When the Adriana, an overcrowded migrant boat, sank in Greek waters in June, drowning hundreds, the catastrophe was unusual in scale, but those traveling on global migration routes regularly encounter terrible hardship. Most of the coverage of this story, however, was limited to the disaster itself, neglecting to illuminate how a complex, multi-faceted, and deeply…
BY GEORGE SALAMON / “Iranian military commander tells Obama ‘all options are on the table’” Raw Story, March 16, 2013; “’All options are on the table’ in dealing with Iran,” Obama said, CBS News, March 20, 2013; “’All options are on the table,’” President Obama on Syria, USA Today, June 1, 2013; “’All options are on the table,’ Israeli Deputy Minister of Defense Danny Danon warned,” WND, November 24, 2013
BY GEORGE SALAMON / Many journalists were as puzzled by President Obama’s zigzagging on Syria as were their readers or viewers. The words used to describe his changing positions heard most often in both camps were “confused, confusing, muddled.” Detractors described his stance as “incoherent incompetence.” No one offered a compelling view of the forces within the president that might have shaped so perplexing a path his positions took.
That is, until Erica Ariel Fox explained it all to us in “Understanding Obama’s Syria Negotiation – With Himself,” published Sept. 4 on the Forbes magazine website.