It has been a very, very long time since John McCain has lived up to his "Maverick" reputation -- so much so that you'd be entirely forgiven for thinking the Arizonan senator was just another hack Republican looking after American corporate interests for a living. However, the ...read more
Regardless of whether you think the United States' current strategy in fighting ISIS is a good thing, offering asylum to Syrian refugees fleeing the violence is undoubtedly not only the most humane thing to do, but the smartest -- and for fairly obvious reasons. But not so ...read more
Welcome to the second edition of THE WEEKLY MILLENNIAL!!1 So last week was great. Thank you for the tweets/comments/whatnots that helped me convince Editor Ben that this was worth taking up a few hours of my week again. And I promise to tone it down on the snark about the ...read more
Liberals, including myself and Daily Banter editor Michael Luciano, were taken slightly aback last month by a temporary moment of clarity in which Glenn Beck admitted he was wrong about the Iraq war. Don't worry, though. Whatever produced that fleeting epiphany has since ...read more
The Washington Post published a travesty of a column on Monday by the baby-faced, toddler-brained, and whiny, Marc Thiessen that as of this writing, had notched a whopping 4,064 comments. What could possibly account for this mind-blowingly high number of comments on a piece by ...read more
Saturday marked an historic event future generations will read about in books. Over the weekend, Russia and the United States reached an accord over the question of the Syrian government's stockpiles of chemical weapons, most recently used against civilians late last month. ...read more
During his prime time address to the nation regarding the Syrian crisis (transcript, full video), the president made a strong case for why we should care about Bashar al-Assad's production and use of chemical weapons, sarin and mustard gas, on his own people, and described in ...read more
In a deal that could avert a massive escalation in the crisis in Syria, President Bashar Assad has accepted a last minute 'way out' deal with the Russians to prevent the US from bombing it for the use of chemical weapons. Reports the Associated Press: PARIS (AP) -- Syria has ...read more
CNN obtained 13 different videos seen by members of the Senate Intelligence Committee depicting aftermath of an chemical weapons attack in Syria on August 21. The Obama administration claimed that the intelligence community verified the authenticity of the videos that show ...read more
Here's a quick rundown of what you should be reading this morning to take your mind off the drudgery of a new work week: 1. War Stories Today will see an unusual confluence of media events, with the PR blitzes of both leaders involved in the Syria debate taking to television ...read more
Agree with his policies or not, it's nearly impossible for anyone with a semi-functional brain to deny that in almost any interaction with his counterparts in Congress, Barack Obama is generally the most adult one in the room. If you pare that down to just the Republicans in ...read more
Doing the rounds on the internet today was this: Despite Russia's warning that a war with Syria would be 'catastrophic' and some speculation in the press, the prospect of the Kremlin directly retaliating against an American strike is pretty fanciful. Reports the BBC: Such ...read more
It looks like we're set for another showdown in the Middle East - this time a probable arial assault on Syria led by the US, France and Britain. According to reports from the group 'Doctors Without Borders' President Bashar Assad's government was responsible for a chemical ...read more
In last night's debate, Mitt Romney told the President: "Syria is Iran's only ally in the Arab world. It's their route to the sea." Couple of things to point out here. Firstly, as the map above shows, Syria is clearly not Iran's route to the sea given an entire country divides ...read more
From the BBC: Gunmen have attacked a Syrian pro-government TV channel, killing seven people, state media say. Journalists and security guards died in the attack on al-Ikhbariya TV south of Damascus, Sana news agency reported. Hours earlier, President Bashar al-Assad said ...read more
By Paul R. Pillar: International anguish over bloodletting in Syria has come close to the point at which urges to “do something” about the situation there (something more forceful, that is, than supporting Kofi Annan’s diplomacy) may outweigh any sober consideration of whether ...read more
By Ben Cohen: The world is used to watching turmoil in the Middle East. The region has suffered decades of war at the hands of multiple aggressors - some domestic and some foreign - the results always being the same: Death. And lots of it. Currently, Syrian President Bashar ...read more
A prominent Sunni cleric, well-known as an opponent to Syria’s president Bashar al Assad, was shot by soldiers in Akkar, northern Lebanon ten days ago. The killing has caused some in Lebanon to fear that Syria’s bloody uprising is spilling over into its neighbour. Sheikh ...read more
By Chez Pazienza: They say you should never make a decision when you're angry and maybe it's best to heed that advice. And yet I can't help but think that anger -- uniform, global outrage that feels like the wrath of almighty God -- is what's required at this moment. ...read more
Major Western powers say they are expelling senior Syrian diplomats following the killing of 108 people in the Houla region of Syria on Friday. The United States, France, the UK, Germany, Italy, Spain, Canada, Australia, the Netherlands and Switzerland all took action. Most of ...read more
The growing ranks of Syria's disaffected appeared to get a high-profile addition Wednesday, when a man identifying himself as Abdo Hussam el Din, the country's deputy oil minister, announced in a video posted on YouTube that he was defecting from the regime of President Bashar ...read more
David Remnick looks at Obama's 'none doctrinal' foreign policy doctrine: Part of Obama’s anti-doctrinal doctrine is that it insists on the recognition of differences in a way that Bush’s fixed ideas did not. Complex as Libya was, and remains, Syria is infinitely more so. ...read more
