Comparisons with Afghanistan are inevitable when any Western country sends its military to war in a Muslim country where …
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As Bashar Assad Shows His Defiance, Syria Nears Its Existential Cliff
If the geological metaphor fashionable in Washington these days can be applied in Damascus, then Syria is moving perilously closer toward an existential cliff. President Bashar Assad on Sunday delivered a dramatic aria of …
While U.S. Recognizes Syrian Opposition, It Designates One Anti-Assad Group as ‘Terrorist’
One of the most effective anti-Assad militias has just been designated a “terrorist” organization by the U.S. Will that help or hobble the exiled opposition’s attempt to take control of the fight against the regime in Damascus?
Is Syria’s Civil War Entering Its Final Act, or Poised for a New Phase?
The stern warnings by President Barack Obama and other U.S. officials this week that Syria‘s President Bashar Assad would face “consequences” and be “held accountable” for any use of chemical weapons against his own people, has …
What We Can Learn from the Attacks on U.S. Embassies
This week’s U.S. embassy attacks are the product of intense jockeying for power in an Arab political landscape riven with both new and familiar challenges. Here are five key lessons to take away from an ugly week
Is the Regional Showdown in Syria Rekindling Iraq’s Civil War?
It may have been checked off President Obama’s to-do list, but the Iraq war is far from over.
As the Sinai Goes, so Too the Golan Heights?
The new status quo in the Middle East is one of porous borders, growing radicalization and the fragmentation of once stable nation-states
Syrian Paradox: The Regime Gets Stronger, Even as It Loses Its Grip
As the regime’s ability to govern Syria declines, it is being transformed into a powerful militia that has little incentive to compromise
Damascus Blasts: Are Terrorists the Wild Card in Syria’s Power Struggle?
The twin suicide car bombings that reportedly killed 55 people and wounded 372 in Damascus on Thursday prompted a familiar set of responses: state television blamed unspecified “terrorists” for the atrocity, in keeping with its …
Obama’s Afghanistan Plan: Echoes of Vietnam in the U.S. Exit Strategy
To understand the historical significance of President Barack Obama’s visit to Afghanistan on Tuesday, imagine that President Richard Nixon had, in the spring of 1972, flown to Saigon to signal American voters that the Vietnam …
Can Syria’s Assad Fight His Way to Political Survival?
Despite the death and destruction his security forces are raining down on opposition-held neighborhoods in Syria, President Bashar Assad is unlikely to succeed in crushing a year-old rebellion. International revulsion at the …
The U.S. and Other ‘Friends of Syria’ Still Search for a Strategy to Oust Assad
“It is time we gave them the wherewithal to fight back and stop the slaughter,” said Senator John McCain on Monday, referring to Syria’s opposition amid the carnage being wrought by the Assad regime’s efforts to quash a year-old …
Talks with the Taliban Are Inevitable, but Who Will Be at the Table?
The fact that Afghan President Hamid Karzai has told the Wall Street Journal he’s held three-way negotiations with the U.S. and the Taliban should come as no surprise: the U.S. has said that within two years it will end its …