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Browse: Home » Russia » Page 15
He’s made the Middle East worse: Let’s be honest, Obama bears as much responsibility for this mess as predecessors who shaped them

He’s made the Middle East worse: Let’s be honest, Obama bears as much responsibility for this mess as predecessors who shaped them

January 6, 2016 · by Patrick L. Smith · in Articles, Salon

Decades of poorly concocted policies with Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and others haunt us — and worsen every day It is all there now for us to see. Decades of cynical, poorly devised policy in the Middle East, vacant of…

From Mideast to Moscow, These 3 Crises Could Wreck Obama’s Foreign Policy

From Mideast to Moscow, These 3 Crises Could Wreck Obama’s Foreign Policy

January 4, 2016 · by Patrick Smith · in Articles, The Fiscal Times

What a start for the Obama administration’s final year. In the course of a few days,Russia declares the U.S. a threat to its security taking relations to a perilous new low, and Iran announces it will escalate a new missile…

Putin’s Military Strikes in Syria Are a 'Mine Is Bigger Than Yours' Show

Putin’s Military Strikes in Syria Are a ‘Mine Is Bigger Than Yours’ Show

December 14, 2015 · by Patrick Smith · in Articles, The Fiscal Times

MOSCOW—You’d think that things are shaping up well for those trying to find an enduring settlement of the gruesome Syria crisis and get down to the business of destroying the Islamic State. That’s not how it looks from here. What…

Obama’s Job Now: Fight ISIS All-In as Turkey Plays Both Sides

Obama’s Job Now: Fight ISIS All-In as Turkey Plays Both Sides

November 30, 2015 · by Patrick Smith · in Articles, The Fiscal Times

Turkey’s stunningly rash decision last week to down a Russian Su-24 fighter jet flying an anti-terrorist mission near the Turkish-Syrian border alters the calculus in the Syria crisis at least as much as the ISIS ’s November 13 attacks in…

SYRIA.

SYRIA.

November 27, 2015 · by Patrick L. Smith · in Articles, Salon

Salon did not publish the following column. It was filed November 27th, the day after Thanksgiving and three days after Turkish pilots shot a Russian jet out of the sky near the border between Syria and Turkey—by what evidence has…

Why Allies and Adversaries Should Unite to Defeat ISIS

Why Allies and Adversaries Should Unite to Defeat ISIS

November 23, 2015 · by Patrick Smith · in Articles, The Fiscal Times

Suddenly, the civilized world has one thing on its mind — an alliance among key nations to fight ISIS. No one is talking about containment anymore. The topic is decisive defeat on Syrian and Iraqi battlefields and anywhere else terrorists…

Defense and State In a Tug of War Over Obama’s Syria Policy

Defense and State In a Tug of War Over Obama’s Syria Policy

November 2, 2015 · by Patrick Smith · in Articles, The Fiscal Times

For many of us, the news last week that President Obama is sending U.S. Special Forces to Syria to oversee the training of Syrian rebels fighting ISIS is confusing. It begs the question—what exactly is the Obama administration’s policy, strategy,…

How Putin Put Obama in a Bind on Syria

How Putin Put Obama in a Bind on Syria

October 26, 2015 · by Patrick Smith · in Articles, The Fiscal Times

As Russia’s advance into Syria proceeds, apparently with some early successes against key targets, it starts to look as if Moscow is using the Syria crisis to force the Obama administration into a bind. On Saturday, Jordan agreed to cooperate…

Obama’s Failure in Syria Now Extends to Turkey

Obama’s Failure in Syria Now Extends to Turkey

October 12, 2015 · by Patrick Smith · in Articles, The Fiscal Times

The Obama administration’s failure in Syria after four years of wasted lives, money, and effort deepens by the day now. The Russians have just benched us, whether Washington wants to admit it or not, and we may well sit out the…

“Putin is the only major leader to utter a few simple truths about the role of the United States in the world today”

“Putin is the only major leader to utter a few simple truths about the role of the United States in the world today”

October 7, 2015 · by Patrick L. Smith · in Articles, Salon

Perry Anderson on foreign policy: America’s problem is it’s a global hegemon without global ideology legitimacy Part two of our conversation with Perry Anderson. Find part one here. Fifteen years ago, in the distant universe we now know as pre-September 11,…

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Writer, commentator, longtime newspaper and magazine correspondent abroad. Writes often on Europe and Asia. Published five books.

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