David Patrikarakos

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If the 21st century has taught us anything, it is that to fight a successful war an army needs a successful exit strategy. Bereft of one, while it may win the military battle, it will ultimately lose the strategic war.

Nowhere is this aphorism clearer than in the cases of the post-9/11 conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq. In both cases, the US-led coalitions -- especially in Iraq -- won an easy initial victory against their adversaries. But the defeating of Saddam Hussein's army proved to be merely the beginning, not the end, of the real war in Iraq.

This week, something almost unprecedented happened.…  Seguir leyendo »

Credit Roman Pilipey/European Pressphoto Agency

At an army checkpoint near the occupied city of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, Lt. Col. Natalia Semeniuk approached a convoy of two minibuses that had just arrived from Kiev. Slung over her shoulder was an AK-47 assault rifle. Clumps of long, brown hair poked out from beneath the beanie she wore to guard against the cold, which had dropped to about minus-20 degrees Fahrenheit.

Colonel Semeniuk was meeting with Anna Sandalova, a former public relations executive and a founder of Help the Army of Ukraine, a foundation that uses Facebook to raise money to buy equipment for Ukraine’s desperately underfunded army.…  Seguir leyendo »

The recent nuclear deal with Iran has caused a predictable furor among Middle East hawks. But it offers an opportunity for a much bigger breakthrough: rapprochement and, eventually, even strategic cooperation with Iran.

International alliances morph and shift; relationships freeze and unfreeze. For the last 30 years American-Iranian relations have been stuck in a cycle of suspicion and mistrust, to the detriment of both countries.

America must now begin to think about a gradual realignment of its Middle East policy, one that aims to reintegrate Iran into the international fold and, over time, transform an enemy into an ally.

It won’t be easy.…  Seguir leyendo »