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Former State Department Deputy Director Wayne White warns that supplying Syrian rebels with small arms is unlikely to quickly end the conflict, as do Max Fisher and CJ Chivers.
Michael Weiss and Elizabeth O’Bagy claim simply arming the rebels with select small arms (and not, crucially, MANPADS) isn’t enough, and call for imposing a no-fly zone over the country. Andrew Sullivan mildly calls the shift “a betrayal of everything this president has said and stood for.”
Elias Isquith, meanwhile, chimes in on the R2P and regime change debate, suggesting that “there’s some naivety in thinking the United States — or any major power — would put the kind of prestige on the line that comes with armed conflict and not expect out-and-out victory in return.”
CIA veteran Milton Bearden discusses lessons from the US’ 1980s effort to arm anti-Soviet Afghan fighters.
Unsurprisingly, Putin is no fan of the policy shift: “One should hardly back those who kill their enemies and eat their organs.”
Is Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood backing jihadists in Syria?
Deputy Secretary of Defense Ashton B. Carter on the post-COIN Army: “What we want going forward is a smaller, but much more agile and wide spectrum Army, not a COIN-focused Army.”
Why the campaign to end hunger must focus on violence against women.
What does election violence in Pakistan mean?
Turkey’s European Union minister reportedly claimed that anyone who enteres Taksim Square “will be considered a member or a supporter of a terrorist organization” by the police as demonstrations continue.
