As we're learning more about what happened to that MSF hospital in Kunduz, MSF keeps losing more hospitals. Yesterday an MSF hospital in the northern Saada province was destroyed, most likely in an airstrike by the Saudi-led coalition that's been fighting the Houthi-led insurgency on behalf of Yemeni President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi. The Saudi … Continue reading Another MSF hospital destroyed, this time in Yemen

Senator and soon-to-be presidential primary drop-out Rand Paul, who (full disclosure) has guest-blogged here in the past (we've also carried the full text of his speeches), has an ongoing problem, which is that he doesn't seem to grasp the difference between "telling the truth" and "lying." There was that whole thing where he decided to … Continue reading Rand Paul’s war on basic honesty

Defense Secretary Ash Carter told the Senate Armed Services Committee today that the US mission against ISIS has changed somewhat, along the lines of what he called "the three R's": Raqqa, Ramadi, and raids. In Syria, the US will focus its mission on backing a mostly-Kurdish offensive to dislodge ISIS from Raqqa, the groups "capital." … Continue reading This is boots on the ground

When US aircraft bombed a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan, on October 3, it was clear that something had gone terribly wrong, but it wasn't clear what that was. Did the US deliberately attack a medical facility? Was there some kind of inexcusable error in the heat of battle that led to that … Continue reading Did the US know that MSF facility in Kunduz was a hospital?

My newest piece at LobeLog is based on having watched a whole slew of panel discussions that have been happening around DC lately, assessing the first year or so of the anti-ISIS air campaign. The results have been mixed at best, with one analyst, Hassan Hassan from Chatham House (who has literally written the book … Continue reading Doing ISIS’s job for them

Over the weekend, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov floated a very generous offer to the Free Syrian Army: Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said his country is ready to support the Free Syrian Army (FSA) with air strikes and cooperate closely with the US in fighting the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) … Continue reading Russia’s generous offer

Marco Rubio thinks his job sucks: “I don’t know that ‘hate’ is the right word,” Rubio said in an interview. “I’m frustrated.” This year, as Rubio runs for president, he has cast the Senate — the very place that cemented him as a national politician — as a place he’s given up on, after less … Continue reading Maybe you should quit

The year 1912 does not stand in the history books as a particularly good one for the Ottoman Empire. There was the January-August Albanian Revolt, which ended with the Ottomans forced to grant substantial autonomy and other concessions to their restive Albanian minority. There was the Italo-Turkish War, which began in 1911 and ended, badly … Continue reading Today in European history: a bad day for the Ottomans (1912)

You won't often (or ever again, maybe) see me link to something from Josh Rogin, the Bloomberg View columnist who, along with his fellow traveler Eli Lake, covers matters of war and peace well, mostly war. But he's got the only reporting on this story that I can find, and I really wanted to write … Continue reading Don’t invite an Assad to Capitol Hill

I don't know about you, but this seems pretty ominous to me: A potentially catastrophic landfall is expected Friday evening as a very powerful and dangerous Hurricane Patricia moves towards Mexico's Pacific coast. Hurricane Patricia became the most powerful tropical cyclone ever measured in the Western Hemisphere on Friday morning as its maximum sustained winds … Continue reading Calm before the (actual) storm