Few feuds in the Middle East have been as bitter as the Saddam-Assad rivalry. Although both dictatorships were born out of the fascist Ba’athi ideology, they have often been as on opposing sides in efforts to dominate the region.

At times, they supported different factions in the Lebanese Civil War. Syria supported the Iraqi removal from Kuwait and also provided a home for Iraqi exiles. During the reign of Saddam’s tyranny, those exiles mainly consisted of Kurds and Shiites, two minorities oppressed under Saddam whom found sanctuary in Syria.

Once Saddam’s was overthrown and a new America-Shiite order took over, the very same Ba’athi officials who once were the enemies of Syria now sought Damascus as a refugee from prosecution (often unfair and arbitrary) by the new ruling elite. While Ba’athi is a fascist ideology, not all Ba’athis were bad. First of all, all civil service employees had to register as party members. And not every Ba’athi general was a monster either. The prosecution of the Sunni/Christian Ba’athis is in great part (if not mostly) due to pure Shiite sectarian thuggery.

Syria was not principled in either case. If gave refugee to Saddam’s domestic enemies simply because “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.” And is only protecting ex-Ba’athis and Ba’athis now because of opposition of the U.S. war in Iraq and the worry that the new Iraqi regime may not be friendly (though that is unlikely).

In this context, something really amusing took place recently. The Iraqi government requested that Syria handover Iraqi Ba’athis leaders in the country. Upon which a shrewd Syrian official gave a very clever response, that if Syria was in the business of turning in Iraqi dissidents then none other than Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, a Shiite whom once was an exile in Syria, would have been forcibly sent to Saddam Husayn.

O’ that’s got to hurt!