The pinkish area indicates territory controlled by pro-government forces. The gray is territory under the control of ISIS. The yellow is the area under Kurdish control. The other colors indicate other resistance groups or contested areas.
The hell of the Syrian civil war continues:
Back in 2012, President Barack Obama said that Syrian use of chemical weapons would be “a red line” for the United States. That line has now been repeatedly crossed.
It seems to me that, if one is going to talk about “red lines” or “lines in the sand,” one needs to be prepared to act when such lines have been violated. Or, alternatively, it would be far preferable not to mention them. Perhaps it’s best not to commit to military intervention in Syria — I can certainly think of arguments to that effect — but, in that case, one shouldn’t threaten it. Empty threats, shown to be empty, make the person or government issuing them very difficult to take seriously.
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