—
Thirty-mumble years ago, I argued that President Bush père was wrong to send troops to Somalia (and President Clinton was wrong to keep them there) because there’s no such country. Somalia, I bitterly joked, isn’t a country so much as a hole in the map where other countries aren’t. Years later, I’d repeat that joke about our mission-creep/nation-building exercise in Afghanistan. You can’t build a nation in a hole in the map.
Whichbringsus,bitterlyoncemore,toSyria.
EdwardLuttwak’slatestforUnherdincludesabriefbutinformativehistoryofthecountrythat,likeSomaliaandAfghanistan,neverwas.“Syriawasnevermeanttofunctionasaunitarystate,”hewrote,andthe“foreignbusybodies…pressingforthereconstructionofaunitarySyrianstateshouldreflectonthecountry’shistory.”
AnuneasymixofAlawites,ArabOrthodox,Druze,Kurds,Armenians,Ismailis,andShiaArabswasheldtogether(albeitbarely)inalooseconfederationbytheFrenchafterWorldWarOne.Inthepost-WWII/post-colonialera,onlytwothingskeptSyriafromflyingapart:theAssaddynastyR
