Compared to What?

Despite Bashar al-Assad’s crimes, he is the only realistic answer to Syria’s troubles. When analyzing Assad, people must ask themselves the common question for which economists are known: compared to what? Let’s not forget how Iraq looked after Saddam Hussein was toppled in 2003. An Iraqi by the name of Kadom al-Jabouri took his sledgehammer to help topple Saddam Hussein’s statue as US troops entered the city. A decade later, he says why he regrets it: “Then we had only one dictator. Now we have hundreds.” Iraq today suffers from the typical instability produced by countries unaccustomed to parliamentarianism. In 2022, protestors stormed the Iraqi parliament in support of a cleric named al-Sadr.

Today, many Iraqis feel as though they do not have sovereignty within their own nation, as their politicians are either American or Iranian puppets. Libya, too, after Gaddafi, experienced a resurgence of chattel slavery where a man was bought for $400 in an auction. Much like Russia during the 1990s, people in nations that are corrupt and destabilized will come to the conclusion that law, order, and stability are far more attractive than a failed democracy or vague ideas of liberty. Now, with the war in Ukraine coming to an end, as admitted by President Zelensky, Putin may come to the aid of President Assad, but until then the people of Syria will continue to live amongst the terror and infighting of the HTS.