Syria was destined to splinter. From Doug Casey at internationalman.com:
International Man: After nearly 14 years of brutal conflict, various jihadist groups backed by Turkey, the US, and Israel finally toppled the Assad government in Syria.
What is your take on this?
Doug Casey: I’ve been to Syria twice over the years for about a week at a time. I drove around the country, even including what passes for beach resorts on the small Syrian coast—not that that gave me any special insight into the current situation. Though the country was viewed as a dangerous bastion of evil, I had a great time. Except for active war zones, you can almost use the State Department’s “no go” list as a travel advisor. FWIW, even when I applied for my visa at the Syrian consulate in Beirut, I remember being impressed with their friendly and competent staff.
People forget that Syria is an artificial country. The region called “Syria” has been around for thousands of years, since pre-Roman times. But today’s Syria only came into existence with the breakup of the Ottoman Empire after World War I. It’s not an organic country. Like most Third World countries, it was put together in the drawing rooms of Europe, with zero consideration of local ethnic or religious sensitivities. That’s a guaranteed formula for perpetual chaos in a highly tribal region, where governments are mainly vehicles for theft.
For the last 50 years, it’s been run by the Assad family. Even if you’re a nice guy, or used to be a nice guy, like Bashar al-Assad, when you’re surrounded by lots of nasty people who are holding together a pressure cooker that’s looking to explode, it can’t end well.
