Politics

Syrian armed forces have entered Palmyra after fierce clashes with ISIS terrorists who have been controlling the ancient city since last year, state TV has announced. They said that government troops, backed by army air power, drove back ISIS militants and reached the heart of the city. The advance comes after the Syrian army and allied militia took control of several hills overlooking the city earlier this week. Press TV reports: Army forces have retaken control of Palmyra’s northern hotel district as well as the farms situated west of the city.

Ted Cruz made some remarks at an old CNN town hall* that capture much of what’s wrong with his foreign policy views:

Paul Ryan gave a speech yesterday on “the state of American politics”. It wasn’t very good, and Daniel Larison ably criticizes it here.

The rise of Donald Trump has led to predictions that the neoconservative dominance of Republican foreign policy is about to end, whether or not Trump wins. The Donald has challenged the perpetual military interventionism aspect of neocon-think without doing any damage to his campaign and, in the process, he has certainly noticed who the most strident voices being raised against him are.

Micah Zenko marks the fifth anniversary of the Libyan intervention by poking holes in the official justification for the war:

In truth, the Libyan intervention was about regime change from the very start. The threat posed by the Libyan regime’s military and paramilitary forces to civilian-populated areas was diminished by NATO airstrikes and rebel ground movements within the first 10 days. Afterward, NATO began providing direct close-air support for advancing rebel forces by attacking government troops that were actually in retreat and had abandoned their vehicles.