"It's no secret that in Venezuela there is no division of powers and that many functionaries have put on blinders when looking at irregularities because they benefit from the revolution and its corruption."

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The more I've reflected on that and asked Iraqi friends, the more I realize that the corruption in Iraq has nothing to do with ideas - it has to do with the regime and institutional structures and power. There's no core to what Michel Aflaq has to say that results in this. That was a key to looking at Michel Aflaq as a sideshow. He's the intellectual father of an ideology that no one probably ever believed in. At that point I began to appreciate him in a funny way.

— Elliott Colla