1. Sow strife in Syria and reap the whirlwind across the region (Independent)
Even those interventions filed in the "success" box have yet to produce orderly self-reliant states, says Mary Dejevsky.
2. Ghostly sect of Syria’s past haunts its future (Times) (£)
Ben Macintyre explains that the Alawites shoring up the Assad regime use hundreds of years of religious persecution to justify their brutality.
3. The madness of attacking an unknown enemy (Financial Times)
The US should at the very least be able to say that it has explored all the alternatives on Iran, says Philip Stephens.
4. Britishness: identity parade (Guardian)
Defence of the union is important, but, this editorial argues, Labour must grasp this opportunity to be the voice of devolution throughout the UK.
5. England, Miliband's England, is a lost country (Independent)
Owen Jones says that Labour would do better to champion the interests of the working people it was set up to represent.
6. What did the British ever do for the English? (Times) (£)
Ed Miliband is right to celebrate Englishness, says Philip Collins. But he risks undermining the Union that is vital to his party.
7. You don’t need to be a lefty to support Krugman (Financial Times)
Finance ministers must realise the folly of their deficit obsession, says Samuel Brittan.
8. On pensioners, Iain Duncan Smith is right: 'granny bashing' is fair (Guardian)
Gaby Hinsliff warns that a tussle in cabinet over universal benefits for old people is destined to end badly for David Cameron, whatever the outcome.
9. Pensioners' benefits cannot be untouchable (Independent)
There are hundreds of thousands of well-off old people being subsidised by the state, say this leading article.
10. John Prescott climbed the ladder – now he wants to saw it away (Daily Telegraph)
Britain's welfare system has created social apartheid with endemic unemployment. Fraser Nelson argues that work experience is not "forced labour" and helps youngsters into paid jobs.