THE END OF BAATHIST SYRIA? As Bernard Lewis recently explained on these pages, Saddam Hussein's Baath party is rooted in Nazi ideology. Thus do many Western experts, drawing on the post-war German model, speak of Iraq's de-Baathification as a necessary step for the emergence of a humane, pluralistic regime in Baghdad. But Iraq is not the only country to come under the sway of Baathism's poisonous mixture of socialism and pan-Arabism. For four decades, Syria too has been run by Baathists. And while Bashar Assad, the country's ruler, is not nearly as cruel as Saddam, Syria, like Iraq, is a...