DUBAI (Reuters) – Iran would consider any attack on Syria an attack on itself, a senior government official was quoted as saying on Saturday, in one of Tehran’s most assertive defenses of its ally yet. Iran is a key supporter of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad who is fighting a near two-year-long revolt. Tehran has already […]Continue Reading
Veterans Today- by Jonas E. Alexis Former neoconservative luminary Francis Fukuyama of Stanford (formerly of Johns Hopkins) compares the neoconservative movement to Leninism. Neoconservatism, according to Fukuyama, is the reincarnation to some extent of both Leninism and Bolshevism. Fukuyama’s observation makes sense when even Irving Kristol, who founded the movement, proudly admitted that the “honor […]Continue Reading
It’s official. President Obama has named former Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) as his nominee for secretary of defense. Hence, we may be in store for the worst defense secretary nomination fight since George H.W. Bush’s failed appointment of Sen. John Tower (R-Texas) more than 20 years ago. The interesting question is, why? Why waste the […]Continue Reading
Here’s the first paragraph of my last year’s column “Democracy Is Impossible”: “After Moammar Gadhafi’s downfall as Libya‘s tyrannical ruler, politicians and ‘experts’ in the U.S. and elsewhere, including French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe, are saying that his death marked the end of 42 years of tyranny and the beginning of democracy in Libya. Sen. […]Continue Reading
Joel B. Pollakbreitbart.com Late yesterday, the United Nations General Assembly approved a 5% budget increase for 2012-2013–with half of the additional spending going towards the UN’s “political missions,” which typically handle peacemaking and conflict resolution. In a time of global austerity, the UN’s career diplomats have decided they deserve more cash. The spending is particularly […]Continue Reading
Syrian rebels are gaining ground and might win, Russia‘s Middle East envoy said on Thursday, in the starkest such admission from a major ally of President Bashar al-Assad in 20 months of conflict. “One must look the facts in the face,” Russia‘s state-run RIA quoted Mikhail Bogdanov as saying. “Unfortunately, the victory of the Syrian […]Continue Reading
Happy Birthday, Palestine! Strike up the band. Ice the champagne. Run up the flag. Rally and cheer. Orate and pose for the cameras. Declare victory. Dance the night away. Sing another chorus of Baladi! Baladi! Better yet, gather ’round the campfire, and pass the finjan till dawn telling glorious stories of a past that never […]Continue Reading
Speaking at a forum at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy in Washington on Friday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Israel is suspicious of Palestinians and doesn’t care enough about their plight. “I’m not making excuses for the missed opportunities of the Israelis, or the lack of generosity, the lack of empathy that […]Continue Reading
Classical explanations of conventional wars run something like this: An aggressor state seeks political advantage through military force. It has a hunch that the threatened target will likely either make concessions to avoid losing a war, or, if war breaks out, the resulting political gains will be worth the military costs to achieve victory. Wars […]Continue Reading
The conference was cancelled due to “current conditions in the region.” Gee – ya think? The announcement comes amid a flare up in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in Gaza, civil war in Syria and an unsettled political situation in Egypt. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Friday “a deep conceptual gap persists in the region” on […]Continue Reading
With the truce in the week-long Gaza war, Barack Obama is being prompted by right and left to re-engage and renew U.S. efforts to solve the core question of Middle East peace. Before he gets reinvolved in peacemaking, our once-burned president should ask himself some hard questions. Is real peace between Palestinians and Israelis even […]Continue Reading
While most Americans were focusing on the domestic implications of Barack Obama’s re-election, the effects of his victory are being felt around the globe in different ways. Further Candy Crowley of CNN and most others observing the presidential foreign policy debate in October, thought the president had everything under control with Middle Eastern dissidents. Romney […]Continue Reading
Palestinians have a fierce new song to accompany their intensified conflict with Israel. “Strike a Blow at Tel Aviv,” recorded by Shadi al-Bourini and Qassem al-Najjar, was posted last week on various Palestinian websites, including the Facebook page of the TV show Fenjan Al-Balad, which describes its mission as “trying to influence young Palestinian society […]Continue Reading