Abstract

The answer in Syria, of course, is not so simple, writes Nicholas Burns. "The United States is exhausted and risk-averse after Iraq and Afghanistan. And Syria is forbidding territory — its well-armed government is stronger than any we faced in the Balkans. Much of the fighting is in densely crowded neighborhoods in which it would be difficult for an invading force to distinguish friend or foe. President Obama is surely right not to put American troops on the ground in yet another Middle East quagmire."

Citation

Burns, Nicholas. "Syria is Melting Away." Boston Globe, March 18, 2013.