Reputed U.S. allies in the Mideast are pushing the Obama administration, step by step, into a “regime change” operation in Syria, despite its illegality and risks that a power vacuum would be filled by al-Qaeda or the Islamic State, as Independent Institute’s Ivan Eland says about Turkey.
Turkey and Brazil are two fast-developing regional powers that have begun to take their places on the global stage. But both are now dealing with popular unrest directed against government actions that have struck some protesters as arrogant and insensitive, as ex-CIA analyst Paul R. Pillar notes.