Epstein Secrets

ffective in Libya. Instead, it embraced an effort to arm the self-evidently ineffective and incoherent opposition in its doomed effort to overthrow Bashar al-Assad. The administration said Assad's fall was inevitable but refused to make it so. Thousands died as Washington fiddled; instability and violence spre

n effort to arm the self-evidently ineffective and incoherent opposition in its doomed effort to overthrow Bashar al-Assad. The administration said Assad's fall was inevitable but refused to make it so. Thousands died as Washington fiddled; instability and violence spread into Lebanon, Iraq and Jorda

r capita of $49,000 and $35,200. China, by contrast, languishes at $8,500. This translates to an individual living standard comparable to Bosnia or East Timor. In other words, Japan, despite its perennial hangover from the lost decade and its being on track to become the oldest society the world has ever

Those forces have now pushed both the west and Arab governments into taking a much harder line than simply geostrategic logic would dictate against Bashar al-Assad's brutality in Syria, and even (albeit timidly) against torture and killings by the Bahraini government. Social movements are also beginning to resha

ostrategic logic would dictate against Bashar al-Assad's brutality in Syria, and even (albeit timidly)

rals seeking to intervene for strictly moral reasons. We also now know how different intervention looks when we help forces who want to be helped. East Timor, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, Libya — all cases where force evened out odds between a brutal government and a widespread and legitimate social or na

Those forces have now pushed both the west and Arab governments into taking a much harder line than simply geostrategic logic would dictate against Bashar al-Assad's brutality in Syria, and even (albeit timidly) against torture and killings by the Bahraini government. Social movements are also beginning to resha

ostrategic logic would dictate against Bashar al-Assad's brutality in Syria, and even (albeit timidly)

rals seeking to intervene for strictly moral reasons. We also now know how different intervention looks when we help forces who want to be helped. East Timor, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, Libya — all cases where force evened out odds between a brutal government and a widespread and legitimate social or na

ts former secretary-general. The latest failure of the U.N. dream was Annan's mediating mission to Syria. For months, he tried to cajole President Bashar al-Assad into stopping the killing and starting a political transition that would avert civil war. To which he received the standard answer to well-meaning

Abdullah of Jordan back in 2004 of the danger of a Shia Crescent that would extend from the coast of Lebanon to Afghanistan. Hezbollah in Lebanon, Assad in Syria, and the Shia- controlled government of Iraq form the links in the chain. When the Arab Spring reached Syria, the leaders in Riyadh were gi

r, UNPROFOR finally intervened. When Annan became secretary-general, the United Nations tried to bolster its peacekeeping efforts. It did better in East Timor, Kosovo and Libya in putting some teeth in the concept of a "responsibility to protect." But the abiding story has been the United Nations' limitat

. Those forces have now pushed both the west and Arab governments into taking a much harder line than simply geostrategic logic would dictate against Bashar al-Assad’s brutality in Syria, and even (albeit timidly) against torture and killings by the Bahraini government. Social movements are also beginning to reshape

berals seeking to intervene for strictly moral reasons. We also now know how different intervention looks when we help forces who want to be helped. East Timor, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, Libya — all cases where force evened out odds between a brutal government and a widespread and legitimate social or nati

ace, Testing Alliance Resolve • France Detains Russian 'Shadow Fleet' Tanker Suspected in Drone Attack • How Syria's First Elections Since Autocrat Assad's Ouster Is Expected to Unfold • Belarus Opposition Leader Vanishes After Refusing Deportation in a US-Brokered Prisoner Release • South Korea's Pr

fter Refusing Deportation in a US-Brokered Prisoner Release • South Korea's President Apologizes Over Poorly Managed Foreign Adoption Programs • In East Timor, U.S. Retreats From Plan to Build 'Lifesaving' Sewage Plant OTHER WASHINGTON NEWS • White House, Lawmakers Float Ideas for Ending Government Shutdo

of 1994 and over the many years of dithering as lives were lost in the Balkans. But a series of apparently successful interventions - Bosnia, Kosovo, East Timor, Sierra Leone - gradually strengthened the belief that western military power could be used to end conflicts and save civilians. The bitter experienc

Bush's support of Middle Eastern democracy and cultivate our relations with regional despots like Hosni Mubarak, the Iranian mullahs and the younger Assad have been sent back to the benches in disgrace. Their counsel is now seen as both morally dubious and pragmatically unwise; the 'realists' would have