Trying to make sense of what just happened in Syria — where the seemingly impregnable regime of Bashar Assad abruptly collapsed two weeks ago in the face of an unexpected rebel onslaught — runs straight into the central paradox of global affairs: Everyone believes they’re on the right side of history, and can tell the good guys from the bad guys. They’re likely to be wrong on both counts, but even if they’re not, that kind of moral certainty leads to disaster.
There’s not a whole lot of moral clarity available in the treacherous political and historical landscape of Syria, except that almost no one laments the downfall of the 54-year Assad dynasty. Like most nations of the modern Middle East, Syria was carved out of the ruins of the Ottoman Empire after World War I, although in a different sense it’s the oldest country on earth, since it contains the archaeological remains of the earliest known human civilization. Today it’s a uniquely strategic and highly diverse “crossroads of religions, ideologies and terrain that borders five other Middle Eastern nations,” as Liz Sly writes in a useful Washington Post analysis.
