Epstein Secrets

al and kind of no-holds-barred way, how we conceive the region." Not only does the new approach have little in common with the "freedom agenda" of George W. Bush, but it is also a scaling back of the more expansive American role that Mr. Obama himself articulated two years ago, before the Arab Spring mutated

here can be a peaceful political transition in the Arab world," said Richard N. Haass, who served in the EFTA00694510 State Department during the Bush administration and is now president of the Council on Foreign Relations. "But here, the administration is largely silent and seems uncertain as to

le in common with the "freedom agenda" of George W. Bush, but it is also a scaling back of the more

fraught history with Syria illustrates. "You can have your agenda, but you can't control what happens," said Tamara Cofman Wittes, the director of the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution. "The argument that we can't make a decisive difference, so we're not going to try, is wronghea

em, they turned to terrorism only when they were unable to bring about the grand popular revolutions they sought. Perhaps the worst mistake of the Bush administration's response to 9/11 was to make terrorism itself America's principal target. Terrorism was never more than a symptom of this dysfunct

aside though it was — at least deserves credit for finally recognizing the real source of America's problems in the Middle East. The great shame of George W. Bush's presidency is that the war on terrorism was not a smaller adjunct to that broader effort, rather than the other way around. We have no one but our

ems in the Middle East. The great shame of George W. Bush's presidency is that the war on terrorism w

ian people have shown us all the path, but it will take American leadership to reach the desired destination. Kenneth M. Pollack is the director of the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution and the author of "A Path Out of the Desert: A Grand Strategy for America in the Middle East."

em, they turned to terrorism only when they were unable to bring about the grand popular revolutions they sought. Perhaps the worst mistake of the Bush administration's response to 9/11 was to make terrorism itself America's principal target. Terrorism was never more than a symptom of this dysfunct

aside though it was — at least deserves credit for finally recognizing the real source of America's problems in the Middle East. The great shame of George W. Bush's presidency is that the war on terrorism was not a smaller adjunct to that broader effort, rather than the other way around. We have no one but our

ems in the Middle East. The great shame of George W. Bush's presidency is that the war on terrorism w

tian people have shown us all the path, but it will take American leadership to reach the desired destination. Kenneth M Pollack is the director of the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution and the author of "A Path Out of the Desert: A Grand Strategy for America in the Middle East."

d influence in Syria over the last decade. David W. Lesch, professor of Middle East History at Trinit

ded that the United States take military action against Assad to remove him from power. These were the same two voices that lobbied the Clinton and Bush administrations to topple Saddam Hussein's regime. When the United States did exactly as these senators advocated, countless unintended negative c

srael's qualitative superiority over its enemies for decades. Now we know it got some help from Berlin as well. Bruce Riedel is a senior fellow in the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution. A career CIA officer, he has advised four presidents on Middle East and South Asian issues in