The Syrian crucible
"The increasing class polarisation in Syrian society also meant that the relationship between the state and the people became increasingly based on harassment and corruption."
I met an Iraqi at the World's End* once. After asking me why I was against the coming Iraq War - "because it will strengthen American imperialism in the region" was my instinctive answer - he told my friend Andy and me that he'd had to leave, not just because of politics, and asked if I could guess why. I hazarded that in a totalitarian police state, they nick everything, which turned out to be the right answer.
I generally expect that Syria will become a lot more pro-American if the revolution succeeds. When Communism was overthrown in Eastern Europe, the same occurred, and the disillusionment with the US is still nothing on the scale it is in Western Europe. Tony Cliff used to tell a story about how his friend in Palestine received a pair of sandals from the Soviet Union, and he kissed them and said something like "God bless the Soviet Union!" The worse your circumstances, the more you are likely to see your enemy's enemy as your friend.
I met an Iraqi at the World's End* once. After asking me why I was against the coming Iraq War - "because it will strengthen American imperialism in the region" was my instinctive answer - he told my friend Andy and me that he'd had to leave, not just because of politics, and asked if I could guess why. I hazarded that in a totalitarian police state, they nick everything, which turned out to be the right answer.
I generally expect that Syria will become a lot more pro-American if the revolution succeeds. When Communism was overthrown in Eastern Europe, the same occurred, and the disillusionment with the US is still nothing on the scale it is in Western Europe. Tony Cliff used to tell a story about how his friend in Palestine received a pair of sandals from the Soviet Union, and he kissed them and said something like "God bless the Soviet Union!" The worse your circumstances, the more you are likely to see your enemy's enemy as your friend.
* A pub in Camden
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