Commentaries, Analysis, And Editorials -- August 3, 2016

The wreckage of a Russian helicopter that had been shot down in the north of Syria's rebel-held Idlib province, August 1 [Reuters]

Al Jazeera: Syria's civil war is a post-factual conflict

Never before in the history of conflicts we had so much information as to what is happening, yet know so little.

After five years of brutal conflict in which half the population has been forced from their homes, there is still no end in sight to the war in Syria.

One of the reasons behind this longevity is that Syria has become a post-factual conflict and it is that dynamic that fundamentally undermines any political solution.

So what does it mean to be a post-factual conflict?

Read more ....

Commentaries, Analysis, And Editorials -- August 3, 2016

As Assad Chemical Bombs His People, Where Is Obama? -- Elliott Abrams, Newsweek/Council on Foreign Relations

U.S. Has Taught Iran a Lesson: Hostage-Taking Pays -- Eli Lake, Bloomberg

The US is bombing Libya again. It's a too-familiar vicious cycle -- Trevor Timm, The Guardian

NATO and Turkey: Allies, not friends -- Bernd Riegert, DW

Is Israel's success against terror a model for the US Army against ISIS? -- Yossi Melman, Jerusalem Post

Nobody Knows Who'll Be in Charge after Oman's 'Founding Father' -- Kevin A. Lees, National Interest

The Afghanistan Quagmire: Time For An Exit Strategy -- Alon Ben-Meir, Huffington Post

How the Taliban helped the Islamic State’s rise in Afghanistan -- Michael Semple, Quartz

The Dark Secrets of Thailand’s Military -- Pavin Chachavalpongpun, The Diplomat

China's Trouble With Bubbles -- Tom Orlik, Bloomberg

A Country on Tenterhooks: Germans Wonder If Terror Can Be Prevented -- Spiegel Online

How the crash in oil prices devastated Angola and Venezuela -- Kevin Sieff and Joshua Partlow, Washington Post

How Venezuelans are meeting aid needs even as government denies crisis -- Whitney Eulich, Christian Science Monitor

Trump Slams U.S. Military Arms as He Swoons Over Russian Military -- Rob Garver, Fiscal Times

Half a million drones in the US, now poised to go mainstream -- Lucy Schouten, CSM