From Gregge Jaffe, the Washington Post:  The Obama administration is considering nominating retired Lt. Gen. Douglas Lute as the next commander of the U.S.

The last convoy of US soldiers pulled out of Iraq on December 18, 2011, leaving Iraqis with mixed feelings: pride in gained sovereignty, but anxiety about sectarian violence and the inability of Iraq’s security forces to maintain peace on their own.

When Marine Staff Sergeant Frank Wuterich was handed a suspended sentence of three months on Wednesday for his role as squad leader of a group that massacred 24 unarmed Iraqis in Haditha six years ago, it naturally sparked an outrage. To many here in the U.S., in Iraq, and in the Muslim world writ large, this will likely be seen as the U.S. military excusing a heinous crime.

From Anne-Marie Slaughter, the Atlantic:  A full-fledged civil war in Syria could quickly become a proxy war between Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and/or at least some NATO countries on one side against Iran, Russia, Hizbollah, and possibly Iraq and Hamas on the other.

Michele Dunne, director of the Atlantic Council's Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East, took part in a virtual US News and World Report debate on "Did the US Withdraw from Iraq Too Soon?"

From Soner Cagaptay, the Bangkok Post:  As Egyptians and Tunisians vote to replace ousted despots and the Syrian government teeters on the brink, two old imperial powers are competing to exert their political influence over Arab countries in upheaval.

From the Economist:  Perhaps the least remarked upon part of the new strategy is the seemingly bleak future for American forces in Europe.

On Dec. 18, 2010, a police slap of a vegetable-cum-fruit peddler in the Tunisian town of Sidi Bouzid triggered an "Arab Spring" that no one had forecast and that quickly spawned a long, dark Arab winter.