Identity Amid the Rubble: Syria and Iraq Between Grand Narratives and Systematic Dismantling

Voice of Belady

2 days ago

By: Mohamed Saad Abdel Latif – Egypt
In a moment many perceived as a turning point, Ahmad al-Sharaa appeared in civilian clothes, speaking in a pragmatic tone about Syria's future. For some, his appearance signaled the dawn of a post-Assad era—perhaps a new Syria, radically different. Yet the Iraqi experience had already taught those willing to learn: no statue falls without casting a longer shadow, and no regime collapses without leaving behind its ghosts—in the alleys of cities, at the borders of identity, and in the pulse of geography.
When Saddam Hussein's statue fell in Baghdad, the scene resembled more the toppling of a tyrant than the birth of a nation. Years later, the destruction of the Assad family's monuments in Damascus echoed that image—yet with one key difference: the game's threads were far more entangled, and the geography more defiant.
What has happened—and continues to happen—in Damascus and Baghdad cannot be viewed through a single lens. It's not just a tale of fallen despotism or crushed revolution; it is an entire structure that continues to reproduce itself through new tools. The killer and the victim have begun switching roles, the masks change, but the stage remains the same—operated by the same forces whose interests intersect above rivers of blood.
Here, the specter of Gamal Hamdan looms—the geographer who did not read fortunes but rather the genius of place and time. When he spoke of Iraq and the Levant, he was not prophesying, but mapping out the latent fractures in the region's fabric—those inherited from geography, history, and politics. He saw signs of disintegration that needed no military coup or foreign intervention—just one tremor for the entire image to collapse.
Amid sects and minorities, regions and rival powers, the internal fabric morphs into a perpetual battlefield. Sectarianism has not only been a domestic tool but has also become a foreign one. Iran, Turkey, and Israel each view Damascus as an extension of their national security—just as Baghdad was once a playground for redrawing influence maps. Sovereignty became a worn-out slogan, and the 'state' a fragile framework governed by unwritten agreements among power brokers who see human beings as mere numbers in the balance of power.
In this context, the democratic slogans hoisted atop tanks—whether in Baghdad or Damascus—proved to be flimsy veils for a bitter truth: democracy cannot be crafted by armies, and freedom cannot be imposed from abroad. The fragile political entities protected by militias or regional deals possess no soul of statehood. They are mere protectorates—awaiting the next deal or war.
Iraq never produced a true 'state' in the Green Zone, and post-2011 Syria only yielded new faces over the same corpse. Lebanon continues to breathe through the lungs of others, while the Golan Heights—an open wound—now witnesses wars fought in names not its own.
The result? A complex scene of organized fragmentation, the collapse of statehood concepts, and a battle over identity. The 'partition of the already-partitioned,' as some have written, is no longer a deferred scenario—it is a reality administered drop by drop, under global watch and through the hands of blood-soaked proxies.
The geopolitical landscape of the region—with all its historical, ethnic, and sectarian entanglements—cannot be understood through a Facebook post or a shallow reading in the cafés of the virtual world. This moment calls for a pen that grasps the depth of time and place, and eyes that see beyond the mirrors—not fleeting whims or temporary allegiances.
Mohamed Saad Abdel Latif
Writer and researcher in geopolitics and international conflicts
Email: [e-mail]