Is Syria Iran’s Afghanistan?

The ink was hardly dry on the resignation letter of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad before he put on his running shoes to depart Damascus for the safety of Russia and before a coalition army of revolutionaries captured the capital city Dec. 8. In 2000, al-Assad replaced his father, Hafez, who had brutally ruled Syria for 29 years. A civil war – triggered in 2011 under the son’s rule – may now be drawing to an end.

It is the son who now bears responsibility for the deaths of over 600,000...