America and Iran: At the Brink of the Abyss Day after day, I get more and more appalled by the prospect of an imminent nuclear attack on Iran; not only because I was raised in Iran and I do not want to see my 2,500-year-old country be destroyed by nukes, but also...
The Fantasy of State Protection
A few days ago, I was at lunch with a colleague, an ex-military man, and the talk got to politics. I mentioned that the government was never going to voluntarily shrink in size; it would only collapse in on itself through bankruptcy. He said that he had a lot of...
Embracing a Lethal Tar Baby
America's Sunni Islamist opponents must be ever more strongly sensing that Allah truly is on their side. Currently, this perception is due not only to the recent victory of the Islamist party Hamas in Palestine's parliamentary elections, but more especially because of...
Moment of Truth
One has only to look at the headlines coming out of Iraq to see that the moment of truth has arrived: the Iraqi government is warning of an "endless civil war"; mosques across Iraq, including the "Golden Mosque" in Samarra, were targeted in a wave...
Handicapping Hamas
Hamas' history is deeply intertwined with the last stretch of Arafat's life and his sudden death. It was the disappearance of Arafat's secret treasury (estimated between $700 million and $2 billion) that paved the way to Hamas' recent victory in the Palestinian...
Placating the Greenies
The Greenies aren't particularly upset with President Bush for launching on false pretenses an unauthorized war of aggression against Iraq three years ago. Nevertheless, the Greenies are extremely upset with Bush. Why? Well, for one thing, up until now,...
Lest We Forget
Fifty years ago today, Nikita Khrushchev gave his Secret Speech to the Closed Session of the Twentieth Party Congress in which he denounced Joseph Stalin. At that time, Khrushchev, the general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, held the most...
US Holds Its Breath in Aftermath of Mosque Bombing
WASHINGTON - Two days after the bombing of one of Shia Islam's holiest shrines in Iraq, analysts and officials here are holding their breath, desperately hoping that a rapid descent into a sectarian civil war in Iraq can still be avoided, if not reversed. While a...
Backtalk, February 24, 2006
Hating ArabsDear Mr. Raimondo: I find this really disconcerting, but I actually like the way Bush has so far handled the controversy over the Dubai Ports World purchase of six U.S. ports. [Editor's note: The ports are not privately owned. Dubai Ports World purchased...
How Costly Is Too Costly?
Just when you thought it couldn't get worse the al-Askariya shrine, the Golden Mosque of Samarra, one of Shia Islam's most revered sites, was invaded by gunmen in police uniforms (possibly from Zarqawi's al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia group, though no one has yet...


