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It's still possible, in this day and age of 24/7 news coverage and citizen journalism, to destroy an entire town. As the horrible violence in the Syrian opposition stronghold of Homs has shown in the last few weeks, all you need to do is kill everybody. And as Robert Young Pelton points out, the Syrian government may have had a blueprint for this callous plan of destruction. As Pelton writes in FP, "It's impossible to know whether Syrian President Bashar al-Assad -- a longtime Russian ally -- studied the success of the last Chechen war before launching his own assault on the restive city of Homs. However, his Russian military advisors surely know the tactics well. The crackdown in Homs carries a grim echo of Grozny, both in its use of signals intelligence to track down and silence the regime's enemies and its bloody determination to obliterate any opposition, including Western journalists." The world may never know how much Syria really learned from Russia, but as the photos here show, the visual similarities between the two conflicts are shocking. Above, a house damaged by government shelling in the Baba Amr neighborhood of Homs on Feb. 11, 2012.
It's still possible, in this day and age of 24/7 news coverage and citizen journalism, to destroy an entire town. As the horrible violence in the Syrian opposition stronghold of Homs has shown in the last few weeks, all you need to do is kill everybody. And as Robert Young Pelton points out, the Syrian government may have had a blueprint for this callous plan of destruction. As Pelton writes in FP, "It's impossible to know whether Syrian President Bashar al-Assad -- a longtime Russian ally -- studied the success of the last Chechen war before launching his own assault on the restive city of Homs. However, his Russian military advisors surely know the tactics well. The crackdown in Homs carries a grim echo of Grozny, both in its use of signals intelligence to track down and silence the regime's enemies and its bloody determination to obliterate any opposition, including Western journalists." The world may never know how much Syria really learned from Russia, but as the photos here show, the visual similarities between the two conflicts are shocking. Above, a house damaged by government shelling in the Baba Amr neighborhood of Homs on Feb. 11, 2012.
It's still possible, in this day and age of 24/7 news coverage and citizen journalism, to destroy an entire town. As the horrible violence in the Syrian opposition stronghold of Homs has shown in the last few weeks, all you need to do is kill everybody. And as Robert Young Pelton points out, the Syrian government may have had a blueprint for this callous plan of destruction. As Pelton writes in FP, "It's impossible to know whether Syrian President Bashar al-Assad -- a longtime Russian ally -- studied the success of the last Chechen war before launching his own assault on the restive city of Homs. However, his Russian military advisors surely know the tactics well. The crackdown in Homs carries a grim echo of Grozny, both in its use of signals intelligence to track down and silence the regime's enemies and its bloody determination to obliterate any opposition, including Western journalists." The world may never know how much Syria really learned from Russia, but as the photos here show, the visual similarities between the two conflicts are shocking.
Above, a house damaged by government shelling in the Baba Amr neighborhood of Homs on Feb. 11, 2012.
A man walks past a bomb blast site on one of the main avenues in central Grozny on Dec. 26, 1995, after Yeltsin announced in a Security Council meeting the end of the military operation in the break-away republic of Chechnya.The first Chechen war, which lasted from 1994 to 1996, left between 30,000 and 100, 000 civilians dead.
A man walks past a bomb blast site on one of the main avenues in central Grozny on Dec. 26, 1995, after Yeltsin announced in a Security Council meeting the end of the military operation in the break-away republic of Chechnya.The first Chechen war, which lasted from 1994 to 1996, left between 30,000 and 100, 000 civilians dead.
Free Syrian Army fighters stand guard in Idlib, in northwestern Syria, on Feb. 20, 2012. The Red Cross said it was in talks with the Syrian authorities and rebels to halt the violence so it can deliver aid amid calls to allow women and children out of the besieged city of Homs.
Free Syrian Army fighters stand guard in Idlib, in northwestern Syria, on Feb. 20, 2012. The Red Cross said it was in talks with the Syrian authorities and rebels to halt the violence so it can deliver aid amid calls to allow women and children out of the besieged city of Homs.
