Epstein Secrets

e missiles, followed by self- congratulation and an attempt to change the topic. It would not work here. A minority regime fighting for its life, as Bashar al- Assad's is, can weather a couple of dozen big bangs. More important, no one — friends, enemies or neutrals — would be fooled. As weak as the Un

put his credibility on the line irrevocably and inescapably; second, he now must take direct military action to punish the government of President Bashar al-Assad, though not in a manner that commits him to further use of force; and third, he needs to combine whatever force he uses now with dramatic and dipl

opposition to doing so (60 percent) among polled Americans, and a growing and potent consensus among foreign policy experts and politicians to give Assad a hard punch. Most administration officials and most Americans just can't see any lasting benefits from any form of direct U.S. military involveme

consistently pursued. Unfortunately, it failed. The plan was simple but elegant: The U.S. would work with moderate Islamist groups like Turkey's AK Party and Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood to make the Middle East more democratic. This would kill three birds with one stone. First, by aligning itself with

le, including by the repeated use of chemical weapons, and yet has remarkably culminated in the re- legitimization of the person responsible for it, Bashar al-Assad. The Syrian civil war— particularly the White House's inept and improvisational response to it—has accidentally transformed Putin into a major powe

military aid to moderate groups in the Syrian opposition, enough to raise their hopes but not enough to ensure success on the battlefield. And when Assad used chemical weapons against civilian neighborhoods, Obama threatened military action — only to back off, again dashing the hopes of pro-U.S. fact

ografyasi." Galip Ensarioglu, himself a Kurd, a member of Diyarbakir's business class and a mayoral candidate on the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) ticket, also stated on Dec. 3 that he "would not hesitate to call every territory where Kurds live `Kurdistan.' I myself am Kurdish as well, and I

is achieved we will seek at Geneva ways of better dealing with the terrible internal humanitarian situation. International aid goes to the needy in Assad controlled areas where the population is greater and apparently lesser amounts to the non-Assad controlled areas where the need is probably greater

orst conflict so far this century. Meanwhile, the international community has been disastrously divided. Since the fighting began, Syrian President Bashar Assad has had Russia's explicit international support. But while Russia's strategy, from the outset, has been coherent and well- defined, the West's has n

e Hizmet movement he has inspired of being part of a "dirty operation, with external ties" aimed at overthrowing the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government. Prime Minister Erdogan's war on Gillen and the Hizmet community comes as a shock to all and, as an event, is something new for Turkey.