The fall of the Syrian dictator Bashar Assad has revived a question that has intrigued me for years. Why are some of the most bloodthirsty tyrants and terrorists in the world also doctors?
Assad is by training an ophthalmologist. The leader of the rebel army that overthrew him, Ahmed al Sharaa, trained for two years to be a doctor before abandoning his studies to join al Qaeda and then developing ties to Islamic State.
Among the godfathers of Islamist terrorism, as Walter Laqueur wrote in No End to War, a disproportionate number of doctors have been terrorist leaders.
How can we reconcile these men’s murderous and savage deeds with their apparent idealism about healing the sick and saving life?
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