Converting Damascus

摘要

SHORTLY after America toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003,in the brief interval when it looked as if installing a democracy in his place might be plain sailing,some members of the Bush administration pondered whether it might be a neat idea to knock over the other Baathist dictator,Syria's President Bashar Assad,as well.It is a good thing wiser counsel prevailed.Enough violence is bubbling in Iraq without throwing a second collapsed Arab state into the pot.But what if Mr Assad should start to collapse of his own accord?