Syria 'Influence Game' Explores US Engagement With Iran
In an exclusive report, Barbara Slavin covers a "competitive influence" game meant to stretch the minds of the US military. The object of the game, she writes, was not to overthrow Assad, tame Hezbollah or stop Iran’s nuclear program, but to leverage US capabilities and alliances and better understand how the region’s many actors fit together.
A year from now, the US, NATO and Arab allies will be patrolling a no-fly zone over a safe haven in northwestern Syria that is home to more than 1.5 million internally displaced Syrians and non-Syrian refugees.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, while still in power in Damascus, will have been severely injured by a suicide bomber.
