An expert on modern wars says the situation in the Middle East is so tangled because there are so many players and so many interests. Peter Singer of the Brookings Institution spoke Wednesday at Canisius College.
The Fitzpatrick lecturer at Canisius is an expert on warfare in this century from a military family and an elite education with high-level ties to the Obama administration.
Speaking to reporters last night, Singer says the difficulty with what's going on in Syria and Iraq is that there are so many involved. He says there is also a reluctance in Washington and in Congress to come to grips with what's going on. Singer says the goals of the mission remain vague.
"Is this a campaign to disrupt a terrorist-cross-rebel group that's seized territory that might one day be used as training for someone else to do bad things? Is this a campaign to bring back stability to Iraq and/or Syria?"
Then, Singer says there is the issue in Syria of what side the U.S. is on in a war where some groups are both fighting us and the Assad dictatorship.
