Ancient Hidden Church Discovered in Syria After ISIS Flees

After two years of ISIS occupation, the remains of an underground church from the third or fourth century were discovered in Manjib.
Syria Gets Us Farther from a Post-War Epoch

This came within a week of President Trump’s pronouncement that “we’re knocking the hell out of ISIS. We’ll be coming out of Syria, like very soon. Let the other people take care of it now.”
Donald Trump, Syria and the prevention of Genocide

The implications of a hasty US withdrawal from Syria.
NATO’s Turkey Challenge

In an inarticulate but important statement, then-National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster said in a December 2017 closed-door session that the Islamist threat has been “myopically” treated in the past: “We didn’t pay enough attention how [Islamist ideology] is being advanced through charities, madrassas and other social organizations.”
Mission Accomplished?

Politically and militarily, then, it can reasonably be said that America’s limited mission was accomplished.
Is Jordan About to Fall Apart?

Is Jordan the next destination for the “Arab Spring?” Demonstrations against the king have reached new levels.
Syria: Fighting Over the Corpse

The Syrian government’s chemical attack on civilians in the rebel-held suburb of Douma this weekend is the complete responsibility of the war criminal Bashar Assad, his Russian bedfellows, and his Iranian bankers.
No Time to Go Wobbly on Syria

Indeed, the price America will pay for “losing” the already-lost Turkey will be far lower than the price the US will pay for abandoning its Kurdish allies.
Egypt’s President Sisi is Irreplacable

This week, Egyptian voters are going to the polls, either to vote to re-elect President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi or to vote for the other guy.
The Sultan’s Pleasure: Turkey Expands its Operations in Syria and Iraq

A larger-scale Turkish assault into Dohuk and Nineveh provinces to carve out an enclave between the Kurdish areas in Iraq and Syria is not an impossibility.