A year ago today, Russian entered the Syrian civil war. Allied with forces loyal to Syria’s president Bashir al-Assad, Russian said it was entering to stop terrorism and extremism.
While Russian warplanes have hit some Islamic State targets, much of their fury has been aimed at various rebel groups inside Syria, helping to tilt the battlefield in favor of Assad.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says it can document 9,364 deaths by Russian warplanes in the past year. 3,804 — 40 percent — were civilians, including more than 900 who were under 18-years old.
President Obama, along with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, described the Russian and Syrian assault of the ancient city of Aleppo as “barbarous.” The indefatigable Secretary of State John Kerry says he’s “on the verge” of suspending efforts to negotiate yet another ceasefire. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov blames the United States for failing to separate the jihadist and extremist groups from more moderate rebels.
Kerry talks of “pursu(ing) other alternatives” as the airstrikes continue. What might those alternatives be for the United States? And what’s the endgame for Russia, if there is one?
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Russia’s Alliance With Assad, One Year On
Obama Addresses UNGA for Final Time
Delivering his final address to the United Nations General Assembly, President Barack Obama called on the world to move forward with “a better model of cooperation and integration.”
Obama Considers Nuclear Decision: ‘No First Use’
As time ticks away on the presidential term of Barack Obama, there’s a sense of urgency for him to fulfill promises made over the past eight years. Especially on nuclear weapons.
Obama has made progress toward his “commitment to seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons” made during his first foreign policy speech in April 2009. With his final speech before the United Nations General Assembly set for next Tuesday, there’s speculation that Obama may push further.
One policy idea being debated: “no first use” of nuclear weapons.
The United States was the first and so far only nation to use a nuclear weapon against another nation. Would such a policy make the United States more secure? Less secure? What do the allies think? Is a “no first use” policy believable?
Obama’s Chance for Middle East Peace
Leaving office without having made progress on an issue he specifically promised to resolve would be a colossal failure for Obama. Fortunately, he still has time…he should push for a UN Security Council resolution that establishes new parameters for a future peace accord…
Obama, Speak Out on Philippine Killings
Obama needs to make clear to Duterte that he will pay an international price for trashing the rule of law and that his unlawful “crime control” campaign puts at risk the $50 million in military aid currently allocated to the Philippines for 2017.
Finally, the Asian Pivot?
Barack Obama’s tenth and final trip to Asia was billed as an opportunity to demonstrate the how the “centerpiece” of U.S. foreign policy is the “rebalance” to the Asia-Pacific region.
Obama has been trying to pivot to Asia for much of his time in the White House, but events in the Middle East and Europe have drawn an extraordinary amount of attention.
Trade, climate change and the situation in the South China Sea sat atop his agenda. But attention has again been diverted by a perceived slight by China, a slur by the Philippines president and doubts that Obama can get the Trans Pacific Partnership trade deal passed by Congress.
For all the time and effort Obama has put into pivoting to Asia, how much will have to be left for the next president?
Will Obama Roll the Dice on the Middle East One More Time?
All along, the assumption has been that Obama might wait to act until after the presidential election, so as to avoid creating problems for Hillary Clinton. There’s plenty of precedent: Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush all bid for a Middle East legacy during their final months.
Why Presidents Fail
Presidents and their aides have assumed that good politics and persuasive rhetoric could cover up flaws in performance. They were wrong….the next president needs to focus on basic management precepts: Pay more attention to implementation. Do performance audits on the bureaucracy.
What the World Could Lose in America’s Presidential Election
The global impact of a Donald Trump presidency would be disastrous. But even a Hillary Clinton win won’t help reverse the worldwide retrenchment in democracy and human rights unless she brings change in policy from the current administration. If all of that strikes you as a bit too breathless, consider what’s happened over the past decade.
‘Conspiracies R Us’: Trump Theories Damage American Image in Middle East
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has a new admirer: Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. After Trump said last week that President Barack Obama is “the founder of ISIS [the Islamic State],” the Lebanese militant leader quoted Trump as an authoritative source about the rise of the brutal rival jihadist group. Addressing a rally in southern Lebanon on Saturday commemorating Hezbollah’s 2006 […]
Obama’s Worst Mistake
I admire Obama for expanding health care and averting a nuclear crisis with Iran, but allowing Syria’s civil war and suffering to drag on unchallenged has been his worst mistake, casting a shadow over his legacy.
What to do about Syria?
It’s hard to imagine conditions in Aleppo getting any worse. But in the past few days, the rebel stronghold has been subjected to attacks from Syrian government forces who surround the city, aided by Russian air strikes. Gas attacks have been reported in Aleppo and the city of Saraqeb, which Syrian and Russian media blamed on rebels.
Humanitarian corridors have been created, but just a handful of Aleppo’s quarter of a million besieged have used it, fearful of a worse fate in the hands of the Syrian government.
In May, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry set an August 1 deadline for a political transition in Syria. On Monday, Kerry put the onus on Syria and Russia to stop the cycle of violence in order to negotiate.
Is there an end in sight?
Gold Star Family Feud
After saying Donald Trump is “unfit” to succeed him as president, Barack Obama asked prominent Republicans “if you are repeatedly having to say in very strong terms that what he has said is unacceptable, why are you still endorsing him?”
Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Sen. John McCain among other Republican icons have denounced Trump’s reaction to criticism leveled by the Gold Star parents of an American Muslim soldier who was killed while protecting fellow soldiers and civilians in Iraq.
Khizr Khan, with his wife at his side, addressed the Democratic National Convention last Thursday, saying “if it was up to Donald Trump, he never would have been in America.”
Trump’s tweets and remarks in an interview afterwards has consumed the political atmosphere for five days now. On Monday, Trump said U.S. Army Capt. Humayun Khan would not have been killed 12 years ago if he were president then because he wouldn’t have gone to war with Iraq back then.
When asked whether anything useful will come out of this feud with Trump, Khan told VOA “It really, really has come out that a significant larger number of Republicans are asking him to tone down, change those derogatory remarks about minorities, not only just Muslims but other minorities.”
The political fallout from all this is still being calculated.
The U.S. Steps Back from the World Stage, and the Consensus for Leadership Dissolves
As the United States withdraws from the world, in other words, the world grows messier and uglier — and that only confirms for many Americans that any involvement is foolish and futile. This feedback loop fuels the kind of isolationism we’ve seen this year from Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders.
The Makeover of Hillary Clinton
When you’ve been in the public eye for 25 years and your unfavorable ratings are an average of 17 percentage points higher than your favorable ratings, what do you to try to change things?
Hillary Clinton’s re-branding effort reached its peak Tuesday night with a lineup of speakers who shared personal stories about her impact in their lives.
The most personal came from her husband, former president Bill Clinton. By reflecting on their courtship, parenthood and her commitment to public service, Clinton the former president did his best to humanize Clinton the wannabe president.
While accentuating the positive, he left out the negative challenges the couple faced, which wasn’t lost on the Republican presidential nominee, Donald Trump.
Trump has his own 17-percentage point deficit in favorability ratings. Who did a better job to close the gap will be played out over the next few weeks.