The Rubble-Strewn Road to Damascus
A Biblical land and its people are being wiped out by weapons and warlords of the
twenty-first century. Damascus, after almost five years of war, is
strewn with the rubble of a shattered state, a fractured society, and a demolished
landscape. To the north, the grand city of Aleppo—the formerly bustling heart
of commerce, often likened to New York but dating back at least five
millennia—is now compared to Stalingrad, because of its devastation. To the
east, the Roman ruins in Palmyra, including the majestic Temple of Bel, from
the first century, and the towering Arch of Triumph, from the second, have been
pulverized.
The question now is whether Syria--both politically and physically--can be put back together again. My analysis in The New Yorker. Read on...
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