On Syria, seriously

Patton wanted to invade the Soviet Union, our ally. Dubya wanted his dad to go all the way to Baghdad (and eventually did it himself as president, gung-ho). Once the ISIS threat is scattered, as it must be, will U.S. leaders transfer energies to the different-but-evil presence of Bashar al-Assad in Syria, where countless people have been murdered and half the population has been displaced? Regardless, Al-Assad has been one lucky dictator up to this point. The Arab Spring and the emergence of ISIS have turned out as well as could be expected for him, somehow, in the short term.

            I am fresh off of judging a high school debate competition this weekend, so I have some questions about Syria…

Dr. Rany Jazayerli is a dermatologist and family man in the Chicago area. Jazayerli is a founder of Baseball Prospectus and has been published in the New York Times. He makes his analytical opinions about the Royals and baseball well-known, but he also has a devoted, though more closely guarded, interest in the deadly developments in Syria.

I really want to pick Rany's brain for this blog. Here are some questions I would ask him about Syria if I had his email address (maybe he’ll stumble across them and provide answers).

Q. Imagine if one of the diplomats killed in Benghazi (in Libya, by militiamen) would have, instead, been captured and beheaded on video. What would we be looking at now in Syria with respect to the resistance against Al-Assad and the concurrent/subsequent rise of ISIS?

Q. Do Syrians have a high degree of brand loyalty to the country? Or are religious and other cultural identities foremost?  How is Syria most different from Iraq (neither of which pose/posed a threat to the U.S.) in terms of its assets and Muslim factions?

Q. Do the majority of Syrians have a favorable opinion of Iran?

Q. Do you favor an independent Kurdish state/country in present-day Iraq or Syria?

Q. If you could go back and re-draw the map of the Middle East in the wake of colonialism and World War II, what are a few changes you would make (especially with respect to Israel, Syria, and Iraq)?

Q. What does Emergency Law mean to you?

Q. If you need someone to pitch like an ace (like Bumgarner) to win a World Series, why will that someone be Danny Duffy for the Royals?