Odds and Ends 

Amid Escalating Syrian Carnage, Turkey Shoots Down Assads Planes

GAZIANTEP, TurkeyOver the last several days Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoan has pulled out all the stops in his attempts to deal with the Syrian crisis, even shooting down fighter jets from the Assad regime air force. It's a very high-risk strategy in a complicated conflict that's less a chess match than a game of deadly tic-tac-toe, with every option blocked until nobody wins. Erdoan's campaign is an attempt to exert maximum pressure on his two purported allies, the adversaries Russia and the United States, using the Americans to influence…

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Odds and Ends 

Is U.S. Embassy Attack in Baghdad Part of an Iran Trap?

JERUSALEMIf Irans grand plan in the Middle East is to push the Americans out and squeeze Israel into a corner, the first time that Israel has attacked Iranian-backed groups there. Two days after Kochavis speech, 32 targeting Kataib Hezbollah. The two incidents now bring into view both Israeli and American red lines trying to contain Irans role in the region. strong and sovereign Iraq, according to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. And the U.S. military is in Iraq at the more than 1,000 airstrikes on as many as 250 Iranian…

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