One face of the war in Syria that Americans don’t often see is the U.S. Army trauma surgeon, standing in the midday sun on the outskirts of Raqqa, taking a brief break from her near-constant duty in the operating room treating Syrians whose limbs have been shattered by bombs and booby traps.

If President Trump fires special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, that won’t necessarily be the end of his investigation. Power to continue the inquiry, and report on its findings, could also rest with Beryl A. Howell , who, as chief judge of the U.S. District Court in Washington, oversees the Mueller grand jury.

Trump is now about to wing it on an epic, global stage in his planned face-to-face meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Nobody in Washington or abroad seems to know just what Trump wants to accomplish in the meeting — an ambiguity the president apparently views as a beneficial source of leverage.

What was Rex Tillerson’s impact on the State Department and American diplomacy, and what will global ripple effects will his successor, current CIA director Mike Pompeo, face? Judy Woodruff gets reaction and analysis from Nicholas Burns, former U.S. ambassador to NATO, David Ignatius from The Washington Post and David Shedd, former acting director of the Defense Intelligence Agency.

The Great Disrupter and the Boy Scout were never comfortable partners. So there was a sense of inevitability to President Trump’s announcement Tuesday that he was dumping Rex Tillerson as secretary of state and installing Mike Pompeo, the man he wanted in that job back in November.

Amb. Nicholas Burns challenged Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak on the 2016 election meddling at the Munich Security Conference and Kislyak refused to answer. Amb. Burns, Dr. Evelyn Farkas, and David Ignatius discuss that interaction and its significance.

If the Trump administration is really thinking about trying to give North Korea a “bloody nose” with a limited military attack, it should look carefully at Israel’s experience — which shows the possible benefits of a quick strike but also the difficulty of keeping a lid on a conflict once it starts.

Richard Helms, the godfather of modern CIA directors, prided himself on keeping his mouth shut in public. He was delighted that his 1979 biography had the starchy title “The Man Who Kept the Secrets.”

But that was then. In today’s media-driven world, former intelligence chiefs appear so regularly on cable television that they probably need agents (not the trench-coated variety) to negotiate their contracts. Five recent directors or acting directors — John McLaughlin, Michael Hayden, Leon Panetta, Michael Morell and John Brennan — all provide regular television commentary. So does James R. Clapper Jr., the former director of national intelligence.

Talking with Gen. Joseph Votel, the commander of American troops in the Middle East, is a paradoxical reminder of the limits of U.S. military power to determine political outcomes. American bombs helped destroy the Islamic State in Syria, but they can’t stitch the rag doll of the Syrian nation back together.