Pat Buchanan Quotes

Initially, before the modern state of Iraq was created, there were three separate provinces here: a Shiite in the south, a largely Sunni one in the middle, and a Kurdish one in the north.

There is little doubt that an unstable Syria will destabilize the whole Middle East.

The understanding of Syria's devastating civil war has been distorted by the immense danger and difficulty of covering it.

It was, however, in the interest of Osama bin Laden for us to destroy a secular Arab leader; it was very much in the interest of the Iranians because they wanted revenge against Saddam Hussein for Iraq's invasion in 1980.

President Bashar Assad's regime is in the unique position of being targeted both by Israel and supporters of al Qaeda.

I think Syria is in a particularly sensitive geopolitical position in terms of the politics of the Middle East.

The main problem that we have in Lebanon, and in the region, is we don't have a real peace process and I think this is the main focal problem that we have in the region.

The Lebanese Civil War, 1975-1990, spanned four World Cups. It would have been a more symmetrical five had the Lebanese begun in 1974, but you know, we're Mediterranean, and timing isn't our forte.

For decades, the violence in the Middle East has claimed a multitude of innocent civilian victims: Men, women and children, Arab and Israeli.

Israel lost its war. Will Assad's enemies lose, too?

ISIS is in many ways a creation of the Syrian regime.

We don’t like the Ayatollah either, but this may be a conflict between the Ayatollah Khomeni and Saddam Hussein.

The Middle East that will emerge from the crucible of the Iraq war may not be more democratic, but it will definitely be more Shiite.

There is the regional rivalry between Saudi and Iran that is getting more and more dangerous, leading to proxy wars. There is the need for recognition of Israel's borders.

I don't want to be overly dramatic, but Iraq and Syria are gone, and they aren't coming back, at least not as centralized states.

Saudi Arabia must return to fully supporting the Syrian revolution and to ally with the Turks.

Hezbollah is in Syria and Iraq and Yemen, so people should not focus on Hezbollah that it's a Lebanese entity only, but it's something regional.

Syria is attracting a lot more Westerners than the Iraq War ever did because it's the perfect Sunni jihad.

The answer as to why ISIS gained power and influence, and why stability in the Middle East has disastrously deteriorated, does not require extensive analysis.

The country of Iraq is somewhat of an artificial creation going back to colonial days. And so you have the Kurds and then the Sunnis in the north predominantly and Shias in the south.

I'm no apologist for Russia or the Assad regime, but actually, this has been staring us in the face for a number of years now, and I think it's time to turn a page and accept reality. Our strategy - if that is the right word - failed miserably, and Russia's with Iran has been successful.

Da'esh and Assad are not separate problems.

Even when you just hear the word 'Syria,' it packs a lot of political connotations.

I have long argued that ISIS and Assad are not separate problems to be chosen between, but are action and reaction, cause and symptom, chicken and egg: impossible to untangle no matter how much we might like to.

Аt the end of the day, unless Iran and Russia want to have a rump Allawite state and a rump Sunni state, and a Kurdish state, then they're going to have to come to the table and bring about an end to this regime.