The 50th anniversary of the assassination and funeral of John F. Kennedy should remind us of his primary legacy: The long shadow of unintended consequences from reckless foreign intervention. JFK’s orchestration of the attempted overthrow of a foreign regime – Fidel Castro’s in Cuba – is usually treated in American history as a one-off disaster …
Continue reading “JFK’s Real Legacy: Unintended Consequences of Needless Foreign Meddling”
At least 30 Iraqis were killed and 37 more were wounded in today’s attacks. Also, the Justice Ministry announced the executions of 11 prisoners convicted on terrorism charges.
“We will put pressure on America, and our protest will continue if drone attacks are not stopped,” said an angry Imran Khan, leader of Pakistan’s third largest political party, the PTI (the Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaaf). He was speaking on Saturday, November 23, to a crowd of over 10,000 protesters who blocked the highway used by NATO …
Continue reading “Drone Strikes in Pakistan: Reapers of Their Own Destruction”
More than ever, Israel is isolated from world opinion and the squishy entity known as "the international community." The Israeli government keeps condemning the Iran nuclear deal, by any rational standard a positive step away from the threat of catastrophic war. In the short run, the belligerent responses from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are bound …
Continue reading “Overplaying Its Hand, Israel Still Holds Plenty of US Cards”
The “first step” agreement between Iran and the United States that was sealed in Geneva over the weekend is supposed to lead to the negotiation of a “comprehensive settlement” of the nuclear issue over the next six months, though the latter has gotten little attention. But within hours of the agreement, there are already indications …
Continue reading “US Officials Hint at Reservations on Final Nuclear Deal”
“Iran’s Nuclear Triumph” roared the headline of the Wall Street Journal editorial. William Kristol is again quoting Churchill on Munich. Since the news broke Saturday night that Iran had agreed to a six-month freeze on its nuclear program, we are back in the Sudetenland again. Why? For not only was this modest deal agreed to …
Continue reading “Is the Superpower Afraid of Iran?”
At least 42 people were killed and 97 more were wounded in fresh violence. Most of the attacks were in Baghdad and Mosul, but a former lawmaker was killed in rare violence south of the capital.
After a year of talks over the post-2014 US military presence in Afghanistan, the US administration announced last week that a new agreement had finally been reached. Under the deal worked out with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, the US would keep thousands of troops on nine military bases for at least the next ten years. …
Continue reading “Can Karzai Save Us?”
The news that the P5 + 1 and the Iranians have reached an interim agreement limiting Tehran’s nuclear program sent a chill down my spine. That may seem like a counterintuitive reaction: after all, wouldn’t a shout of joy be more appropriate? Finally, after decades of a very tense adversarial relationship – which more than …
Continue reading “A Moment of Great Danger”
At least 19 people were killed and 28 more were wounded in the latest violence in Iraq.
