(this post originally appeared Feb. 21, 2012 on the blog Designed Nostalgia)
by Adam A. Aton
In 2002, with US invasion forces chomping at the bit, Saddam Hussein flung open the doors of Abu Ghraib and loosed Iraq’s most dangerous criminals on Baghdad.
Hussein was telling the people one thing: Remember why I’m here, and remember what could happen if I go away. In large part, he was vindicated. When coalition forces swept Hussein aside, they discovered the pulsing sectarian tensions he worked so hard (and so violently) to tame—tensions that began expressing themselves through teenage suicide bombers and roadside IEDs—tensions that were still raw when the U.S. left Iraq, eight years later.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, facing a serious threat to his regime, took a page out of Saddam’s book. He too flung open the prison doors.
Adam Aton 