International Community

The international community offered a carrot-and-stick recovery program to slow-healing Bosnia on Thursday, making aid dependent on an increased commitment to democratic reforms and a crackdown on war criminals.

WASHINGTON - The White House is considering providing weapons to the Syrian rebels, officials said Tuesday, but no decision is imminent and President Obama seemed to soften his public threats to the Syrian government over its alleged use of chemical weapons. A decision to supply weapons would mark a reversal for the Obama administration, which has resisted repeated proposals to deepen its involvement in Syria's 2-year-old conflict, which, according to the United Nations, has killed more than 70,000 people, mostly civilians.

U.S.-led troops landing in Somalia will find international relief officials already focusing on that nation's long-term needs even while rushing food to the famished millions. Relief workers, in interviews conducted since President Bush's announcement Friday of military intervention, expressed hope that the international community will look beyond delivery of food and other immediate aid and help begin rebuilding the nation. They also voiced concerns that U.S.

CAIRO - President Mohamed Morsi, at least for the moment, appears to be channeling his softer side. The beleaguered Egyptian leader this week withdrew criminal complaints filed by his office against journalists and began nightly chats with anyone who might care to send him a tweet. The moves were calculated to calm the opposition and placate an international community dismayed by his authoritarian tendencies. Neither charismatic statesman nor eloquent visionary, Morsi nonetheless seems to be attempting to calm the nation's multiplying ills with uncharacteristic gestures.

Syria yearns for freedom from the brutality of the Assad regime. For four decades, thousands upon thousands paid the price for their opposition to Bashar Assad and his father, Hafez Assad. We have been intimidated, arrested, tortured and killed. Since the uprising began in 2011, opposition forces put the death toll at more than 10,000, with many more imprisoned. And all because we want a free, fair Syria. I am 81; I have dedicated my life to advancing democracy, constitutional principles and an independent judiciary in my country.

As Bosnian government and rebel Serb troops continued heavy fighting on Tuesday, Bosnian Prime Minister Haris Silajdzic laid blame on the international community for the unraveling cease-fire in his country. Silajdzic stopped short of pronouncing the 11-week-old truce dead. But he said the military attacks launched Monday by his government in central and northeastern Bosnia-Herzegovina were an inevitable outgrowth of what he regards as the world's indifference toward Bosnian Serb aggression.

Ours is a world in which no individual and no country exists in isolation. All of us live simultaneously in our own communities and in the world at large. Peoples and cultures are increasingly hybrid. The same icons, whether on a movie screen or a computer screen, are recognizable from Berlin to Bangalore. We are all consumers in the same global economy. We are all influenced by the same tides of political, social and technological change.

Two recent events on opposite sides of the African continent provide a brutal reminder of the dangers that arise when violence and terror are seen as effective means to political power and as exempt from international punishment. In Liberia, possibly as many as 600 people, mostly women and children, were shot, slashed and bludgeoned to death by a band of soldiers widely believed to be followers of Liberian rebel leader Charles Taylor.

The U.S. Supreme Court has just ruled by a 6-3 majority that actions of U.S. law-enforcement agents outside the United States are not subject to the restraints imposed inside by the Bill of Rights. Specifically, the Supreme Court finds that American agents abroad are not bound by the Fourth Amendment guarantee of the right of the people to be secure against unreasonable searches and seizures.

DARIYA, Syria - As he hid from soldiers in a field next to his neighborhood, a young man watched as a cat wandered down a street. Suddenly, it was shot dead. That's when Zuhair noticed the sniper on a nearby roof. But a father and son walking along the street didn't see the gunman, Zuhair said. The sniper lowered his head and peered through his scope. He shot the boy first. As the man tried to grab his son, who looked to be about 10, he was shot as well. The two are among a reported 700 victims of snipers, shelling and summary executions, most of them men, since forces loyal to President Bashar Assad stormed the Damascus suburb of Dariya in late August, one in a growing list of Syrian towns and villages that briefly enter the world's spotlight, only to be replaced by another one when a new mass killing is committed.

KABUL, Afghanistan - President Hamid Karzai said Thursday that Afghan security forces were ready to protect the country if the U.S.-led NATO force speeds up its withdrawal before a scheduled 2014 departure date. Karzai also warned that no foreign advisors should be appointed to Afghanistan's Election Complaints Commission, a stance likely to antagonize the international community, which is concerned about potential vote tampering in the presidential election scheduled for 2014. Karzai's comments came at a news conference with NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen.

