Syria

Yesterday, a statement from Peter Cook, the Pentagon’s Press Secretary, confirmed that the US airstrike on August 30th targeting Abu Muhammad Al-Adnani, one of the Islamic State’s senior leaders was successful. Al- Adnani was responsible not only for a large part of Islamic State’s propaganda but he also recruited and facilitated most of their foreign terrorist operations. The Department of […]

A cease-fire in the Syrian civil war, negotiated by Russia and the United States, officially took effect at sundown on Monday after a weekend of intensified fighting and a vow by Syria’s president to retake the entire country. Despite pessimism over how long the cease-fire would last, calm was widely reported after it took effect at 7 p.m. […]

“If you have [the Islamic State’s] No. 3 in the crosshairs and he’s using human shields, would we be able to strike him or not?” the officer asked. “This is an important debate. But are we fighting a war or are we not? They are clearly waging a war against us. Are we waging a war, or are we conducting a police action?
“How do you ‘advise and assist’ someone when you are not allowed to go into combat with them?” the officer added.

Trump has already stated that our military is in terrible shape. It’s “very bad,” he’s hearing. Trump stated he knows more than the generals, a statement he backpedaled on during the IAVA forum. He seems to live and die by what he feels at the moment. Trump’s campaign staff have been shuffled. It’s not normal […]

Damascus has remained relatively untouched by the country’s insurgents. Its defense is rooted in Assad’s strategy, but aided by our uncoordinated policy. Syria is unique because its center of gravity is not the people. Iraq ultimately failed in part due to our failure to capture the support of the people. We ignored the Sunnis in Fallujah and expelled […]

“It’s like after the Afghanistan war in the 1980s,” said Neumann, citing the period after Soviet troops withdrew in 1989 and legions of foreign fighters formed a diaspora of radicalized veterans that subsequently fueled the rise of al-Qaeda. “They’ll be asking themselves, ‘What’s next?’ “

It’s not a matter of the Taliban learning their lesson. The Taliban has changed and the same original fighters do not comprise the bulk of the force. This is a question of what do they have to lose? Do they want revenge?

The Kurds should not be treated only as the brave allies to be thrown to the battle against ISIS, but also as the political allies, whose national demands should be part of any fundamental solution to the problems of Iraq and Syria.

Will all this, or even part of it, happen in the near future? Not really, and if that is the case, even the death of ‘’the Kurdish Angelina Jolie’’ will not lead to any salvation to the real Kurds. They will continue to fight, and continue to be betrayed.

It’s an open secret that the Rebels receive Toyota trucks. It’s en vogue to blame the U.S. and other Western forces for training the would-be terrorist groups. This gives extremely high praise to the training and the resources they receive. Why would any force knowingly train a force to be very effective against their interests?

In Middle Eastern wars, there is no single building to plant a flag on that would make the enemy surrender unconditionally.

Amidst the chaos of the Syrian Civil War, elements affiliated with the Free Syrian Army strike a Russian Gazelle helicopter with a TOW missile in Hama, Syria.

He equated our backing of both the rebels and the Kurds as a major contributor to the “mess.” But we all know it goes deeper, further back and is more complex than that.