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Welcome to the Dispatch podcast. I'm Jamie Weinstein. My guest today is Josh Rogan. He's a

columnist for the Global's opinioninion Section of the Washington Post

and a political analyst with CNN. He is also the author of Chaos Under Heaven, Trump,

She, and the Battle for the 21st Century. For the topic that we discussed today is a topic

that he has covered for well over a decade. What is happening in Syria? The fall of

Bashar Assad, the elements, the rebels who have taken him down, who are they? What is the future

that Syria might have? Why he is optimistic. We have some vibrant debate back and forth on that in several other

topics relating to that. And we also get at the end to the question of what the U.S. should do

in the Taiwanese strait. I think you're going to find this episode entertaining and interesting

and informative, at least I hope you do. So without further ado, I give you Mr. Josh

Rogan.

Josh Rogan, welcome to The Dispatch Podcast.

Thanks for having me on.

Well, thank you for joining us.

Let's begin with an issue that is obviously in the news and in a subject I know that you've covered for many years.

Syria, major news in the last week, 10 days, Bashar al-Assad, seems like all of a sudden his regime collapsed.

There's a new government in Syria, or at least forming.

What do you make of what's happened in the last two weeks?

Right.

Well, as you know, Jamie, I've been covering the conflict in Syria for 14 years.

...