Jim Lobe

Six and a half years after U.S. President George W. Bush launched his “global war on terror,” suspicion of U.S. motives remains pervasive throughout the Islamic world, according to a new and highly detailed survey of four countries [.pdf] released Tuesday. An average of more than 75 percent of respondents across the four countries – … Continue reading “Survey Finds Suspicion of US Pervasive in Islamic World”

Halfway through the implementation of U.S. President George W. Bush’s "surge" strategy to enhance security in Baghdad and Iraq’s predominantly Sunni Muslim al-Anbar province, evidence that it is turning the tide nationwide is hard to come by. While civilian deaths in the Iraqi capital have fallen from the high levels before the surge was launched … Continue reading “US Surge Strategy Successful – in Shifting the Violence”

President George W. Bush’s ongoing "surge" of some 35,000 troops to add to the 140,000 already deployed in Iraq is highlighting growing concern, particularly among the military brass, that the U.S. army is overstretched and fast becoming "broken." An increasing number of senior retired officers, some of whom had previously expressed optimism that the active-duty … Continue reading “Breaking the Army”

It has an all-too-familiar ring to it. A crisis area – in this case, the Middle East – finds itself in desperate need of a peace process capable of tamping down the forces of violence and destabilization which the United States itself has played a central role in unleashing. Regional efforts at diplomacy – in … Continue reading “Syria, Elliot Abrams, and the Contras All Over Again”

The drama surrounding the release of 15 British sailors and marines after 12 days in Iranian captivity was designed to convey two key messages that the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush would do well to heed, say experts here. First, the Britons’ original capture by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard near the entry to … Continue reading “Lessons in Capture, Release of Britons”

Increasingly anxious about the course of U.S. foreign policy under President George W. Bush, particularly in Iraq, the country appears to be moving toward a "full-blown crisis of public confidence," according to the latest "Confidence in U.S. Foreign Policy" survey designed by veteran pollster Daniel Yankelovich released here Tuesday. Among other findings, the survey, the … Continue reading “Public Anxiety Over Foreign Policy Nears ‘Crisis’”

To the extent the administration of President George W. Bush has a coherent Middle East policy, it took some serious hits this past week. No, not the democracy-promotion strategy, although that didn’t fare very well either given what even the State Department conceded was the obvious rigging of the constitutional-reform referendum that Amnesty International called … Continue reading “Tough Week for Bush’s
Middle East Strategy”

With U.S. President George W. Bush reiterating his threat to veto legislation that makes funding for the Iraq war conditional on a deadline for withdrawing at least some U.S. troops, Washington appeared Wednesday to be moving rapidly toward a major confrontation between the White House and Democrats in Congress. The latter won a major victory … Continue reading “Showdown Looms Over Iraq Withdrawal”

As U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice wound down her latest and most intense round of Middle Eastern "shuttle diplomacy" Monday, a star-studded international cast of former top-ranking diplomats and government leaders said they were "convinced there exists now a major opportunity to reach a comprehensive Arab-Israeli settlement." But the 24-member board of trustees of … Continue reading “Possible Breakthrough Seen in Israeli-Arab Peace”

How seriously and to what ends is the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush willing to engage the new Palestinian government of national unity? As Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice makes her seventh visit to the Middle East in the last eight months, that is the question that foreign policy analysts and diplomats here … Continue reading “Tentative Moves Toward New Palestine Govt”