10 Comments

Thank you for this comprehensive whistle-stop history of the "Cradle of Civilisation". Your knowledge of this region must be unique in the English speaking world. I do hope you are correct that Syria will prevail.

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I second your comment; this historical overview is much needed at this time of death and destruction (and ideological dreck) in the Levant.

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Thanks for this history! it's so important for us in the west--our ignorance is massively destructive actually.

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Vanessa, Have you heard of/read "How the West Stole Democracy From the Arabs," by Elizabeth Thompson? I found it to be a credible, compassionate chronicle of yet another tragically sad period in Syria's history, during the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire during and after WW1. A destructive betrayal engineered primarily by, of course, Great Britain and France. Basically contemporaneous to what happened with Palestine in the same period.

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Brilliant write up.

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I really appreciate this history. Very interesting to see the depth of Syrian culture given context.

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Of course informative - thanks for differentiating Salafism and Wahhabism earlier. Possibly, that is the most eloquent text I've ever read.

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Thank you for this informative article.

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Vanessa, please read Alestair Crooke’s excellent article on Syria.

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Thanks for this history. I’ve been listening with great interest to all your interviews with Mike at UK Column also. Would love to have visited Syria earlier, but didn’t, not realising that this would not be possible now. I am so thankful for all you’ve told us and appreciate it enormously. 🩷🩷

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