A Chechen soldier carries a machine gun in downtown Grosny on Jan. 17, 1995, as rebels and Russian troops engaged in fierce firefights.
A Chechen soldier carries a machine gun in downtown Grosny on Jan. 17, 1995, as rebels and Russian troops engaged in fierce firefights.
A man flees sniper fire during a clash between opposition and government forces in Homs on Feb. 11, 2012.
A man flees sniper fire during a clash between opposition and government forces in Homs on Feb. 11, 2012.
Chechen fighters flee sniper fire in downtown Grozny on Jan. 15, 1995.
Chechen fighters flee sniper fire in downtown Grozny on Jan. 15, 1995.
Three members of the Syrian militia pray during a break in the fighting.
Three members of the Syrian militia pray during a break in the fighting.
A Chechen soldier puts aside his machine gun as he prays on Grozny's snowy main square on Dec. 18, 1994.
A Chechen soldier puts aside his machine gun as he prays on Grozny's snowy main square on Dec. 18, 1994.
An image grab taken on Dec. 22, 2011 from a video uploaded on YouTube shows the bodies of Syrian men who were allegedly killed by government security forces in the northwestern town of Kafer Awid in the Jebel al-Zawiyah mountains of Idlib province.
An image grab taken on Dec. 22, 2011 from a video uploaded on YouTube shows the bodies of Syrian men who were allegedly killed by government security forces in the northwestern town of Kafer Awid in the Jebel al-Zawiyah mountains of Idlib province.
An elderly Russian woman points to the body of her son who disappeared during a Russian air raid when he left his shelter to fetch some water, in Grozny on March 31, 1995.
An elderly Russian woman points to the body of her son who disappeared during a Russian air raid when he left his shelter to fetch some water, in Grozny on March 31, 1995.
A member of the Free Syrian Army takes position on Jan. 27, 2012. The violence in Syria has killed at least 7,000 people since it erupted last March, rights groups estimate.
A member of the Free Syrian Army takes position on Jan. 27, 2012. The violence in Syria has killed at least 7,000 people since it erupted last March, rights groups estimate.
A Chechen fighter takes cover from sniper fire in a building across the square from the remains of the presidential palace destroyed by Russian artillery bombardments on Jan. 10, 1995.
A Chechen fighter takes cover from sniper fire in a building across the square from the remains of the presidential palace destroyed by Russian artillery bombardments on Jan. 10, 1995.
A Chechen fighter armed with a machine gun dodges bullets as he changes his position during fighting in Grozny on Jan. 26, 1995. Russian heavy guns blasted Grozny's last Chechen-held areas, peppering streets and apartment blocks with shells as massive armored reinforcements rolled towards the city.
A Chechen fighter armed with a machine gun dodges bullets as he changes his position during fighting in Grozny on Jan. 26, 1995. Russian heavy guns blasted Grozny's last Chechen-held areas, peppering streets and apartment blocks with shells as massive armored reinforcements rolled towards the city.
A Syrian armored military convoy along the road from Beirut to Damascus in the area of Jdeideh, near the Lebanese border, on Jan. 13, 2012.
A Syrian armored military convoy along the road from Beirut to Damascus in the area of Jdeideh, near the Lebanese border, on Jan. 13, 2012.
Russian paratroopers guarded their unit's camp in Beslan, North Ossetia, on Dec. 3, 1994.
Russian paratroopers guarded their unit's camp in Beslan, North Ossetia, on Dec. 3, 1994.
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It's still possible, in this day and age of 24/7 news coverage and citizen journalism, to destroy an entire town. As the horrible violence in the Syrian opposition stronghold of Homs has shown in the last few weeks, all you need to do is kill everybody. And as Robert Young Pelton points out, the Syrian government may have had a blueprint for this callous plan of destruction. As Pelton writes in FP, "It's impossible to know whether Syrian President Bashar al-Assad -- a longtime Russian ally -- studied the success of the last Chechen war before launching his own assault on the restive city of Homs. However, his Russian military advisors surely know the tactics well. The crackdown in Homs carries a grim echo of Grozny, both in its use of signals intelligence to track down and silence the regime's enemies and its bloody determination to obliterate any opposition, including Western journalists." The world may never know how much Syria really learned from Russia, but as the photos here show, the visual similarities between the two conflicts are shocking. Above, a house damaged by government shelling in the Baba Amr neighborhood of Homs on Feb. 11, 2012.
