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Browse: Home » Syria » Page 9
“Literally pointless”: Charles Krauthammer and disastrously wrong neocons misread Obama, again

“Literally pointless”: Charles Krauthammer and disastrously wrong neocons misread Obama, again

May 31, 2014 · by Patrick L. Smith · in Articles, Salon

Neocons blast West Point speech, miss the obvious: Obama’s foreign policy problem is stagnantly thinking like them President Obama has just advised us that the front edge of our country’s foreign policy has shifted — shifted again, that is to…

Barack Obama pulls a George W. Bush: Lies, misinformation and chemical weapons

Barack Obama pulls a George W. Bush: Lies, misinformation and chemical weapons

April 10, 2014 · by Patrick L. Smith · in Articles, Salon

Remember the almost-war in Syria last year? An amazing new report — which our media won’t touch — is a must read Am I misjudging our time, or have we entered some accelerated cycle of American subversions, and then another…

Obama Needs Putin to Salvage His Failed Syrian Strategy

Obama Needs Putin to Salvage His Failed Syrian Strategy

March 24, 2014 · by Patrick Smith · in Articles, The Fiscal Times

Now that Russia’s annexation of Crimea is an accomplished fact, the Ukraine conversation, is all about consequences. And there will be a lot of them, intended or otherwise. In coming weeks how many fall to Moscow and how many to…

Misinformation, disinformation, lies: Can the New York Times’ foreign coverage be trusted at all?

Misinformation, disinformation, lies: Can the New York Times’ foreign coverage be trusted at all?

January 16, 2014 · by Patrick L. Smith · in Articles, Salon

The Times walks back a story about Syria and chemical weapons, a reminder of the media’s complicity with power The big doings do not stop in the Middle East. We now have a deal on Iran’s nuclear program that anyone…

Why Iran Is Now Obama’s Best Middle East Bet

Why Iran Is Now Obama’s Best Middle East Bet

January 13, 2014 · by Patrick Smith · in Articles, The Fiscal Times

“What are we supposed to do now?” pundits and policymakers ask these days. The full question being, “What now that the Middle East spins like a dervish and the Obama administration has lost its grip on every major issue in…

Washington hates real democracy: The reality is worse than anything Robert Gates suggests

Washington hates real democracy: The reality is worse than anything Robert Gates suggests

January 9, 2014 · by Patrick L. Smith · in Articles, Salon

It’s deeper than Gates’ new book: We’ve no control over events, but — dangerously — keep pretending we do The third anniversary of the Arab Spring is upon us. Three years ago next week Tunisians toppled the crooked regime of…

American empire is over: Somebody tell John Kerry!

American empire is over: Somebody tell John Kerry!

December 12, 2013 · by Patrick L. Smith · in Articles, Salon

New York Times embarrassingly praises Biden and Kerry’s sorrowful efforts, all unaware U.S. exceptionalism is dead We have made ourselves a navel-gazing folk, a little like Americans of the 19th century — until we lunged into the world by bravely…

Are Things Actually Looking Up in the Middle East?

Are Things Actually Looking Up in the Middle East?

October 21, 2013 · by Patrick Smith · in Articles, The Fiscal Times

It is only a faint outline—call it a pencil sketch—but the lines of a significantly remade Middle East are suddenly falling into place. We have to wait for the region’s leaders and the diplomats asserting the influence of interested outsiders…

Why Syria Is Obama’s Foreign Policy Proving Ground

Why Syria Is Obama’s Foreign Policy Proving Ground

September 16, 2013 · by Patrick Smith · in Articles, The Fiscal Times

It is getting hard to count all the surprises arising from the Syrian crisis. And there are more coming. Outcomes unthinkable even a week ago can now be responsibly imagined—and pursued. Atop this columnist’s wish list: (1)          Relations between Washington…

Let’s hope for an American defeat over Syria

Let’s hope for an American defeat over Syria

September 13, 2013 · by Patrick L. Smith · in Articles, Salon

It’s time to walk away from the deadly, irrational myth of American might The Syria crisis deepens not by the day but by the hour, and it delivers us to the threshold of a reality that will cause some to…

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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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