Sublime

IBRAHIM OTHMAN

The problem in the Middle East is, at its base, a breakdown in order associated with the serial failures of colonial rule, postcolonial monarchies, Arab nationalism, socialist dictatorships, and Islamist extremism to provide effective governance and forge a common identity across diverse communities. Decades of conflict fragmented societies along e

THERE WAS NOTHING exceptional about what these soldiers from the Eighty-Second Airborne Division did on this balmy Baghdad night. And that is precisely the point. They were undertaking the sort of modest, tedious, mundane intelligence gathering and security operations that have been a cornerstone of counterinsurgency operations since the days of Al

Commanded by the resourceful General Vo Nguyen Giap, the Viet Minh struck the French only when they were vulnerable, usually in well-prepared ambushes, and preferably at night.

“The tasks of finding and developing the right leaders and getting them into key command positions are far more complex and daunting than is generally realized,”9 says Moyar, who then goes on

If leadership depends purely on seniority you are defeated before you start. You give a good leader very little and he will succeed; you give mediocrity a great deal and they will fail. —George C. Marshall, 1941, to the Truman Committee

Now Syrians were learning just how cynical Assad’s goodwill gesture had been. Among the inmates discharged over the spring and summer were a number of radical Islamists who belonged to known terrorist organizations. Some were jihadists who had been picked up while attempting to cross into Iraq to join the insurgency there. Others were suspected al-