American intelligence and policy statements could never get it right: Assad was, alternately, a dead man walking or firmly in the saddle.

WSJ: Fouad Ajami: Obama and the Eisenhower Standard

Part Mongol, Roman, Arab, Spaniard, Mexican, '49er, the man who throws diamonds on the high trail is ready to sit in his saddle and settle in to the pokey, grunting, clopping rhythm of a pack train on the move.

ECONOMIST: New uses for an old pastime