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Opinion National Interest PoV 50-Word Edit

ThePrint On Camera Videos In Pictures

Society & Culture Around Town Book Excerpts Vigyapanti The Dating Story

More Judiciary Education YourTurn Work With Us Campus Voice

Every claim of victory gets reversed in the Middle East. Stay tuned for Iran’s

My personal and professional associations with the Middle East over the years have led me to the conclusion that early claims of victory never last.

A man is old if he tells you that he has visited Tehran when the flamboyant Shah was ruling there. This writer belongs to that generation of oldies. I first lived in the Middle East in 1973, during the Yom Kippur War.

The Arab press told us that Egypt, ruled by Anwar Sadat, had won. A few days later, there were some roundabout, sheepish statements about reverses caused by American intervention. No one openly admitted that the Egyptian armies had been surrounded. Israel looked strong until US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger forced it to refrain from completing the Egyptian rout. This reversal happened in hours.

Over the years, my personal and professional associations with this region have continued, and one conclusion I have come to is that early claims of victory never last. It may take hours, days, weeks, months or sometimes even years, but, as night follows day, every claim gets reversed.

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A tale of turnarounds—Syria to Israel and Iran

 Let us take a look at more recent times. The Syrian civil war began in 2011, and the US under President Barack Obama soon became involved, backing anti-government rebels.

Initially it looked as if Syrian President Bashar al-Assad would fall in the Syrian version of the Arab Spring. But that did not happen. In fact, at the end of ten years, the civil war was spluttering out and Assad was firmly in power. The Gulf states, which represent an accurate regional weathervane, then started cozying up to Assad, the inevitable victor. The old claims had been reversed. It........

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