Joseph Belbruno Blog

  Setbacks for Russia, Iran and Hezbollah Turn Into a Catastrophe for Syria’s Assad Listen to article (9 minutes) It had taken the Syrian regime and its backers—Iran, Russia and Hezbollah—more than four years to dislodge rebel forces from the country’s second-largest city of Aleppo. At the time, in 2016, they celebrated that victory as the turning point in Syria’s civil war. Now, a surprise rebel offensive has  recaptured Aleppo in just a few days , including parts of the city that the Syrian army had never surrendered before. This stunning feat is the direct consequence of new wars that have erupted outside Syria’s borders. “It’s a tectonic shift,” said Andrew Tabler, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy who served as Syria director in the Trump White House. “Regional and international powers intervened in Syria over a decade ago, and now the conflicts of Ukraine, Gaza and Lebanon all come together and overlap in Aleppo.” Lebanon’s Hezbo...

  The Inverted Morality of MAGA Opinion Columnist I admire Mitt Romney. He is, by all accounts, an outstanding husband and father. He built a successful investment firm by supporting successful young businesses like Staples. He served the public as head of the 2002 Winter Olympics and as a governor. As a senator, he had the courage to vote to convict Donald Trump twice, in the two separate impeachment trials, when few other Republicans did. But as Noah Millman writes on Substack, people in the MAGA movement take a different view of Romney. In private life, Romney compliantly conformed to the bourgeois norms of those around him. In business he contributed to the bloating of the finance and consulting sector. As a politician he bent himself to the needs of the moment, moving from moderate Republican to “extreme conservative.” As a senator, he sought the approval of the Washington establishment. Millman’s underlying point is it’s not sufficient to say that Trump is leading a band of m...

  Navigated Menu Back Financial Times Financial Times UK 30 Nov 2024 Buttons.Search Options Spy chiefs warn about Rus­sian vic­tory Heads of MI6 and French DGSE say Ukraine’s defeat would threaten Europe JOHN PAUL RATHBONE — PARIS Settings Translate Article Print Share Listen A Rus­sian vic­tory in Ukraine would “embolden” Moscow’s allies and endanger US secur­ity, Brit­ish spy chief Richard Moore said yes­ter­day, as he called for endur­ing sup­port for Kyiv as Don­ald Trump pre­pares to take office. “If Putin is allowed to suc­ceed in redu­cing Ukraine to a vas­sal state, he will not stop there,” Moore said in Paris. “Our secur­ity — Brit­ish, French, European and transat­lantic — would be jeop­ard­ised.” Moore, who heads the UK for­eign intel­li­gence ser­vice MI6, said his agency and French coun­ter­part DGSE were work­ing to pre­vent a dan­ger­ous escal­a­tion by “cal­ib­rat­ing the risk” of Rus­sian Pres­id­ent Vladi­mir Putin’s “mix of bluster and aggres­sion”. He stressed t...