Joshua Landis
Joshua Landis
Joshua M. Landisis an American academic who specializes in the Middle East and is an expert on Syria. He is the head of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma, and since 2004 has published the blog Syria Comment...
bargain bargaining guarantees held people trying worried
They are worried their people will be held in Lebanon. They are trying to get guarantees this is not going to be out of their control. They want to bargain but have no bargaining power.
offered religious secular serious syria vision
It offered a secular vision of Syria that would dismantle very serious religious splits.
debates decades middle period short society stakes
In the Middle East, they're being compressed, catapulted through the same debates that tore American society over decades in a short period of time. And the stakes are very high.
alienated america bad believe countries guess muslim ogre position specter terror war weaker
This is an anti-America alliance. My guess is that the US will end up in a weaker position than it started. The war on terror has alienated the Muslim countries who now believe that America is the big bad ogre and specter of imperialism.