Much like Iraq in early 2003, the predominant images coming out of Syria in late 2024 were of jubilant crowds toppling statues of ousted dictators . In almost all the videos, the stone or metal of the sculpture raises a cloud of dust as it falls, blurring the view of the scene for a few moments.
Following the collapse of 61 years of Ba'ath Party dictatorship and 53 years of the al-Asad dynasty in Damascus, our view of the geopolitical lanscape in Syria and the Middle East is similarly obscured. We are still in the midst of the cloud lifted by the fall of a regime, trying to get a glimpse of how things will look once the dust settles.
