Lebanon and the Long Reach of Syria’s Conflict : The New Yorker.
Actually the long reach of the Syria conflict will be felt in Europe, Africa and Southeast Asia and beyond soon. As to what is happening now in Lebanon, well, it’s simply an extension of the selfsame conflict that the inaction of the Obama Administration has allowed to unfold – a conflict that will engulf the region and change her boundaries forever.
The Case of the Keystone Cossacks – by Michael Weiss | Foreign Policy.
There is something poetic about seeing #Russia’s foreign policy being undermined, no matter how lightly at this stage, by Russian mercenaries. After all, #Putin’s policy towards #Syria has been purely thuggish, profiteering and vile since the outset of the Revolution. More importantly though, the whole thing has prophetic implications as well. In short, Putin’s is undermining Russia’s own security, the writing is on the wall in bold letters, and he simply cannot see it.
BBC News – Chechens drawn south to fight against Syria’s Assad.
What #Russia is busy sowing in #Syria will eventually reap in the Caucasus, and #Putin knows that well. There is no stopping this blow-back.
Review & Outlook: Enabling Bashar – WSJ.com.
WSJ: “Though it won’t say it publicly, the Administration thinks that’s not such a bad thing, on the view that Assad’s survival may not be the worst scenario for Syria. More than a few Republicans agree. But as we’ve noted from the start of this war, Assad’s victory would also be Iran’s, and it is Tehran that is our major adversary in the region. A credible U.S. policy would aim to inflict a strategic defeat on the mullahs, not that credibility is this Administration’s strong suit.”
But there is something else that the Administration will not say publicly but appears to believe in, namely that Iran can be transformed into an ally, and that she will be willing to pursue this possibility even at the expense of handing over control of Syria, Iraq and Lebanon to Iran. Whether the Administration convinced itself of that because she wants to justify its inaction or whether Obama and Company are true believers in this nonsense does not matter. The result is the same: the empowerment of Iran, and the end of the Levant as we know it ushering in a long period of ethnic and religious warfare. Shortsightedness is an incurable disease, but we will all suffer its consequences.
The Ammar Abdulhamid Archive 