... Bogota and France 24 are reporting that the 1700-strong National Liberation Army (ELN) has annouced a truce-cease fire during the period 23 December -3 January 2019. Considered by some experts ("Latin Americanists" as they are called in the United States) as the oldest guerrilla in Colombia,the ELN are proving they hold to their "hard line" Marxist orientation. FARC, the largest guerrilla, signed on to the "peace process" brokered by the UN and Pope Francis, a process ...
... Europe was incapable of dealing with major conflicts in its own backyard without help and, more importantly, leadership from the United States. Since then, it has failed to effectively deal with conflict in Libya, Ukraine, and Syria, all within or near its ... ... governments whose missions are resisting pressures of EU policy, as racial, ethnic, and religious tension, fears of Islamic terrorism, nativism, and demagogues become ever more commonplace, it is terrifying to envision its future, too. An autocratic ...
... to compromise with and accommodate Iraqis Sunnis and others that created the current crisis with ISIS. The sad truth is that if Maliki had treated the Sunnis and Kurds more fairly, the Iraqi government—Shiites, Sunnis, and Kurds united against terrorism as they were back in 2007—would have been in a strong position to fend off any ISIS incursions coming into Iraq from Syria. If anything, the internal dynamics of Syria spilled over into Iraq, not the other way around, and hardly related ...
... particularly appropriate for Putin’s strategy because his methods of pursuing whatever gains he seeks pose risks that threaten to harm Russia’s interests more than those gains would help them: Russia is particularly vulnerable to Sunni extremist terrorism for a number of clear reasons and its moves in Syria, as I have written before, are only going to expose Russia to further attacks. If Russia is so concerned with 10% of its arms sales and access to a few military bases in Syria, I am certain ...
... stadium during a live match, at a restaurant, at a theater during a concert. For those who bring up drone attacks, as if they are some sort of moral equivalent. Drones involve precision weapons, and strikes target those are terrorists or involved in terrorism. There are civilian deaths in these attacks quite often, but with no evidence to the contrary we cannot legitimately make the claim that those civilians are the intended targets and that there is not a legitimate intended target, even if intelligence ...
... 1988—near Damascus. Unlike previous reports, these highlighted an attack that was both of an unprecedented scale for this conflict—it killed about 1,400 people—and confirmed publicly by several major Western governments (including that of the United States), Human Rights Watch, and later by the United Nations. As to who was the culprit, as I pointed out at the time, the signs clearly pointed to elements of the Assad regime carrying out the attack.
To Strike or Not to Strike, That Was the ...
A Sensible Grading of Obama’s Middle East Strategy, As Opposed to Republican Nonsense: Part I: Introduction, Muslim World Reset, Iraq, Israel/Palestine
If you can’t understand that Obama’s overall Middle East strategy is starting to work, you don’t know what you’re talking about
By Brian E. Frydenborg (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter @bfry1981) May 21st, 2015
Originally published on LinkedIn Pulse here and also published by Stupidparty Math v. Myth thanks to Patrick...
... encounter in Gaza in the summer of 2014. Their leadership decimated by a failed revolt against British rule in Palestine in the 1930s, the Palestinian Arabs were a mess when the British, exhausted emotionally and materially from WWII and facing Jewish terrorism in Palestine, announced their decision to leave and transfer responsibility to the fledgling United Nations. In the ensuing conflict, Israel established a state, but some 700,000 Arabs fled because of direct expulsion at the hands of Jewish ...
When It Comes to U.S. Relationships in the Middle East, Expect a Lot More Change in Coming Years and Decades.
By Brian E. Frydenborg, originally published January 5th, 2015
If you think your site or another would be a good place for this content please do not hesitate to reach out to me! Please feel free to share and repost on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter (you can follow me there at @bfry1981)
2014 has certainly been a year of change. While an ostensible explanation for this would be the...
How the Obama Administration Removed Iraq’s Largest Political Obstacle
Originally published Nov. 2nd, 2014
How Did It Come To This?
At some point during Obama’s second term of his presidency, he and his Administration realized that Nuri Kamal al-Maliki was part of the problem, not part of the solution. It did not help that when the administration realized this, violence in Iraq was increasing to levels not seen since the height of the near-civil-war experienced in 2006-2007 during...
