Should private contractors like Blackwater be allowed to continue to provide armed security for convoys, diplomatic and other personnel, and military bases and other facilities in Afghanistan and Iraq? A bipartisan U.S. Congressional commission will spend two days...
Wednesday: 8 Iraqis Killed, 39 Wounded
Turkey’s Policy Toward Iran Is Worth Emulating
The sad truth is that if Iran wants a nuclear weapon, it will likely eventually get one. So the United States should quit wasting valuable political capital beseeching, threatening, and horse-trading with China, Russia, and other UN Security Council members to...
US High Court Derails Rendition Victim’s Lawsuit
The quest for justice for a Canadian who was mistakenly tagged as a terrorist by U.S. authorities and shipped off to a Syrian prison for close to a year of abuse came to an abrupt halt Monday when the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear his case. Maher Arar is a...
Historical Lessons Warn Against Modern US Foreign Policy
This writer has recently published a book which examines the cultural origins of a certain American outlook that, since the Second World War, has inspired generally unsuccessful military interventions into non-Western countries, the most dramatic of them being the...
Israeli Attack May Violate International, Maritime Laws
When two widely divergent investigative panels launch their probes on the recent Israeli attack on a flotilla of ships carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza, one of the disputed issues under scrutiny would be the legality of forcibly boarding a vessel in international...
Afghan Bling!
Just as John McCain was telling Gen. David Petraeus how worried he is that the US is going to leave Afghanistan before “the job” is done, the General's head dropped onto the desk in front of him: had he passed out from ennui? McCain had the same effect on the American...
Entering the Soviet Era in America
Mark it on your calendar. It seems we've finally entered the Soviet era in America. You remember the Soviet Union, now almost 20 years in its grave. But who gives it a second thought today? Even in its glory years that “evil empire” was sometimes referred to as “the...
Tuesday: 1 US Soldier, 12 Iraqis Killed; 22 Iraqis Wounded
COIN Think-Tank Jumps Shark
The first thing one noticed about this year's annual conference for the Center for a New American Security – the think-tank for the Washington defense and foreign policy establishment today – is how un-newsworthy it was. In fact, Google it, and pretty much nothing...