SYRIA AND IRAQ A Comparison of Baathist Regimes

However, the attention now being given to Syria merits an examination of the Syrian dictatorship. To what degree does it resemble and differ from that of Saddam Hussein in Iraq. In particular, how have the two regimes developed in recent years. The following discussion will examine these questions, considering the past, the recent period, and Syria's prospective future.

On the face of it, the government of Syria and the government of Iraq until the war appear to have a great deal in common (Suellentrop, 2003). Both are (or were) one-party dictatorships, specifically associated with the Baath Party. Both had a distinctly pro-Soviet alignment during the Cold War yearsBoth have displayed unwavering hostility toward Israel over the years. Both have been accused of association with international terrorism. Both were once client states of the Soviet Union.

Both have also at various times sen

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s and portraits, found across Iraq until the war -- on Stalin's. However, it was notably Stalin that Saddam Hussein admired, not Lenin. Saddam's interest was power, not ideological transformation. One further speculative note might be made about Saddam Hussein's cult of personality. The iconography of portrayals of Saddam showed him in various guises, such as in uniform and holding a rifle. However, another common portrayal was in an ordinary business suit, and wearing a hat of the sort that men in the West commonly wore in the first half of the last century. While no available reference discusses this, the connotation may be an association to Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey, who among other things ordered Turks to wear such hats instead of the traditional fez. If this is the intent, the intent of the iconography is to present an image of modernizing, secularist reform. While Baathism's ideology was ill-defined, a clear feature was secularism, and both Syria and Iraq have been severely repressive of Islamic militancy. In other respects, however, the Baath party in both states has been a simple mechanism of power; neither an ideological vanguard nor a mass movement. People joined for access to power, not o
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Saddam Hussein, Hafez Assad, Syria Iraq, United Syria, Christians French, Iraq Syria, British-born Syrian, Bashar Assad, Hussein Iraq, Saddam Hussein's, saddam hussein, hafez assad, bashar assad, iraq syria, baath party, international terrorism, invasion kuwait, syria iraq, cult personality, similarity iraq syria, world war,
Approximate Word count = 2295
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page)

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