Michael O’Hanlon & Steven Heydemann write: As government forces close in on Idlib province in northern Syria, a catastrophe looms for the roughly 3 million Syrians living there. […] The United States must take a stand. We can’t reverse the course of the war, but we can at least take action to ensure that the people of Idlib are spared the worst — even if this entails some unpalatable moral compromises. - Washington Post
Thomas Donnelly writes: That the Assad regime survives at all is something of a wonder, after seven years of bloody war arising from relatively small and peaceful protests in January 2011. The process of survival, however, has cost Assad much of his autonomy, mortgaged to Russia and, especially, Iran. Indeed, what is emerging from Baghdad to Damascus is a kind of “Larger Lebanon,” where Tehran-backed Shia militias, created in the image of Hezbollah, hold the keys to the kingdoms. - The Weekly Standard