The US regime change policy for Syria has been a catastrophe. More than 200,000 killed and an entire country reduced to rubble at least partly because President Obama decided that “Assad has lost his legitimacy.” How is it that the president of a country...
Russia’s airstrikes on rebel strongholds in Syria, now in their fifth day, are a game-changer. To borrow an aphorism from philosopher Yogi Berra, “The future ain’t what it used to be.” Yogi also warned, “It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future.”...
This past weekend marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of the reunification of Germany, an event that formalized the end of the cold war. The so-called “German Democratic Republic,” one of the most repressive of the Soviet-imposed regimes established in the wake of...
The number of cholera cases has now surpassed 800 cases. Cholera was first reported in the Abu Ghraib area, but it has since spread along the river system to several southern cities, including Basra. Authorities blame old infrastructure and low water levels for the...
The New York Times reported last week that U.S. soldiers still fighting the war in Afghanistan – 14 years on – are under orders to be “culturally sensitive” regarding different attitudes among our Afghan allies about, uh . . . the sexual abuse of children....
After midnight on August 15, 1947, India and Pakistan became separate countries. What should have been a joyous occasion – a celebration of independence from three centuries of British colonial rule – quickly turned into one of the greatest tragedies in...
Any attempt to provide a coherent account of the political strife afflicting Yemen is bound to fail. The country is crucible of contradictions that defy normal categories of rational analysis. If we look beyond the political fog that envelops the conflict the tragic...
