March 07, 2018
Baathism Caused the Chaos in Iraq and Syria
The United States intervened militarily in Iraq in 2003, 15 years ago this month, and the result was war and chaos. But the United States did not intervene in Syria in 2011 when the regime there was challenged, and the result was still war and chaos. Though the media has interpreted the past decade and a half of armed conflict in the Levant exclusively through the failure of U.S. policy, the fact that the policy in Syria was 180-degrees different from the one in Iraq and yet the result was the same indicates that there has to be a deeper, more fundamental force at work in both countries that journalists and historians must acknowledge.
That deeper force is the legacy of Baathism. A toxic mix of secular Arab nationalism and Eastern Bloc-style socialism that dominated Syria and Iraq for decades since the 1960s, it made the regimes of the al-Assad family in Syria and Saddam Hussein in Iraq completely unique in the Arab world. Baathism, more than George W. Bush or Barack Obama, is the father of the violent Hobbesian nightmare that has devastated the lands between the Mediterranean Sea and the Iranian plateau in the early 21st century.
Read the full article in Foreign Policy.
More from CNAS
-
Donald Trump’s Gaza Plan Skips Step One
The White House proposal attempts to solve too many distinct issues all at once, without enough input from Palestinians....
By Delaney Soliday
-
Analyzing Trump’s 20-Point Peace Plan for Israel and Gaza
President Trump and Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are urging Hamas to accept the latest U.S. peace plan to end the war in Gaza. Trump says if Hamas rejects the 20...
By Rachel Brandenburg
-
Fourth Time’s a Charm? How Trump Could Push Netanyahu into Ending the Gaza War
Trump's new Gaza plan has a weak point: It clashes with Netanyahu's promises to his voters....
By Rachel Brandenburg
-
Israel’s Strike in Qatar: A “Big Red Line Has Been Crossed”
Donald Trump says he's "not thrilled" by Israel's unprecedented strike against Hamas in the Gulf state of Qatar – a key American ally. He adds it was the lone decision of Isra...
By Adham Sahloul