Syria Archives - Public Seminar

Democracy

Why Did Trump Let Erdogan Go?

The Turkish Invasion of Syria and the Global Alliance among Authoritarian Leaders

October 18, 2019 • by Utku Balaban

Trump imposed sanctions on Turkey, which is likely Trump’s way of both appeasing the opposition in the GOP and indirectly supporting Erdogan, as, in their current scope, the sanctions were not an effective instrument to deter Erdogan from going further. Furthermore, Trump accused Kurds of releasing the ISIS-related prisoners, while there is strong evidence ...

A Revolution’s Course Through a Revolutionary’s Trajectory

The path and fate of Abdul Baset al-Sarout

July 18, 2019 • by Yassin Al-Haj Saleh

The young footballer who at the beginning of the Syrian revolution was 19 years old -- a goalkeeper for the Homs-based Karama soccer team and the Syrian youth soccer team -- joined the revolution from its very beginning. He was recorded in a video saying that he began singing and ...

Feature

Local Trust and the Syrian Withdrawal

One Marine’s Experience with an Afghan Elder

February 14, 2019 • by Jake Davis

The recent discussions about President Trump’s decision to pull American troops from the complex political and military quagmire of the Middle East leaves me with mixed responses. While I understand how we got here, overall I do not think that we should be in Syria right now; no national policy ...

Blue Monday

Trump Unleashed

End-of-Year Thoughts on the Chaos That is Trumpism

December 31, 2018 • by Jeffrey C. Isaac

“Yes, Trump’s foreign policy is a chaotic, incoherent, dangerous mess. Yes, he is clearly and manifestly unfit for office, and should have been removed a long time ago . . . But I find Trump’s persistence in following his electoral mandate against so much Establishment pressure in this particular respect ...

Feature

What Do Military Attacks Accomplish?

Effective Action in Syria

May 1, 2018 • by Richard D. Anderson

When, on April 7, Syrian aircraft dropped canisters of toxic chlorine -- and maybe the chemical weapon sarin -- on the city of Douma, in an attack that killed seventy civilians, for once President Donald Trump spoke the truth: he called repeated chemical attacks “crimes of a monster.” On April ...

Blue Monday

Damascus Blues

On the bombing of Syria

April 16, 2018 • by Jeffrey C. Isaac

"I merely took the energy it takes to pout, and I wrote some blues." -Duke Ellington As promised by our Bloviator-in-Chief, we bombed Syria last Friday, inauspiciously the 13th of April. It was not the first time the United States has bombed Syria. The US has been conducting a low-intensity air war against ISIS, in ...

Feature

The EU-Turkey Refugee Deal

Can Turkey be considered as a ‘safe third country’?

April 13, 2018 • by Berfu Aygenc and Cagla Orpen

Since the unleashing of the civil war in 2011, millions of Syrians have been faced with the dilemma of staying in their home country, torn by a civil war and international intervention, or leaving for an uncertain destiny in foreign lands. Their efforts to settle in countries within close proximity ...

Feature

Radical Objects

A Refugee’s Life Jacket at Manchester Museum

January 22, 2018 • by Bryan Sitch

In early December 2016, I found myself in a small twin propeller aeroplane above the Aegean Sea buffeted by strong winds, the sea beneath us roiling whilst my fellow passengers quietly crossed themselves. I was travelling to Lesvos to collect a refugee’s life jacket for Manchester Museum’s collecting life project. In ...

Feature

Poland’s Immoral Refugee Policy

EU files lawsuit for refusing to admit refugees

June 29, 2017 • by Sławomir Sierakowski

On June 13, the European Commission filed a lawsuit against Poland, the Czech Republic, and Hungary, accusing them of violating European Union law by refusing to admit refugees. The next day, Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydło gave a speech at the site of the Auschwitz death camp to mark the 77th anniversary ...

Multi Media

The Unfriendly Skies, Trump & Syria, and the Easter Egg Roll

Past Present: Episode 79

April 20, 2017 • by Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, Neil J. Young and Nicole Hemmer

In this week's episode, Niki, Natalia, and Neil debate United's rough treatment of its passengers, Trump's missile attack on Syria, and the White House Easter egg roll.

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The Unfriendly Skies, Trump & Syria, and the Easter Egg Roll

Democracy

Aristotelian Reflections on President Trump’s Unauthorized Missile Strikes in Syria

The opposite of cowardice is rashness, and courage the mean between

April 8, 2017 • by Michael Weinman

Earlier in the same work, while concluding his general discussion of virtue and vice, Aristotle refers to the famous story of Odysseus facing the original “rock and a hard place” dilemma. Odysseus knows that he has no choice but to pass through the middle of the whirlpool and a ferocious ...

Aristotelian Reflections on President Trump’s Unauthorized Missile Strikes in Syria

Uncategorized

Gray is Beautiful: Israel/Palestine, Turkey/Kurdistan

October 14, 2014 • by Jeffrey C. Goldfarb

Along with most, if not all, the contributors to Public Seminar on the war in Gaza, I am critical of the actions of Netanyahu’s policies and the actions of the IDF, and I am concerned about where the center of gravity is in Israel. I see fundamental problems with the ...