy, he may feel this is his opportunity to acquire Arabist credentials among the cutthroat Baathist elite that disdains him -- by making Syria, and thus himself, "the heart of Arabism."
Nonetheless, it is still a bit crazy to take on the world superpower the morning after a most astonishing demonstration of arms and will. Which brings us to Reason Three: Assad is not very smart. By training, he is neither a military man nor a politician. Relatively new on the throne and with little legitimacy, he may feel this is his opportunity to acquire Arabist credentials among the cutthroat Baathist elite that disdains him -- by making Syria, and thus himself, "the heart of Arabism."
Syria, like Saddam's Iraq before is the proverbial scorpion riding the back of the frog across the river. The scorpion that just can't help itself. Syria is another pan-Arabist state, built on blame of outsiders, mistrust, anti-semitism and terror. They've built so much around blame of Israel, the West and the post-Colonialist canard that expecting the Syrian regime to behave in a rational way, except in so far as it by coincidence mimics their regular modes of operation is itself irrational.
They're a scorpion...it's what they do. We must deal with them in a manner consistent with such a creature.
