A website sardonically named
War on the Rocks runs a lengthy
analysis by Tobias Schneider of the degeneration of the Syrian state into a series of localized warlord fiefdoms run by smugglers, gun-runners, and thieves. See his view of "President" Assad:
Over the past three years, despite foreign military aid and support, the regime under Assad has continued to atrophy at an ever increasing pace. If these trends continue, the Syrian president will soon find himself little more than a primus inter pares, a symbolic common denominator around which a loose coalition of thieves and fiefdoms can rally.
What strikes me is that Syria, as described by Schneider, now literally resembles our stereotype of the MENA area, a motley collection of armed tribes, villages, and clans, with flags. It is very nearly the state of nature, about which Hobbes
wrote:
During the time men live without a common power to keep them all in awe, they are in that condition which is called warre; and such a warre as is of every man against every man.
We see in Syria what the post-apocalyptic world will resemble, if we let it degenerate that far. Be prepared to defend your village, your block or your valley. As Kurt Schlichter
writes at
Townhall,
I have never, ever had anyone tell me that he had too much ammunition. Not in a combat zone, not in a civil disaster, not even in peacetime. Never.
Right now, if you are watching the news, you have questions about the future. And the answer to all of them is to buy ammo.
I'll admit I haven't yet followed Schlichter's advice, but if one lived in Syria its wisdom would have long since become self-evident.
