History is rarely kind to complacency. The 1980s taught Washington a brutal lesson: short-term partnerships with men of violent conviction can metastasize into long-term threats. That lesson matters again as Ahmed al-Sharaa, a onetime militant commander with ties to jihadist networks, strides onto the world stage claiming the mantle of Syria’s new leadership. His arrival in New York for the U.N. General Assembly is being billed as a historic normalization of Damascus. For those who remember how friendly hands can later turn lethal, it reads like alarm bells.
Al-Sharaa did not emerge from a university debating club. He rose through jihadist ranks and led forces that for years operated under banners tied to transnational extremist currents; that record is part of why he is both potent and controversial as a would-be statesman. His rapid transformation from battlefield emir to interim president has been accompanied by an aggressive diplomatic offensive: he is seeking recognition, reconstruction money, and a reversal of sanctions that still hobble Syria’s economy.
The optics of former militants asking for international legitimacy and open bank accounts are not merely awkward; they are a test of whether the international community learns from history or repeats it. (Ed note: History also reminds us about a US President who brought back Ayatollah Khomeini from Paris to Iran in 1979. That didn't work out too well. History will tell us about events, and the Bible can tell us Prophecy about Damascus as in Isaiah 17. Check it out.) (Read More)
