in the good old days…
Turkey gives UN evidence on Syrian chemical use
Turkey has been giving all its information and evidence to the United Nations about the use of chemical weapons
Turkey probes chemical ?proof? by defected Syrian
Ankara looks to get to the bottom of claims that Syria used chemical weapons earlier this year around Aleppo based on a defector?s claims
Turkish PM, world leaders take on Syrian crisis at G-20 working dinner
PM Erdoğan and other major world leaders participated in a working dinner Sept. 5 in St. Petersburg to discuss the crisis in Syria at a G-20 summit
Defecting former Syrian defense minister reaches Istanbul: Sources
France?s Hollande takes a risk on Syria
Turkey beefs up military presence on Syria border: reports
Turkey has beefed up a military presence along its southern border with Syria in anticipation of strikes on the regime in Damascus, local media reported Thursday.
Syria: Weighing the Obama Administration’s Response
Today, Secretary of State John Kerry testified about the Obama Administration’s response to the situation in Syria. In his opening statement before the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee, Secretary Kerry said:
NATO chief regrets divisions over Syria, calls for ‘firm international response’
NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen sharply regretted international divisions over Syria on the sidelines of an EU defense ministers’ meeting in Lithuania
The Syrian crisis that has so far cost more than 100,000 lives since March 15, 2011
Syrian economy moves underground amid unrest
Every day, hundreds of trucks piled high with goods ranging from cooking oil to cement and nappies form queues stretching for miles at Turkey?s province of Öncüpınar, now a bustling hub for trade with Syria.
Military solution in Syria would be futile, Pope tells Putin
Pope Francis, in a letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin for the G20 conference, on Thursday urged world leaders to “lay aside the futile pursuit of a military solution” in Syria
Syria rifts loom over G20 summit
World leaders from the G20 group of nations gather in Russia amid sharp differences over military action against Syria’s government.
Did al-Nusra Carry Out Sarin Gas Attack With Turkish Collusion?
The looming question is should there be a military response to the recent gas attacks that killed over a thousand civilians in Syria. The US says it knows beyond a doubt that the Assad regime was responsible for the gas attack, although hasn?t revealed this proof, and wants to make a statement that chemical weapons are not allowed by attacking, well, something. That?s secret too. The consequences of such action are unpredictable and some major US political figures have warned that it could open the road to violent retaliation against US interests and against Syria?s neighbors, like Turkey. The consequences of several years of international inaction are also clear: over 100,000 Syrians dead, many of them civilians, millions of refugees, increasing Shia-Sunni sectarianism in a conflict that was originally between the Syrian government and pro-democracy citizens of many stripes, major powers taking sides along this sectarian divide (e.g. Iran versus Saudi Arabia) and sending in their proxies (Hezbollah versus al-Nusra) to fight their regional power struggle on Syrian soil. Let?s add destabilization of the countries around Syria to the mix.
Response to Syria a Duplicitous Affair
Truth-Out
We have become a people wary of such bold rhetorical claims, in light of what is now historical record, including information attained fromWikileaks files. Furthermore, one must question what will such a military strike achieve? … The rebels, backed
Russian warships cross Bosphorus, en route to Syria
Three Russian warships crossed Turkey’s Bosphorus Strait Thursday en route to the eastern Mediterranean, near the Syrian coast
After almost 30 years in the Senate, Secretary of State John Kerry should?ve known that Senate hearings are supposed to be free of news. As Sen. John McCain proved, you can even sit through them and play online poker.
Syria’s military intervention: A comedy in three acts
US President Barack Obama was forced to walk a tightrope over Syria after he was drawn into calling for a military intervention after France, Britain and Turkey called for action. Now he has to deal with being a reluctant coalition leader, writes George Friedman.
George Friedman is founder and chairman of Stratfor, a Texas-based global intelligence company.
The following is a shortened version of the original analysis which can be found here.
Last week began with certainty that a US-led attack on Syria was inevitable and even imminent in response to an apparent chemical attack. It ended somewhere between US President Barack Obama’s coalition falling apart and never coming together. This is a comedy in three parts: the reluctant warrior turning into the raging general and finding his followers drifting away, becoming the reluctant warrior again.
Obama?s mixed messages on Syria
Twenty-one years ago this summer, Bill Clinton was crisscrossing the United States, campaigning for president and denouncing the White House for its failure to stop the Bosnian war. In July 1992 he spoke of the ?renegade regime? in Serbia, called on the United Nations to tighten sanctions and, after the publication of particularly harrowing photographs from a Serbian concentration camp, declared that Americans must do ?whatever it takes to stop the slaughter of civilians.? If elected, he declared, he would begin ?with air power against the Serbs.?
“Obama?s Political Capital And The Slippery Slope Of Syria” by Robert Reich
Robert ReichEven if the President musters enough votes to strike Syria, at what political cost? Any president has a limited amount of political capital to mobilize support for his agenda, in Congress and, more fundamentally, with the American people. This is especially true of a president in his second term of office. Which makes President Obama?s campaign to strike Syria all the more mystifying.
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