bashar al-assad
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May: Iran’s latest unfree and unfair election
The Islamic Republic isn’t a democracy, but a theocratic dictatorship News must be new but it needn’t be surprising. The decidedly unsurprising news out of Iran last week: There was an election (of sorts) and the winner was Hassan Rouhani, the incumbent president. An apparently mild-mannered cleric with a beatific smile, he has presided over…
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May: Why Boeing and Airbus deals with Iran shouldn’t fly
Aiding and abetting terrorists is bad business Sometimes international law is ambiguous. Sometimes not. When it comes to murdering civilians and using chemical weapons to get the job done, there are no grey areas, no fuzzy lines, no mitigating circumstances. Such practices are clearly and specifically prohibited under what’s called “the law of war.” That…
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May: A mission accomplished in Syria
President Trump is re-establishing the power of deterrence If you’re still unsure about whether President Trump did the right thing when he launched 59 cruise missiles at Syria’s Shayrat airbase last week, consider the alternative. He knew that Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad had yet again used chemical weapons to murder Syrian civilians, women and children…
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Colorado leaders react to chemical weapons attack, airstrikes in Syria
Colorado congressional leaders condemned the chemical weapons attack launched by the government of President Bashar al-Assad after the U.S. military launched cruise missiles into Syria Thursday. President Trump’s assault on a Syrian military airfield with 59 cruise missiles is the first direct U.S. intervention in the country’s 6-year-old civil war, and it could enflame relations with Russia and…
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May: The sorrow and the pity in Syria
Iran intends to incorporate the brutalized Arab land into its version of a caliphate Over the last five years, Syria has been descending into a hell on Earth. Over the last four months, the lowest depths of the inferno have been on display in Aleppo, an ancient city, once among the most diverse and dynamic…
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May: The Battle of Mosul
The Islamic State will take a beating, but the ‘tide of war’ will not recede Ayman al-Zawahiri was correct. Believed to be ensconced in the tribal lands of Pakistan, the leader of what’s sometimes called al Qaeda Central has dedicated his life to a jihad that he hopes and prays will lead to the founding of…
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May: The problem with processed peace
Negotiations alone seldom turn terrorists and tyrants into partners and allies When peace-loving people sit down together in a spirit of compromise they can find ways to resolve their conflicts. Does it follow that negotiations with those who don’t care a fig about peace and reject compromise also lead to good results? Logic says no,…
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May: The problem with globalism
And why isolationism is not the solution Americanism, not globalism, will be our credo.” That line from Donald Trump’s long and emphatic speech to the Republican National Convention jumped out at me. I think I know what he meant: that he prioritizes America’s national interests above those of the wider world. If so, most Americans…
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May: A death in Damascus, a funeral in Beirut
Hezbollah and the Islamic Republic of Iran mourn the loss of a master terrorist Five years ago, during the hopefully named Arab Spring, Syrians staged peaceful protests against the ruling dynasty that had long oppressed them. President Bashar al Assad responded brutally: In May 2011, he sent tanks into the suburbs of Damascus, Deraa, Homs…
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Bystanders to genocide
President Obama and his team promised to do better It’s surprising how time slips away: Five years ago next month, President Obama proclaimed a “responsibility to act” when American “interests and values are at stake.” He made that statement in a major address at the National Defense University in Washington, DC. Within days, a no-fly…