Caught between the need to explore a possible diplomatic way out of an otherwise hopeless mess in Iraq and the domestic political need to keep the Democrats on the defensive, U.S. President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney are playing a double game on the...
LATAKIA, Syria – Hezbollah, a group often misunderstood by Westerners, is a militant as well as political group. The Arabic name means "Party of God." Led by the charismatic Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, the Lebanese Islamist Shi'ite group was set up in 1982 to resist...
After posing as the champion of democratic reform and the long-oppressed Shia minority in the Arab world, the administration of President George W. Bush appears to be scurrying back to Washington's traditional policy of strong support for the region's Sunni-dominated,...
Israeli air strikes on a Lebanese army base in Kfar Chima killed 11 Lebanese soldiers and injured 35 others. The strike on the base, which is located outside of Beirut, is part of a growing number of attacks on Lebanon’s infrastructure. Today’s attack was...
By declaring that "Israel has the right to defend itself," the Bush administration is tacitly approving Israel's pounding Lebanon into rubble and re-invading Gaza. Since 9/11, the administration has tried to cast its "war on terror" as broadly as...
The G-8 summit is taking place at a fortuitous global moment when Russia and the United States are facing challenges of different natures. Russia is struggling to emerge as a superpower. In the pursuit of that objective, it is encountering a lot of problems. However,...
Here we go again – another "serious escalation" has begun in the Middle East, or so BBC World was telling audiences throughout Sunday. So what prompted the BBC's judgment that the crisis was escalating once more? You can be sure it had nothing to do with the more...
President Bush will soon ask Congress to "not veto" a U.S.-Russia "civil" nuclear deal. "Not veto," because Russia is a "have-nuke" signatory to the Treaty on Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). Hence, the U.S.-Russia...
When Israeli Chief of Staff Brig. Gen. Dan Halutz said, "Nothing is safe [in Lebanon]," he was only stating the obvious. "[It's] as simple as that," he said. Lebanese ports, air and sea, power plants, television stations, bridges, roads, neighborhoods, and homes, even...
Seeing a major opportunity to regain influence lost as a result of setbacks in Iraq, prominent neoconservatives are calling for unconditional U.S. support for Israel's military offensives in Gaza and Lebanon and "regime change" in Syria and Iran, as well as...
