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Colonel (retired) P.J. Dermer was one of the military’s foremost Middle East and national security experts. His career spanned over 30 years and included conventional and special operations arenas. He has extensive coalition-building experience working with international counterparts to foster the Middle East peace process, rebuild Iraq, and navigate the conflict states of Libya and Syria. He has advised, mentored, and written extensively for the nation’s senior military and civilian leadership. In his post-military career, P.J. has used his experience and skills to teach and mentor, as well as to foster private business enterprise development. He is a Wounded Warrior Peer Mentor and Mission Continues (Veteran NGO) Fellow. He is a published author and is multilingual.
Recent Russian activity in Syria is not about combating the Islamic State, despite Russian claims to the contrary. Though actively fighting ISIS and thus propagating its long-stated goal of keeping Assad in power would seem to be the straightforward explanation for Russia’s recent behavior, the fact that Russian strikes are also hitting U.S.-backed, rebel-held areas demonstrates the hollowness of official discourse.
