A View from the Bridge

I have only covered war twice in my life: once in 2006, when I was young and reckless and wanted to experience the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, and more recently, in 2013, married with two young kids wanting to find out exactly who these Syrian Islamist brigades were. Both times, preparing for the journey mentally was much harder than actually going in: you cannot help but think about your own mortality. It does not help, of course, when you get reassuring advice from Syrian fighters who seem to...

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Blowing up the Al-Nusra Front

In the past two years, Western media coverage has focused on the growing popularity of Salafist jihadi groups like the Al-Nusra Front (Jabhat Al-Nusra) in Syria. These groups have become both an argument to intervene militarily, as well as a reason to stay out. While this fear has some basis—especially as Al-Qaeda has purportedly announced links with the Al-Nusra Front—it is also colored by post-9/11 counter-insurgency narratives. This has prevented policy makers from situating groups like J...

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