But Syriasly, Folks…..
Take a close look at the uprising in Syria, and what do you find? Another well-oiled puppet show.
Take a close look at the uprising in Syria, and what do you find? Another well-oiled puppet show.
Really interesting material on Syria flies by, largely unnoticed and unremarked upon. Here’s a grab bag of potentially consequential items from the past couple of months.
A selection of WhoWhatWhy stories on Syria that demonstrate why you should question any country’s official explanations for what it does.
Trump’s move to pull out of Syria has been called a surrender and a betrayal of allies. Yet it may increase American leverage in an extremely messy situation.
Why an impending Turkish attack on the main Western ally against ISIS on the ground in Syria threatens to drag the US deeper into another Middle Eastern quagmire.
America and its allies appear about to launch a war against Syria. The justification is that the regime of Bashar al-Assad is using chemical weapons against the Syrian people. But a closer look raises doubts about whether Assad is using the weapons, whether the US-backed opposition is using them—or some combination. This is a timely must-read.
Syria is a mess. And the narrative in mainstream media keeps swinging from one extreme to another, failing to grasp the complexities of the situation.
Sixteen years after signing the chemical weapons treaty, the US says it needs another 10 years to destroy its stocks of chemical arms. But it insists that Syria, in the midst of a civil war, eliminate its huge weapons stockpile in 8 months or face a bombing blitz.
Almost none of us are paying attention to the major war in the world today—and if we are, probably have no idea what it is really about. What does this say about our personal and societal progress?
Getting into northeastern Syria is easier than staying there. Turkey is about to find out — and the ultimate winners are likely to be ISIS and the Assad regime
We keep getting reports of atrocities committed by the Syrian government. Those reports may well be accurate. But the truth is usually a bit more complicated in war zones. If news organizations don’t start adopting a higher standard for their reports, another Libyan-style intervention, complete with massive bombing and untold civilian casualties, may be inevitable.
A conversation with longtime Middle East correspondent Charles Glass.