Reset!

Last week, rumors began to swirl that Russia would sell Bashar al-Assad missile systems that would allow Syria to fight any NATO or US attempt to impose a no-fly zone.  Russia immediately denied it, which of course means that that’s exactly what they planned on doing all along. Time for another reset button? Russia has sent [...]

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Jordan "alarmed" at Syrian opposition control near its borders.

As Barack Obama prepares to send lethal arms to a Syria opposition that the New York Times reports has no secular armed forces within it, another terrorist group made their plans to get involved explicit.  Hezbollah had been quietly assisting their sponsor, Bashar al-Assad, in reasserting control in areas adjacent to their Lebanon positions.  Last [...]

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The only way to win is not to play.

On this point, the CBS/NY Times poll shows a rare cross-partisan consensus, too, although it dims considerably with people paying closer attention to the conflict in Syria.  Despite all the talk of chemical weapons and red lines, only 24% of Americans overall think the US has a responsibility to take action — up from last [...]

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Seeing red.

Across Syria, rebel-held areas are dotted with Islamic courts staffed by lawyers and clerics, and by fighting brigades led by extremists. Even the Supreme Military Council, the umbrella rebel organization whose formation the West had hoped would sideline radical groups, is stocked with commanders who want to infuse Islamic law into a future Syrian government. [...]

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Nerves.

With all the whispers about sarin lately from western intelligence, you’d think Assad might ease off for awhile so as not to put extra pressure on Obama to act at a moment of rising public interest. Nope — if a pro-rebel group is to be believed. On Thursday, the Syrian Support Group (SSG), a U.S.-based [...]

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Red line.

We all knew, or should have known, that it was coming. And now here it is: Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel says the Syrian regime has likely used chemical weapons on a “small scale.” Hagel was speaking to reporters in Abu Dhabi. He says the White House has informed members of Congress that, within the last [...]

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20 escaped, including Americans.

CBS reports that the hostage situation at an Algerian natural-gas facility may be deteriorating — but for whom? Twenty hostages have escaped, according to the AP, including some of the Americans, but the Algerian military wounded two Japanese hostages in an attempt to end the standoff with Islamist terrorists. Al Jazeera spoke with the terrorists, [...]

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Obama to offer "limited support"?

Ten months after condemning a military coup in Mali, the Obama administration may end up having to ride to its rescue.  Islamists in the West African nation have begun a new offensive after France sent its military to fight the insurgency, and have now sworn to open a new front in the war in France [...]

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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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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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Clients.

Al Hunt doesn’t get it wrong so much as he just doesn’t get it at all: During a focus group in Denver last week, Jeffrey Penny laid out his “criteria” for giving President Barack Obama his vote this year as he did in 2008. “I just want to see specifics and quit the trash talk,” [...]

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Hawk.

As I said on Monday, I was keen to hear how he’d apply his McCainian outlook to the conundrum of how much longer to stay in Afghanistan. In some ways, the question of whether to intervene in Syria is easy: No one’s calling for boots on the grounds or (at this point) planes in the [...]

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