Two years into his first term, how has U.S. President Joe Biden fared on foreign policy? Is there a clear Biden doctrine? Is America in a stronger or weaker position globally?
The answers ...Show moredepend on whom you ask.
Join FP’s Ravi Agrawal for a lively discussion about the Biden administration’s foreign-policy successes and failures half way through his first term, with Stephen Wertheim, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and Nadia Schadlow, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and a former U.S. deputy national security advisor for strategy during the Trump administration.
It's still possible, in this day and age of 24/7 news coverage and citizen journalism, to destroy an entire town. As the horrible violence in the Syrian opposition stronghold of Homs has shown in the last few weeks, all you need to do is kill everybody. And as Robert Young Pelton points out, the Syrian government may have had a blueprint for this callous plan of destruction. As Pelton writes in FP, "It's impossible to know whether Syrian President Bashar al-Assad -- a longtime Russian ally -- studied the success of the last Chechen war before launching his own assault on the restive city of Homs. However, his Russian military advisors surely know the tactics well. The crackdown in Homs carries a grim echo of Grozny, both in its use of signals intelligence to track down and silence the regime's enemies and its bloody determination to obliterate any opposition, including Western journalists." The world may never know how much Syria really learned from Russia, but as the photos here show, the visual similarities between the two conflicts are shocking. Above, a house damaged by government shelling in the Baba Amr neighborhood of Homs on Feb. 11, 2012.
When Washington seeks to curtail Beijing’s ambitions or punish Moscow for its war in Ukraine, it often turns to a familiar tool: sanctions. In the last two years, the Biden administration ...Show morehas deployed unprecedented muscle in the form of sanctions as part of its foreign-policy arsenal.
The question is whether those sanctions work effectively. In which countries are they achieving their desired impact? Where are they less successful? And how does the use of sanctions impact U.S. power more broadly?
Join FP’s Ravi Agrawal in conversation with two experts: Agathe Demarais, the global forecasting director at the Economist Intelligence Unit, and Nicholas Mulder, an assistant professor of history and a Milstein faculty fellow at Cornell University. Together, they will explore whether sanctions are an effective tool to achieve U.S. interests abroad and how the government might improve them.
It's still possible, in this day and age of 24/7 news coverage and citizen journalism, to destroy an entire town. As the horrible violence in the Syrian opposition stronghold of Homs has shown in the last few weeks, all you need to do is kill everybody. And as Robert Young Pelton points out, the Syrian government may have had a blueprint for this callous plan of destruction. As Pelton writes in FP, "It's impossible to know whether Syrian President Bashar al-Assad -- a longtime Russian ally -- studied the success of the last Chechen war before launching his own assault on the restive city of Homs. However, his Russian military advisors surely know the tactics well. The crackdown in Homs carries a grim echo of Grozny, both in its use of signals intelligence to track down and silence the regime's enemies and its bloody determination to obliterate any opposition, including Western journalists." The world may never know how much Syria really learned from Russia, but as the photos here show, the visual similarities between the two conflicts are shocking. Above, a house damaged by government shelling in the Baba Amr neighborhood of Homs on Feb. 11, 2012.
This week, Germany and the United States announced that they would be supplying Ukraine with dozens of Leopard 2 and M1 Abrams tanks to combat Russia’s invasion. Moscow said these tanks we...Show morere more evidence of direct and growing involvement by the West in the conflict. How will the delivery of these tanks change, and potentially escalate, fighting in Ukraine? And is NATO as united as it was earlier in the war?
For the latest on the Russia-Ukraine war, watch FP executive editor Amelia Lester’s timely conversation with FP’s team of reporters.
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