Emirates defends its response to Syria's refugee crisis In
Syria before 2011, for instance, central Damascus had become a
delightful place to live, with wonderful restaurants and shops, but at
the same time, in north-east Syria, there was a catastrophic three-year
drought which the government did nothing to alleviate and which drove
three million Syrians to flee to shanty towns on the outskirts of the
larger cities.
Many of these places subsequently became hard-core rebel strongholds that are now shattered by government bombing and shelling.
Take another disastrous example of unthinking adherence to free-market capitalism in countries with no rule of law, rampant corruption and a dysfunctional state. In June 2014, just after the capture of Mosul by Isis, I asked a recently retired Iraqi Army four-star general what was wrong with the army, and why it had disintegrated when attacked by a much inferior force. "Corruption! Corruption! Corruption!" he replied emphatically, explaining that he blamed the way in which the Americans had created the post-Saddam Hussein Iraqi Army.
To encourage free-market capitalism the Americans had laid down that all food and other non-military supplies for the army should be contracted out to private business. This had the effect of making it in the interests of every colonel, who was being paid to feed a unit of 600 soldiers, to reduce the real number of men to 150 and pocket the money to feed, clothe and equip the other 450 who did not exist. The Iraqi government admitted later the existence of 50,000 such "ghost" soldiers, but the real figure was probably much higher.
An end to Cold War superpower rivalry, globalisation and free-market economics were all portrayed as benign modernising forces over the past quarter century. But, in practice, the decline of nationalism and the national state has been replaced by nothing better and has opened the door to monstrous but fanatical movements such as ISIS.
Many of these places subsequently became hard-core rebel strongholds that are now shattered by government bombing and shelling.
Take another disastrous example of unthinking adherence to free-market capitalism in countries with no rule of law, rampant corruption and a dysfunctional state. In June 2014, just after the capture of Mosul by Isis, I asked a recently retired Iraqi Army four-star general what was wrong with the army, and why it had disintegrated when attacked by a much inferior force. "Corruption! Corruption! Corruption!" he replied emphatically, explaining that he blamed the way in which the Americans had created the post-Saddam Hussein Iraqi Army.
To encourage free-market capitalism the Americans had laid down that all food and other non-military supplies for the army should be contracted out to private business. This had the effect of making it in the interests of every colonel, who was being paid to feed a unit of 600 soldiers, to reduce the real number of men to 150 and pocket the money to feed, clothe and equip the other 450 who did not exist. The Iraqi government admitted later the existence of 50,000 such "ghost" soldiers, but the real figure was probably much higher.
An end to Cold War superpower rivalry, globalisation and free-market economics were all portrayed as benign modernising forces over the past quarter century. But, in practice, the decline of nationalism and the national state has been replaced by nothing better and has opened the door to monstrous but fanatical movements such as ISIS.
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