…here’s today’s headline from the Los Angeles Times print edition For the webversion, the LAT went with the more conventional and presumably more accurate presentation: Syrian radicals of the non-Islamist extremist persuasion can, I suppose, breathe a sigh of relief that they do not occupy the “kill on sight� overlap region of the Arab/radical/Islamist extremist... Read More

Readers of this blog know I have been promoting the ideathat Saudi Arabia, in particular, will not be interested in negotiating an end to the bloodshed in Syria that involves anything less than an overthrow of Assad and a triumph by the largely Sunni rebels. That’s because I believe Saudi Arabia has its eyes on... Read More

My post on the competing strategies of Saudi Arabia and Qatar received a considerable amount of thoughtful comment and pushback by e-mail and on the Web, more than I’m accustomed to receive for a non-China post from somebody who has only an informed layman’s interest in the Middle East. Maybe I came up with something... Read More