Syria: Caught in a Trap

The regime in Syria is a brutal and corrupt nationalist dictatorship with a youth movement inspired by that of North Korea. Some of the rebels opposing the regime aspire to democracy and secularism, but those who seem to be in the ascendant have intolerant agendas; some have even linked themselves to al-Qaeda. Yet observers are wrong if they comfort themselves with the thought that none of the causes of the barbarity in Syria at the moment can be laid at the door of the West.

In the years before and after 9/11 the history of the Arab Middle East became a political and cultural football in Britain and America. Scholars such as Bernard Lewis frequently accused Arab leaders of failing to take responsibility for their disastrous policies and then trying to offload the blame on to the West. There was more than a grain of truth in such assertions, but they obscured a very important point. Many in the West have sought to blame Arabs for the disastrous failures of western states in the Middle East. Syria today is a case study of a country trapped in a vice created by the effects of western policies across the decades.