Monthly Archives: July 2012
Syria (and Afghanistan) in Detail
It’s another Monday, and another day just flat out made for a slash-and-burn romp through the newspapers. Today’s papers once again evoked in me that old graveyard laugh. I’m not becoming a curmudgeon, I promise. It’s just that my ruminations … Continue reading
Assad on the Edge?
At least twice in my comments on Syria over the past several months I have dismissed the possibility that the Syrian opposition could summon the ability to storm the Assad regime’s “palace” and overthrow the regime by direct force. I … Continue reading
“After Notes” on the Middle East
The past several days have elapsed without my having made a comment here on matters Middle Eastern. That does not mean nothing has been going on, but nothing has happened of such a dramatic nature as to focus any extended … Continue reading
Is Manaf Tlass’s Defection a Sign That Assad’s Regime Is Cracking?
The news has come that Manaf Tlass, an intimate Republican Guard friend of Bashir al-Assad, has defected to Turkey. As the press is saying, this is the most significant inner-circle defection since the beginning of the Syrian uprising. It could … Continue reading
