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Why Should Obama Help Bring America’s Second-Worst Enemies to Power?

Here’s still another of a series of self-serving leaks from the Obama Administration. In this case, it reveals something very important about policy… Continue reading

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Clearest and Briefest Possible Summary of the Situation in Syria

There are three possible outcomes to the Syrian civil war… Continue reading

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Syria is the Spanish Civil War of our Time

Spain 1936. An army revolt against the democratically elected government sets off a civil war. Syria 2012. The people revolt against the dictatorship setting off a civil war… Continue reading

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How Can Obama’s Middle East Policy Possibly Get Worse? Answer: Look at Syria

Some of my readers are unhappy that I keep criticizing President Barack Obama and his government. The problem is that this administration keeps doing terrible things in the Middle East… Continue reading

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The Al Houla atrocity: The outcome of nuclear diplomacy with Iran

Bashar Assad and his army chiefs can safely carry on with their “unspeakable crimes” for the next six months under the Iranian-Russian umbrella… Continue reading

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Two Obama Administration Scandals on Syria?

When a delegation of Syrian Kurdish rebels recently visited Washington DC, the State Department met them to ask for a favor. What was it?… Continue reading

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U.S. Syrian Policy: A Massacre in Progress; A Disgrace in the Making

U.S. policy toward Syria is turning into a scandal on both strategic and humanitarian grounds… Continue reading

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An Islamist Nazi Collaborator is Transformed into a Moderate

Suppose you read in the Washington Post about a democratic politician who was a refugee from persecution by a dictatorship. Would you be surprised to learn that he was in fact a vicious antisemite… Continue reading

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The Muslim Brotherhood in Syria

The Muslim Brotherhood was established in Syria in 1945 by disciples of Hassan al-Banna. At first it focused on educational and societal activities… Continue reading

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The Syrian Uprising: Turkish-Syrian Relations Go Downhill

As Syria sinks deeper and deeper into the throes of civil war, the decade-long honeymoon between Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party and Bashar al-Assad’s regime has all but ended… Continue reading

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Does the West Have to Be So Weak on Syria … and Everywhere Else?

America has started to leave our region and there will be no ally left to you… Continue reading

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The Damascus Declaration for Democratic National Change

The Damascus Declaration was a statement of unity by Syrian opposition figures issued October 16, 2005 criticizing the Assad regime… Continue reading

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The Syrian Uprising: Syria’s Struggling Civil Society

Authoritarian regimes have traditionally been disinclined to accept any political or social opposition and have been hostile to the development of an independent civil society that could form a counterweight to state power… Continue reading

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The Syrian Uprising: The Muslim Brotherhood Reborn

As Syrian president Bashar al-Assad struggles to contend with a massive popular uprising, the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood is poised to dominate whatever coalition of forces manages to unseat the Baathist regime… Continue reading

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The Obama Administration’s Pro-Islamist Syrian Opposition “Leadership” is Collapsing

Five months ago, I wrote how the U.S. government collaborated in creating an anti-American, Islamist-dominated leadership for the Syrian revolution. This leadership group failed immediately. Now it is collapsing openly… Continue reading

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Let Us Compare Al-Assad to Israel

Tariq Alhomayed wrote a column about the Arab hypocrisy in dealing with the ongoing slaughter in Syria by dictator Bashar al-Assad… Continue reading

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Ankara and Washington Ponder Next Moves in Syria

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu has just completed a well-timed visit to Washington… Continue reading

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Debate in the Mainstream Arabic-Speaking Universe: Only One Flavor Available

Westerners tend to believe that the debate in the Arabic-speaking universe is sort of like debate in the West… Continue reading

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Bashar’s ‘Iron Fist’

The iron fist against “terrorist gangs” as promised by Bashar Assad got off to a fairly impressive start two weeks ago… Continue reading

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Demography is Destiny in Syria

Among the second wave of Arab Spring uprisings that followed Tunisia, Syria was the most spectacular “out of the blue” that suddenly arose in the face of the media and analytic community… Continue reading

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The Pragmatics of Lebanon’s Politics

Lebanese society has had a remarkable ability to overcome deep-rooted sectarian and religious divides that could readily have imploded less problematic countries… Continue reading

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What to Do About Syria

There is a strong case that can be made for doing nothing about the Syrian civil war, but a stronger case can be made for doing something… Continue reading

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Assad contains Syrian uprising for now, with help of Russia, Iran and Hizballah

Ten months after the Syrian people launched an uprising against its ruler, Bashar Assad has recovered the bulk of his army’s support and his grip on most parts of the country… Continue reading

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Why Syria’s Regime is Surviving a Revolution

Despite what is now the longest-running revolution in Middle Eastern history, the Syrian regime will probably be in power on December 31, 2012… Continue reading

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America and the Arab Spring

A year ago this week, on January 25, 2011, the ground began to crumble under then-Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak’s feet… Continue reading