Lessons from Baghdad and Beirut

Dexter Filkins, in the New York Times (registration required) examines comparisons between Baghdad and Beirut. He quotes Chibli Mallat, a Beirut lawyer and opposition leader, who “believes that for years, Iraq stood as both a positive and malevolent symbol to others in the Middle East. Saddam Hussein's survival following the Persian Gulf war in 1991, Mr. Mallat said, froze the status quo in the region for more than a decade. The Iraqi dictator's prolific human rights abuses had the perverse effect of making every other unelected leader in the Middle East look tame by comparison. The result, he said, was political stasis,”that Saddam’s “removal became a precondition for change in the region" and “when millions of Iraqis risked their lives to cast ballots in January, the country emerged as a symbol for change across the region.”