DARIYA, Syria - As he hid from soldiers in a field next to his neighborhood, a young man watched as a cat wandered down a street. Suddenly, it was shot dead. That's when Zuhair noticed the sniper on a nearby roof. But a father and son walking along the street didn't see the gunman, Zuhair said. The sniper lowered his head and peered through his scope. He shot the boy first. As the man tried to grab his son, who looked to be about 10, he was shot as well. The two are among a reported 700 victims of snipers, shelling and summary executions, most of them men, since forces loyal to President Bashar Assad stormed the Damascus suburb of Dariya in late August, one in a growing list of Syrian towns and villages that briefly enter the world's spotlight, only to be replaced by another one when a new mass killing is committed.

JERUSALEM - As the war of words heats up regarding a possible Israeli military strike on Iran, now is the time to look at one of the key arguments used by those opposed to such an act of self-defense. Time and again we have heard the question "Why now?" asked whenever an Israeli prime minister must make a decision that placed our nation's very existence in jeopardy. Each time, our leaders knew to focus on the real question - "What is the alternative?" - and then go forward on the lonely path toward a more secure and free Israel.

As the World Health Assembly convenes in Geneva this week, one item on the agenda will be polio, or more specifically, how to finally deliver on an epic promise made a quarter-century ago: to liberate humankind from one of the world's most deadly and debilitating diseases. The world's war on polio has been as ambitious an undertaking as the successful campaign to eradicate another great public health menace, smallpox. Slowly but surely we have advanced on that goal. Polio, a highly preventable disease, today survives in only three countries: Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan.

Syria yearns for freedom from the brutality of the Assad regime. For four decades, thousands upon thousands paid the price for their opposition to Bashar Assad and his father, Hafez Assad. We have been intimidated, arrested, tortured and killed. Since the uprising began in 2011, opposition forces put the death toll at more than 10,000, with many more imprisoned. And all because we want a free, fair Syria. I am 81; I have dedicated my life to advancing democracy, constitutional principles and an independent judiciary in my country.

To the surprise of hardly anyone, the peace plan for Syria brokered by U.N. special envoy Kofi Annan is collapsing in a hail of bullets and artillery. The question is whether anyone has the stomach for tougher action. Despite low expectations that Annan's plan for averting all-out civil war would have much influence with Syrian President Bashar Assad, it was the only one on offer - a necessary first step, according to veteran diplomats and security experts. Its failure will force the international community to reconsider more aggressive options, such as imposing a no-fly zone or authorizing pinpoint airstrikes on Syrian artillery to end the year-old conflict, which has left an estimated 9,000 people dead.

To the surprise of hardly anyone, the peace plan for Syria brokered by U.N. special envoy Kofi Annan is collapsing in a hail of bullets and artillery. The question is whether anyone has the stomach for tougher action. Despite low expectations that Annan's plan for averting all-out civil war would have much influence with Syrian President Bashar Assad, it was the only one on offer - a necessary first step, according to veteran diplomats and security experts. Its failure will force the international community to reconsider more aggressive options, such as imposing a no-fly zone or authorizing pinpoint airstrikes on Syrian artillery to end the year-old conflict, which has left an estimated 9,000 people dead.

WASHINGTON - The White House is considering providing weapons to the Syrian rebels, officials said Tuesday, but no decision is imminent and President Obama seemed to soften his public threats to the Syrian government over its alleged use of chemical weapons. A decision to supply weapons would mark a reversal for the Obama administration, which has resisted repeated proposals to deepen its involvement in Syria's 2-year-old conflict, which, according to the United Nations, has killed more than 70,000 people, mostly civilians.

WASHINGTON - U.S. intelligence agencies don't see signs that Syrian President Bashar Assad is losing his grip on power, said the chairman of the House intelligence committee during a television interview Sunday. “We don't see Assad's inner circle crumbling,” said Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.), chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence on CNN's "State of the Union" with Candy Crowley. In fact, the Syrian leadership believes they are “winning” against the armed rebels trying to topple the government, said Rogers, citing U.S. intelligence reports.

The debate on what to do about Syria is intensifying by the day, yet a consensus seems as elusive as ever. The current argument is about whether to arm the rebels. The Obama administration and its allies are opposed despite increasing pressure from influential voices deeply dismayed at the daily carnage. The problem is not with the merits of arming or helping the opposition in Syria but with the international community's approach. Incremental policymaking in response to events on the ground will lead the world down an unwanted path.