Arab World

The hawks who are deeply disappointed that diplomacy has likely forestalled a US military intervention in Syria in the foreseeable future often attempt to tug at our heart strings by pointing to the over 100,000 dead and the millions of displaced, implying that the US has a responsibility to intervene to stop the carnage on […]

Syria

The World after the Kerry-Lavrov accord on Syria

Juan Cole

The agreement reached by Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov and US Secretary of State John Kerry at Geneva on Saturday regarding the sequester of Syria’s chemical weapons is a little unlikely to shorten the civil war or save many lives in Syria. But it did signal winners and losers in the region and the world. […]

Syria

7 Million Displaced Syrians, Bayda Massacre, & other Reports you Didn’t see on American TV

Juan Cole

American network & cable television has been focused his week on US-Russian diplomacy with relatively little coverage (aside from Ben Wedemann on CNN and a handful of others) of what is happening on the ground in Syria. Here are some Syria reports from European and VOA correspondents that illuminate the situation there: 1. Euronews: “Seven […]

Russia

Arguing with President Putin

Juan Cole

Russian President Vladimir Putin published an opinion piece in the New York Times on Wednesday. Here is my attempt at refutation of some of the things he said. Putin begins by emphasizing that the US in the period after 1945 acquiesced in the idea that the 5 permanent members of the UN Security Council would […]

Syria

If Obama goes Back to Congress on Syria, they must save America by voting No (van Buren)

Juan Cole

Peter Van Buren writes at Tomdispatch.com Once again, we find ourselves at the day after 9/11, and this time America stands alone. Alone not only in our abandonment even by our closest ally, Great Britain, but in facing a crossroads no less significant than the one we woke up to on September 12, 2001. The past 12 […]

Syria

Top Ten things Americans need to Know about Syria if they’re going to Threaten to Bomb It

Juan Cole

Ambrose Bierce is said to be the author of the saying “War is God’s way of teaching Americans geography.” Despite the vigorous national debate about intervening in Syria, there is some reason to think that most Americans could not find it on a map. Here are some key points about Syria that this blog has […]

Syria

President Obama’s Doubtful Grounds for Military Action against Syria

Juan Cole

In his speech to the nation on Tuesday evening, President Obama laid out his case for military action against Syria, even as he hit the ‘pause’ button to allow for further diplomacy in light of the Russian proposal to sequester Syria’s chemical weapons. I don’t disagree that units of the Syrian military deployed chemical weapons […]

Syria

How US Grand Strategy in Syria led to the idea of Missile Strikes

Juan Cole

Are there any grand strategy considerations behind the Obama administration’s desire to bomb Syria? Yes, though they rest on doubtful premises. The increasing importance of al-Qaeda-linked radical Sunni fundamentalist groups to the civil war in the north of Syria has posed a dilemma for the Obama administration, which began calling for the ouster of President […]

Syria

Congress Could now Alter our Militarized approach to the Middle East– But likely Won’t (Bacevich)

Juan Cole

Andrew J. Bacevich writes at Tomdispatch Sometimes history happens at the moment when no one is looking. On weekends in late August, the president of the United States ought to be playing golf or loafing at Camp David, not making headlines. Yet Barack Obama chose Labor Day weekend to unveil arguably the most consequential foreign […]