Category Archives

Archive of posts published in the category: Middle East

Intervention and Abdication

from the Wall Street Journal Editorial Board, The West’s Refugee Crisis The lesson is that while intervention has risks, so does abdication. The difference is that at least intervention gives the West the opportunity to shape events, often for the

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The Real Cost of Virtue

from Bret Stephens at The Wall Street Journal, Farewell to the Era of No Fences: How did this happen? We mistook a holiday from history for the end of it. We built a fenceless world on the wrong set of

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Ideas Will Remain

from Jeff Jacoby in the Boston Globe,’ I see parchment burning, but the letters are soaring free’ I refuse to excerpt this article. I insist you read it in its entirety.

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More than Mere Tactics

At an industry meeting last week at the Broadmoor in Colorado Springs, CO, the first speaker on Monday, May 2,  was General Stanley McChrystal.  Given the killing of Bin Laden the day before he changed his topic from one of

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The Israelis did not Kill Massoud Mohammadi

… according to Mideast expert Micah Halpern Excerpt This explosion was so powerful and out of control it was designed to kill, maim and damage in a wide circumference around the bomb. This was not the work of a Western

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Peace is Not a Process

Jeff Jacoby in the Boston Globe Peace vs the ‘peace process’ October 14, 2009 Excerpts: In an important article in the current Middle East Quarterly, Daniel Pipes reviews the terrible failure of the 1993 Oslo accords, and homes in on

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A Twitter Conspiracy

The Tehran Times complains that Israel has too many friends on the internet. Read the story here. It is hard to make this stuff up.

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Ironies of Modern War

When the Soviet Union lost the Cold War and the Berlin Wall came down, it was a momentous time. We expected peace in our time. Without two superpowers deterred by mutually assured destruction (MAD) the threat of a nuclear holocaust

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Whose Preconditions?

“.. we have been talking to the Iranians, almost non stop, for 30 years. There isn’t an American president from Jimmy Carter to the present who has not authorized negotiations with Iran. The classic case occurred during the Clinton administration.

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Sunnis and Shias in Iran

Sunnis believe that we know the succession of Mohammed therefore religious leaders should function in government. Shiites believe that the rightful successor to Mohamemd is yet to come and therefore no religious leader should sit in a positon of government

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Reactions to the Lack of Jewish Support

The greatest proponents for a pro Israel policy are the evangelical Christians and the Jews, in that order. It is a given that the evangelicals will have little influence in an Obama administration. The Jewish leverage is at risk if

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Britain’s Middle East Hypocrisy

Triple Cross: How Britain Created the Arab-Israel ConflictBy Rachel Neuwirth in American Thinker. Rachel writes a wonderful article about the incredible hypocrisy of the British media and academics constantly condemning Israel when the British themselves were monumentally repsonsible for creating

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How to Make the Oil Problem Worse

The call for an excess profits tax on our oil companies is economically ignorant and dangerous. This was last tried under our worst president ever, Jimmy Carter, and it led to higher prices, and gas lines. While we all feel

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True Citizen Soldiers

CBS’s 60 minutes ran an informative piece on the Israeli Airforce, the IAF. Unlike other nations where the airforce fighter pilots are selected from a group of volunteers,the IAF get first dibs from the entire pool of Israeli draftees. Only

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America’s Secret Weapon

Ralph Peters, a critic of the Rumsfeld fiasco period, is high on Defense Secretary Robert Gates and his selection of soldiers’ soldiers to run the war. The article, Gates’s Grand Slam. General Robert Patraeus will take over US Central Command.

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A Few Questions for Carter

Carter is like a case of diplomatic herpes; he is embarassing and never seems to go totally away. It is comforting to know that Syria and Hamas is so willing to bring peace, if those pesky Israelis just would not

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How Will Bush Be Seen in the Future?

Defending or even praising the state of affairs in Iraq and the Middle East is like arguing whether mustard based or honey based bar-B-Q sauce tastes better on a turd. But ‘World War IV’ by Norman Podhorertz makes a solid

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Osama in Iran?

Jon Caruthers hypothysizes in American Thinker, Whither Osama, (article) that Osama may be hiding out in Iran and that is why we have had no major attack on US soil. Iran realizes that a major attack would attract an Iraq

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Surge Results and Demon Bush

Al Qaeda is almost finished in Iraq. In an article in the Washington Post by Amit Paley we note in 2007 the U.S. military has killed 2,400 suspected members and captured 8,800. They have been totally driven out of Baghdad

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The Growth of Alternative Fuels

Getting America less dependent on foreign oil has great security implications because dollars we spend on Middle Eastern oil are going to fund radical Islamic terroristic activity, largely targeting America. Because this is relevant beyond our mere personal budgets, activists,

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