We Just Lost the Initiative.....

"Red lines" have been crossed and an embolden new administration itches to flex America's military muscle. Russian and Iranian actors continue to support a detestable Assad regime, allowing the Syrian leader to deploy chemical weapons against his adversaries. Over a six year time period, Syria is a messy and complicated quagmire befuddling "foreign policy experts" and the political leadership within both the Democrat and Republican parties, as seen in the current military/political reality on the ground. Since March 2011, when initial protests against the Assad regime began, American's attention to Syria has waxed and waned. Particularly, specific situations have influenced American public opinion on what our reaction should be. The chemical attacks in 2013 (on Ghouta area of Damascus) and the recent attack on Khan Sheikhoun in Idlib province, have invigorated the debate on a military response in Syria. Yet, the refugee crisis and a...

Can we, yes I mean the U.S. and to a larger extent the world, finally make a concerted effort to fully engage ISIS and to end the Syrian civil war? The global community has neglected our humanity. Instead of actually doing something to alleviate the suffering of the Syrian people, either through inaction or bias we have left the situation unabated and civilians (innocents) are dying to try and escape to a better life. * image courtesy of indianexpress.com Now look at Aylan! He is the result of a cowardly U.S. political establishment and an Administration that neglected to act when Assad crossed "the red line in the sand." What we see of our American politicians is a cowardly group that has abandoned a region torn apart by conflict and a mass forced migration, and an American public who are more interested in the latest Kardashian news. But America is only one of the many accomplices to have failed. Europe and Turkey have also failed Ay...

We no longer live in our parents neatly defined geopolitical world. The map makers of the 20th Century (Great Britain, France, Germany, Russia, and the United States) no longer are the Masters of the Universe. Look at what is happening with Syria and Iraq: political boundaries are disintegrating before our eyes as the Old World Order undergoes a volcanic upheaval. Sectarian interests are shredding the world map. So how do we navigate these seismic fluctuations. First, we need to understand that the current political breakdown as we know it is changing. Many of the established political boundaries are colonial fabrications that did not take into account tribal, religious, or historical territory realities "on the ground." As an example, the Sykes - Picot agreement divvied up the Ottoman Empire after World War I creating French and English spheres of influence in the Middle East to the detriment of Arab self-determination. Puppet leaders were installed to ensure the continuat...