November 17 - The Press's Barking Dogs of War; Why is Daesh Picking a Fight With the US, France, Russia and the Rest of the World?; Is Kerry Too Optimistic About a Syrian Peace Deal

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with the barking dogs of war in the press calling on President Obama to man up and as Jim Acosta of CNN put it, “take out these bastards”, referring to daesh or the Islamic State who are responsible for the massacres in Paris. An award-winning investigative correspondent for CNN, ABC and NBC, Mark Feldstein, a professor and the Chair of Broadcast Journalism at the University of Maryland, joins us to discuss the clamor from journalist, pundits, Republican politicians and some Democrats like Senator Diane Feinstein, to pressure Obama to take the gloves off and go to war in Syria against daesh with or without a plan.

Part 2

Then we get an assessment of Secretary of State Kerry’s optimistic assertion that “we are weeks away, conceivably, from the possibility of a big transition in Syria”. Joshua Landis, the director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma who writes “Syria Comment”, a daily newsletter and blog on Syrian politics, joins us to discuss what daesh hopes to gain from picking a fight with France, Russia, the U.S., Saudi Arabia and Turkey, and what kind of deal might be in the works assuming there is a ceasefire and a peace plan to follow.

Part 3

Then finally we get a second opinion on whether Kerry’s announcement that a shift could come in weeks because the U.S., Iran, Saudi Arabia and a dozen other countries had agreed on a framework to end the crisis in Syria, is realistic. Nader Hashemi, the Director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Denver and author of “The Syria Dilemma”, joins us to discuss whether the Secretary of State’s optimism is justified given the past record of failed attempts at a ceasefire, let alone a peace deal.