How chaos could return to Syria once again

‘The only certainty in war is human suffering, uncertain costs, unintended consequences.’ So said Barack Obama in a speech in 2015, defending the historic mistake of his Iran deal. What an irony it is then that ‘unintended consequences’ should apply once again to another of his failures, this time in Syria. Obama’s failure to enforce his red line against Bashar Al-Assad’s use of chemical weapons in 2013 led to the country being torn and split multiple ways between the Assad regime, various ethnic and jihadist military groups and their external backers. Syria has had a lost decade as a result.

For those past ten years, the chaos in the country has been exploited by Iran, which has used Syria as a ground supply route to Hezbollah in Lebanon. It is fitting, therefore, that Hezbollah’s destruction at the hands of Israel set off a chain of events leading to the collapse of the Assad regime now.