With the tide turning against it on the battlefield, ISIS is returning to a campaign of indiscriminate urban violence
For the first time since the Islamic State (ISIS) announced its worldwide caliphate on June 30, 2014, it appears that the tide is finally starting to turn against it. Already, however, there are growing signs of how the Islamic State will adapt should it lose control of all, or a significant portion, of its core…
From the Kremlin’s standpoint, the 'Syrian ceasefire' served its political purpose – it forestalled a Turkish ground invasion of Syria
The ceasefire in Syria is unravelling – and that's no surprise. Mohammad Alloush, chief negotiator for the Army of Islam, one of the principal rebel coalitions fighting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, has just stepped down from the Geneva peace talks. In doing so, he criticized the United States and Russia for their inability to enforce “adherence…
Beating-up on Britain’s Sir Mark Sykes and France’s Francois Georges-Picot for today's mess in the Middle East is just plain silly
It was 100 years ago this May that two diplomats – Britain’s Sir Mark Sykes and France’s Francois Georges-Picot – concluded a secret agreement dividing the (prospective) post-war Middle East into British and French spheres of influence. And by virtue of ignoring local demographic realities, their agreement has been blamed for many of the region’s…
Despite the Trudeau government’s denials, a state of war does exist between Canada and ISIL
The first casualty of war isn’t truth. It turns out it’s meaning. Ipso facto, is “Canada” in a state of “war” with “the Islamic State?” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Dion emphatically state that we are not. Said the Prime Minister on CBC radio: “A war is something that can be…
Backing away from Canadian airstrikes is consistent with our national conscience, but huge moral questions remain
The Trudeau government is following through on its promise to end Canada’s role in airstrikes against the Islamic State. Canada, instead, will increase its support for the allied effort. The number of Canadian military advisors in the region will rise from 69 now to about 220. This shift reflects an election promise of the Liberals and…
Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait and the American response dramatically impacted the politics of the Middle East
I don’t know about you, but Operation Desert Storm – the name the Americans gave to the campaign that evicted Saddam Hussein’s invading army from Kuwait – doesn’t feel like a full quarter-century ago to me. I clearly remember the surrounding tension, the prevailing idea that somehow it was going to produce a global cataclysm.…
A classic case of victor’s justice masquerading as a modern judicial proceeding
My late father disapproved of the Nuremberg Trials. It wasn’t that he had any sympathy for the Nazis assembled for judgment. Nor did he have any principled objection to the capital punishment that was meted out. But he did believe that the Nuremberg process was flawed in both conception and execution. He believed that the Nuremberg…
Reagan and Gorbachev managed to do what had seemed impossible, essentially ending the Cold War 30 years ago this month
Of all the relationships between U.S. presidents and their Soviet counterparts, the most productive was the unlikely pairing of Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan. Between them, they managed to do what had seemed impossible, essentially ending the Cold War. And the breakthrough began 30 years ago this month, in frosty Geneva on Nov. 19-20, 1985.…
But it may have been better for Europe if he had won
June is a big month for historical anniversaries. Last week, I wrote about the 800th birthday of Magna Carta – the medieval charter that’s often described as seminal to the development of parliamentary democracy. This week, it’s the Battle of Waterloo, the clash that finally ended the Napoleonic era. It all happened on June 18,…
The number of related military deaths easily surpassed the combined total of American fatalities from both World Wars
When Ulysses S. Grant accepted Robert E. Lee’s surrender at Appomattox in April 1865, it effectively ended the bloodiest conflict in American history. Hard as it may be to grasp, the number of related military deaths (Union plus Confederate) easily surpassed the combined total of American fatalities from both World Wars. And as anyone who’s…