"A helpful summary of French meddling in MENA in recent years"

The blurb is from Western Journalism, which snapped up The Atlantic's summary, published Nov 15. [chuckling]  We learn from the article that Bashar al-Assad is as critical of the French as Islamic State: "Both ISIS and Assad have blamed the Paris attacks on French foreign policy. So what is that policy?" 

The Atlantic doesn't manage to enlighten us, which requires an understanding of the French way of looking at the world, but a nice review anyhow. And another reminder to me that it's not just Al Saud, Qatar, USA, Turkey, Jordan, Iran, Lebanon, Israel, Iraq, and all manner of foreign militias who've been treating Syria as their private stomping ground. 

The more I learn about Syria, the more it reminds me of West Berlin during the height of the Cold War. There were so many spies from so many governments crammed into that city I'm surprised the locals were able to find a seat in a bar.

While that observation doesn't provide insight into French policy, I think it does about the Assad regime. These people are basically traffic cops.   

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