Guest Editorial: Recent history should dissuade entry into Syria

Posted on June 25, 2012 |

• Editorial

By Haviland Smith

 It is a simple fact that many “countries” in the Middle East are not really nation-states as they are understood to be in the West, but rather often unhappy agglomerations of ethnic, tribal, sectarian and even national groups having little in common. 

 Instability in the Middle East can be measured by the extent of tribal, sectarian, ethnic and national frictions in any “country” in the region.

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