New evidence has now surfaced from former Israeli defense minister Ehud Barak that Israel came close to attacking Iran three times over the past few years – if you believe what major news media reported about the story. But you shouldn’t believe it. The...
Poor Burundi. This Vermont-sized African country has been put under a microscope by the world’s punditsphere and has been thrust onto the first stage of the media cycle as of late, ever since its incumbent president Pierre Nkurunziza (CNDD-FDD) decided to run for a...
Protests resumed again in several cities on Friday. The protest in Baghdad may have been the biggest one yet this year thanks to participation by Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr’s followers. Essentially, demonstrators demanded real change. Some complained that, so far,...
“May you live in interesting times” – that old (supposedly Chinese) curse seems to define the world today. “Interesting” is meant in the snarkish sense: it is a euphemism for unpleasant, or even intolerable, although in the present context I think a more appropriate...
In April, former president George W. Bush told a group of supporters that he wanted to sit out of his brother’s campaign because voters have an aversion to the Oval Office becoming a family affair. On September 10, W. will be the man in charge at a fundraiser for Jeb...
Another war is in the making in Libya: the questions are "how" and "when"? While the prospect of another military showdown is unlikely to deliver Libya from its current security upheaval and political conflict, it is likely to change the very...
As the US stock market was dropping 1,000 points on Monday morning, US commentators were pinning the blame on China. The Chinese economy, they said, was slowing down: what had been the “engine” of worldwide economic expansion was running out of fuel. The clear...
