Howard LaFranchi has been the Christian Science Monitor’s diplomacy correspondent in DC since 2001. Previously, he spent 12 years as a reporter in the field; serving five years as the Monitor’s Paris bureau chief from 1989 to 1994, and as a Latin America correspondent in Mexico City from 1994 to 2001. LaFranchi has continued to travel as diplomacy correspondent and covered the Iraq War from the Monitor’s Baghdad bureau on numerous occasions.Prior to joining the Monitor, LaFranchi worked as the City Hall reporter for the Holyoke Transcript-Telegram. He is a graduate of UC Berkeley Journalism School and has a Masters Degree in Journalism from Boston University. https://www.newsdeeply.com/syria/contributor/howard-lafranchi/rss en Diplomacy & Foreign Affairs Tue, 17 Nov 2015 00:00:00 +0000 Howard LaFranchi https://www.newsdeeply.com/syria/articles/2015/11/17/will-paris-attacks-prompt-u-s-boots-on-ground https://www.newsdeeply.com/syria/articles/2015/11/17/will-paris-attacks-prompt-u-s-boots-on-ground While debate over deploying large numbers of U.S. troops to Syria and Iraq is certain to intensify after the attacks in Paris, the ‘quagmires’ of Iraq and Afghanistan are likely to deter a large-scale U.S.-led ground war against Islamic State militants on Obama’s watch.