Ted Snider

The wide wake that the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is leaving across the Levant is mysterious in a number of ways. How they have so easily overwhelmed a third of Syria and a quarter of Iraq is one. But perhaps most mysterious is the American response to the rise of the Islamic … Continue reading “The American Response to ISIS: They’re Patterns, Not Coincidences”

In history, as in fiction writing, where you decide to start your narrative plays a major role in shaping your story. The story of the causes of a particular historical event can be shaped by the historians and writers who have access to the media and publishers depending on where they decide to start their … Continue reading “Timelines and Historical Creationism”

Once in a while the inconsistencies in American foreign policy become sufficiently clear to reveal the consistency in American foreign policy. Three contemporary inconsistencies in Iraq and Syria, all clearly connected, converge to throw America’s consistent foreign policy into sharp relief. In an astonishing shift of geopolitical realities, America finds itself, literally, at war with … Continue reading “Taking Out Our Friends So We Can Install Our Enemies. What?”

When instability is stirred up in the streets by a minority group too small to change a government in the polls but big enough to look like a massive social democratic movement in the street, it can lead to one of at least three kinds of coups. In the first type, the domestic military intervenes … Continue reading “Ukraine and Twenty-First Century Coups”

Last night, as I watched the television news, there were consecutive stories on massive street protests in Ukraine and Venezuela. They were all presented as democratic protests against undemocratic and unresponsive governments. Not one of the stories mentioned the not unimportant detail that, in each case, the violent street protests were targeting governments democratically elected … Continue reading “Try and Try Again: Obama’s Silent Coups”

The perfectly timed release of photographic evidence of torture and killing on the part of the Syrian government on the very eve of the Geneva II peace talks may or may not be authentic. There have been atrocities on both sides, and these pictures could be evidence of government atrocities. But one cannot forget the … Continue reading “Switching Sides in Syria? Unbelievable, but Not Unprecedented”

As the pendulum swings wildly between unexpected rapid success and unexpected rapid falling apart at the P5+1 nuclear negotiations in Geneva, media reports continue, in virtually every article, to remind us of the fragility of diplomatic efforts due to "hardliners" both in America and in Iran. But, to imply an equality between the two groups … Continue reading “Their Hardliners Are Right; Our Hardliners Are Wrong”

Recent revelations about Iraq have exposed a pattern that may be just as revelatory about Syria. When the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons recently won the Nobel Peace prize, its former director general, José Bustani, decided to finally discuss the circumstances behind his firing eleven years ago. Bustani says that the Bush administration … Continue reading “Don’t Take Your Eye Off Regime Change”

Are we just being fooled by Iran? Are we being seduced by a Persian snake charmer only to later be stung by his nuclear bite? According to Israel we are. Israel’s Minister of Intelligence, International Relations and Strategic Affairs, Yuval Steinitz says that newly elected Iranian President Hassan Rouhani "has launched a charm offensive on … Continue reading “Is Iran Just Fooling Us?”

When Hassan Rouhani recently announced at his first press conference as the new President of Iran that he is ready to enter "serious and substantive" negotiations with the United States "if the United States shows goodwill and mutual respect", the statement was heralded by the Western media as a hopeful new beginning for Iranian nuclear … Continue reading “Iran, Egypt, and America”