Special All-Syria Edition: Week to Week News Quiz

Syrian dictator Bashir al-Assad.
Photo: Fabio Rodrigues Pozzebom / ABr

Well, about 92 percent all-Syrian. You'll see what I mean. Nonetheless, how much do you know about the country at the center of the world's attention (and our president's gunsights)? Find out.

Take the quiz at Huffington Post

The Scandal that Didn't Happen: Gen. Sheehan and His Srebrenica Gay Panic Claims

U.S. General John Sheehan, a former NATO commander, disgraced himself by testifying at a congressional hearing about allowing gays to serve openly in the military when he said he'd been told by Dutch military members that the 1995 massacre of 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica was caused by the presence of openly gay soldiers in the Dutch army.

The former chief of staff is said to have told the credulous Sheehan that unease over the gay soldiers was "part of the problem," reports BBC.

The Dutch hit back pretty forcefully:

"It is astonishing that a man of his stature can utter such complete nonsense," Dutch defence ministry spokesman Roger van de Wetering said in response. "The Srebrenica massacre and the involvement of UN soldiers was extensively investigated by the Netherlands, international organisations and the United Nations. "Never was there in any way concluded that the sexual orientation of soldiers played a role."

I never could understand how the increasingly Religious Right-dominated U.S. armed forces could be so scared of gays in their midst, yet they are happy to have the militaries of allies such as the U.K. or Australia serve in Afghanistan or Iraq -- yet both of those militaries have gays serving openly.

Sheehan's an embarrassment.

Gen. Casey Downplays Need for New Draft

Speaking at The Commonwealth Club of California yesterday (Sept. 28, 2007), the U.S. Army Chief of Staff was asked about the possibility that the U.S. would need to reinstitute a draft because of the military being overstretched in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Nein, Danke

A rather jaw-dropping story from the great German newsweekly Der Speigel. It seems French President Nicolas "Speedy" Sarkozy is getting, well, odder as the weeks go by. He recently met with German Chanceller Angela Merkel and her foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier (a recent speaker at The Commonwealth Club of California, BTW) and offered nuclear weapons. In Der Spiegel's priceless reporting, "Both the chancellor and her foreign minister were speechless. The idea of possessing nuclear weapons is taboo in Germany. Sarzoky's predecessor Jacques Chirac cautiously brought up the issue 12 years ago, but he quickly realized it was pointless to pursue it."

Sort of a faux pax of Bushish levels, isn't it? As the above quote indicates, the offer itself is not unique; it was made "cautiously" 12 years ago by Chirac. But it strikes me that it's important because it shows Sarkozy doesn't really understand his neighbors – and his most important neighbor, at that.

Put me in the camp that thinks Germany needs to reasses its defense and security needs and procedures, and adapt itself to a new world in which the country's heartfelt revulsion toward the crimes of the Nazi regime have left it admirably restrained. But that restraint has also arguably left it vulnerable to foreign and domestic threats.

But even with that said, Sarkozy seems to display a tone-deafness when trying to figure out how to treat his neighbors. High hopes for Sarkozy's self-defined role as a reformer could be dashed if he doesn't ascend a steep learning curve.