Smart power.

For some reason, American politicians in both parties want to see the US intervene to some extent in Syria’s civil war, even after the disastrous intervention in Libya that almost made Mali an al-Qaeda state.  Only a French military intervention prevented that outcome, and that may still only be temporary, but more on that in [...]

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Just ask an Iraqi.

Did we? I must have missed that in the media coverage of the 10th anniversary of the second invasion of Iraq, which provided the beginning of the end of a 12-year war with Saddam Hussein’s regime.  Yesterday was the 10th anniversary of the fall of Hussein’s tyranny, when the dictator fled Baghdad for points unknown [...]

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"Act with more freedom"?

Some American politicians want the US and NATO to intervene on behalf of the Syrian opposition seeking to defeat dictator Bashar al-Assad, while others fear the assistance will only serve to enable Islamist terror networks that have gained the upper hand in the rebellion. The question may be moot after today, however, as there may [...]

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UN warns conflict becoming "overtly sectarian."

Change in direction, or political cover?  Either way, the Assad regime won’t be happy to hear Vladimir Putin talk about how the impulse for change after 40 years of single-family rule is understandable. At the same time, Putin’s statement earlier today isn’t exactly a reversal of Russian policy, either: Russia realizes changes in Syria are [...]

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... Assad does what he'll eventually have to do.

If you oppose American military intervention in Syria, only the topline question of the new Washington Post/ABC News poll will cheer you up.  Almost three out of four respondents oppose any direct US intervention in the civil war, but those numbers flip when almost any significant change in the status quo is proposed: While Americans [...]

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Deja vu.

They’re only about 10% of the rebel forces attempting to dislodge that noted reformer Bashar al-Assad, CNN’s Nick Paton Walsh reports, but Jabhat al-Nusra is the most effective and powerful part of the insurrection against the Iranian-backed dictator. The only problem for the US is that they’re closely affiliated with al-Qaeda in Iraq, which has [...]

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Toxic.

According to a video reportedly posted by the Free Syrian Army, the Syrian rebels have their own chemical weapons to match Bashar Al-Assad’s – and you get to watch two rabbits die to prove it. This link is to the video posted at YouTube.  But Breitbart has helpfully loaded the video to its post on [...]

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Russia moving toward US on Syria?

In the summer of 2012, Barack Obama talked tough about “red lines” for Syria and the regime’s chemical weapons.  In a rare press conference on August 20th, the President warned Bashar Assad that the US was prepared to act if Assad began to move his chemical weapons as a precursor to their use, emphasis mine: [...]

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Rats, sinking ships, some disassembly needed.

Another Arab dictatorship looks ready to collapse, and this one might have the biggest impact of them all.  The embattled Bashar Assad regime in Syria lost its Prime Minister overnight, as Riyad al-Hijab fled to Jordan and announced his defection: Syria’s prime minister defected to Jordan on Monday, according to news reports, becoming the most [...]

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Secret no more.

Go figure that, fresh off a Mitt Romney foreign policy tour designed to draw a contrast with O over “strength,” we get a fresh new leak about what The One is doing to kick terrorist and/or dictator ass. This one’s almost as tasty as the “kill list” leak. President Barack Obama has signed a secret [...]

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Hmmmm.

He’s hinting, without explicitly saying, that the U.S. should be a prime mover in making this happen, which would raise many questions if we take this response as being on the level. Is it? Or is it just something he’s obliged to say because of the dynamics of the campaign? He needs to criticize O’s [...]

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"He's got charisma and some smarts. If he joins the insurgents that could be significant."

A key ally of Bashar Assad within the Syrian military has changed sides and fled the country, joining the opposition in exile.  General Manaf Tlas commanded a brigade of the Republican Guard, the elite unit whose loyalty to the regime usually exists without question: A powerful military officer and longtime close associate of Syrian President [...]

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"Turkey cannot endure it in silence."

