During one of those unnervingly subdued days in Washington after the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington in 2001, I ran into a senior Bush administration official who graduated from Vassar a year or two before me. I was surprised to see him given all that was going on, but it seems that long-standing dental appointments take precedent over even national security emergencies. After exchanging pleasantries, I offered him some unsolicited advice, “I know the administration is talking about working with Damascus against al-Qaeda. Tell whoever you need to tell: The Syrians will [expletive] you in the end.” That statement is as true today as it was 13 years ago. There has long been a clear pattern to Syrian statecraft: Syria’s leaders accommodate their opponents just enough to keep them at bay without ever surrendering the ability to do harm to the same said opponents. It is smart and it has proven successful, which makes one wonder why anyone would ever believe that they could get something done with the Assads.
Posted on: Sun, 14 Sep 2014 10:21:15 +0000
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