Intervention as Duty
Our theories, like the weather,
Veer round completely every day,
And all that we can always say
Is: true democracy begins
With free confessions of our sins.
— W. H. Auden, quoted in Richard Holbrooke’s ...
ISIS in the Homeland
For a 500-mile stretch of territory that winds, more or less, along the Euphrates from Iraq to Syria, a regime of masked, sociopathic murderers reign in terror under the black ...
Into Syria, Out of Syria
Near the Turkish–Syrian border — ‘Ça va?” Sabri would ask periodically, breaking the tense silence with French. “Oui, ça va.” He would then return to his thoughts, taciturn, intense. The ...
Syria’s Christian Sheep Among the Wolves
Al Hasakah Province, Syria
The Christian soldier extends his hand and greets me in Syriac with “shlomo” (peace) as he clutches the strap of the Kalashnikov draped over his shoulder with ...
The Road from Damascus
Beirut — Abdel Rahman was taking his sons, Hamid Ali and Nasser, to school one morning in Aleppo, Syria, when he saw that the school had been bombed. He rushed ...
Lebanon: Between War and Peace
Beirut — For the past four years, Lebanon, known far and wide as the “Switzerland of the Middle East,” has sought to emulate that Swiss neutrality, though surrounded by conflict. ...
Christian Courage in Syria
Fathallah Kabud climbed behind the wheel of the car, keenly aware of the danger that lay ahead. Perhaps he thought only of the task immediately before him, the drive through ...
Defeating Zarqawi’s Dream
On October 25, Syrian state media announced that Abu Muhammad al-Golani, the leader of Jabhat al-Nusra, had been killed by the Syrian military near Latakia in northwest Syria. According to ...
Hostage to Foreign Extremists
As the secretaries of Defense and State testified before the House Armed Services Committee about American military intervention in Syria on Tuesday, I spoke with two Syrians to discuss the ...
Coptic Kristallnacht
The millions of Egyptians, Muslim and Christian, who took to the street in peaceful protest over a month ago understood well the consequences of crossing the Muslim Brotherhood. “So much ...