Things may get even hotter for Syrian dictator Bashar Assad this summer, as he fights off the most serious threat to Alawite power in decades.  Yesterday, the Syrian military shot down a Turkish F-4 fighter jet on a recon mission, and today Ankara is threatening retaliation:  Turkey will take retaliatory steps against Syria for the downing of [...]

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Nothing changes except American will.

One thing Barack Obama’s presidency has done is lay bare just how little the world has changed.  There has never been any such thing as a global “safe space” created by sunny international consensus, and there never will be.  There is power and safety, and there is weakness and peril.  If the US is using [...]

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Entire families shot in their homes by Assad's forces.

Remember when the Obama administration demanded that Hosni Mubarak had to go “yesterday,” bombed Moammar Qaddafi, and then insisted that Syrian dictator Bashar Assad was a “reformer”?  The city of Houla became the latest recipient of Assad’s “reforms,” as 108 people got massacred by government forces and their allies: The U.N.’s human rights office on [...]

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Protests, followed by shelling in Homs.

Let’s see. Brutal dictator agrees to cease-fire after massacring his own people for months when they have the temerity to demand political change. Guns stop firing, brutal dictator remains in power, protests erupt. What could go wrong? Syrian troops fired shells into rebel-held neighborhoods in the central city of Homs on Saturday killing at least [...]

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We'll see.

Could the civil war that has claimed 9,000 lives, according to a UN estimate, be coming to a close?  Special envoy and former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan announced today that Syria’s Bashar Assad has accepted in principle a cease-fire agreement based on a six-point plant from the UN Security Council.  However, Annan warned that [...]

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Reset.

They’ve had military advisors inside the country assisting the regime for months and they’re doing their level best to meet Assad’s exploding demand for new weapons. But actually sending Russian special forces to Tartus, presumably to lend a hand in case Syrian troops need help with with their, er, “counterterror” operations, is a new one [...]

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The case for restraint.

Hawkish U.S. Sens. John McCain, Lindsey Graham and Joe Lieberman have called for direct U.S. military involvement in Syria, but countervailing voices say: Cool it. Charles Krauthammer’s is one of those voices. “I think Obama is right on this and McCain is wrong,” Krauthammer said. “I think this is not Libya. Libya is an oil [...]

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What could go wrong?

After a week of Afghans rampaging over burned Korans, a series of Islamist landslides in Egypt’s elections, and now grave desecration at a war cemetery for Allied heroes in Libya, anyone else eager to risk more American lives to help? “Foreign capitals across the world are looking to the United States to lead, especially now [...]

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Intervention.

A little deja vu for you as the week winds down, with O calling on an Arab tyrant to start “transitioning” for the third time in the past 13 months. Today was the big “Friends of Syria” summit in Tunisia between western powers and the Arab League. Resolved: Something needs to be done. They’re just [...]

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"It is shelling with impunity and merciless disregard of the civilians who cannot escape."

I recall when NATO considered it their business when Moammar Qaddafi threatened to do send tanks into the cities in Libya.  Bashar Assad has done so in Homs, pulverizing the city in order to dislodge a small force of rebels.  So far, NATO hasn’t even cleared its throat: Syrian tanks pushed into a rebel stronghold [...]

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"Friends."

Supposedly they’ll only be discussing diplomatic options, but let’s not kid ourselves. A senior U.S. official told the Telegraph two days ago that military intervention “may not be avoidable.” Jonah Goldberg fantasized a few days ago about a “permanent global clubhouse for democracies based on shared principles,” i.e. a UN for the good guys. Thanks [...]

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Intervention.

I don’t usually draft posts in advance but tonight I’m going to get cracking on the inevitable “New Syrian government dominated by Sunni fanatics” post. It may not run for another year or two, but it’ll run. Will The One try to get congressional approval for this, I wonder, or will he “wing it” like [...]

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Better late than never?

When Egypt’s population began widespread demonstrations against the Hosni Mubarak regime, it took Barack Obama eight days to demand the resignation of our nominal ally in Cairo.  When Moammar Qaddafi began a campaign of military attacks on his own people to suppress a revolt, it took us just a few weeks to launch an undeclared [...]

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