MAINTAINING POWER OVER A WASTELAND OF RACK AND RUIN… (…and destroying whatever claims to sovereignty it ever had over it) The indiscriminate bombing and shelling used to drive rebel forces from Aleppo is just one more demonstration that the Assad
Shia
RESOLVING THE SYRIAN SITUATION (with some perspectives on how best to salvage something from it) After nearly five years of civil conflict during which several hundred thousand have been killed, millions displaced as refugees, and the rise of extremism in
BACK INTO THE WILD-BLUE YONDER (…coming full circle to where we were…before) The President has ordered an open-ended air-strike campaign against the rampaging forces of ISIS in Iraq, because these are now attempting to attack the Kurds there. It seems