Commentaries, Analysis, And Editorials -- June 18, 2017

REUTERS/Raheb Homavandi/TIMA

Julian Borger, The Guardian: ‘The war after Isis’: has Trump opened the door to conflict with Iran?

As US forces strike Syrian militias backed by Tehran, many fear delegation to the Pentagon and the looming defeat of the Islamic State could fuel a fiercer fire

US forces have opened fire on Iranian-backed forces in Syria three times in the past month, amid mounting tensions that observers and former officials worry could easily turn into an unplanned, spiralling conflict.

The three recent incidents took place at al-Tanf, a remote desert outpost near the point where the Syrian, Iraqi and Jordanian borders meet. There, a 150-strong force of US soldiers who are training local fighters to take on the Islamic State (Isis) was approached by convoys of militias fighting for the Assad regime. They responded with air strikes.

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Commentaries, Analysis, And Editorials -- June 18, 2017

Qatar's Crisis With Saudi Arabia And Gulf Neighbors Has Decades-Long Roots -- Peter Kenyon, NPR

Is ISIS Leader Baghdadi Dead? It May Not Matter -- Bruce Hoffman, Cipher Brief

Philippine City is a Battleground in Global Fight Against Extremism -- Will Edwards, Cipher Brief

Brothers who brought death and ruin to Philippine city -- AFP

The Roots of Violent Extremism -- Troy E. Mitchell, Small Wars Journal

Marawi crisis offers chance to reboot US-Philippine ties -- Raul Dancel, Straits Times

Pakistan: U.S. Drone Strikes "Against Spirit of Ongoing Cooperation" -- Bill Roggio, RCD/Long War Journal

A place called 'hope': the tiny island on the frontline of US-China tensions -- Carmela Fonbuena, The Guardian

A North Korean Mystery: Where Did Its Rockets and Missiles Come From? -- Kyle Mizokami, National Interest

To North Korea and back: Otto Warmbier’s strange, sad trip -- Dan Sewell, AP

Trump's Tomahawk Missiles Won't Help Somalia Find Peace -- Michael Shank, Newsweek

Mali is Heating Up -- John Campbell, Council on Foreign Relations

The Political Legacy of Helmut Kohl -- Wolfram Bickerich, Spiegel Online

The problem with Oliver Stone and other Putin friends -- John Lloyd, Reuters

President Trump's foreign policy: Let’s make a deal -- Thanassis Cambanis, Boston Globe

News Corp. CEO: The Almighty Algorithm - "fake news" and other consequences of Google, Amazon and Facebook's relentless focus on quantity over quality -- Robert Thomson, FOX News

What Happens When The Oil Economy Collapses? -- Zachary Shahan, Clean Technica