The surreal spectacle of Ahmed al-Sharaa strolling through the White House—greeting supporters, playing basketball with American military officials, and schmoozing with congressional leaders—would have been dismissed as fever-dream fantasy just two years ago. Yet here we are, watching a former al-Qaeda affiliate, once hunted by American forces in Iraq, receiving the royal treatment from a […]The post The improbable rehabilitation of al-Qaeda’s Ahmed al-Sharaa appeared first on Asia Times.