What Is Going On in Syria?

                               Don’t untie the tethered elephant.
                                                                          —Arabic proverb 

The sense of this proverb is similar to the more familiar ones about not unleashing the dogs of war, or not opening Pandora’s box. And like the others it is often quoted in hindsight, but seldom acted upon. Had it been heeded by the British back in 1924, the much maligned Hashemites—whose hold on their last bastion, Jordan, is looking more and more problematic—might still be Sharifs of Mecca and rulers of Mecca and Medina; the Wahhabis might not control Arabia; Arabia might not be Saudi Arabia (which has proven itself not to be Arabia Felix—“Happy Arabia”—the term the Romans used for fertile south Arabia, and especially Yemen); and our world might be a very different place.

We may not be able to undo the mistakes of the past, but there is merit in trying not to repeat them.

The much publicised “Arab Spring” is one of the many…