Broken pottery vessels in ransacked museums. Blown-up ruins in sandy villages. The crumbling dome of a mosque, open to the yawning blue sky overhead. These are the images of Syria’s destroyed cultural heritage that dominate the Western imagination. But what do these scenes of destruction actually mean, and can we really dismiss them as just […]
Tag: Bashar al-Assad
Syria and the War on Terror: The Mask Finally Comes Off
The world watched with bated breath on December 8th, 2024, as rebel forces rolled into Damascus to oust then president Bashar Al-Assad. This ousting put an end to the reign of not only Bashar, but the Assad family, whose stranglehold on power in Syria began over five decades ago with Bashar’s father Hafez in 1971. […]
Turkey’s Role in the Syrian Crisis
Turkey’s assistance to the Islamic State goes beyond providing open borders for ISIS militants. By the end of 2015, Turkey is expected to host as many as nearly two million Syrian refugees. The country opened its doors to create a ‘safe haven’ for those fleeing persecution, many of whom ended up moving to cities on […]
Underestimation Nation
On October 15th Fox News presented a poll that found 58% of Americans felt “things in the world are ‘going to hell in a handbasket.” [1] These findings tell us two things. First, we should probably question the quality of Fox News polls when a question legitimately uses the term “Hell in a handbasket” to […]