Trying to track—let alone make sense—of recent developments around Iran is enough to make one reach for that stuff they just found lots of in Afghanistan: lithium.
Crazy Talk in the Middle East
read more
Middle East & North Africa
60 Second Expert: Democratic Party Defends Israeli Attack
In Congress, Democratic leaders find common ground with their Republican counterparts in their effort to defend the Israeli assault on unarmed humanitarian aid flotillas. In a sharp contrast with the broad international consensus, a number of democratic representatives and senators proclaimed that the murder of nine activists, which took place in international waters, were inevitable and justified as Israel’s “right to self-defense.”
Prolonging the Gaza Failure
The recent Israeli raid on the flotilla bringing aid to Gaza — which resulted in the deaths of nine civilians, more injuries, and near-global condemnation for Israel’s actions — has brought a lot of attention to Gaza in the past few weeks. Unfortunately, much of the discourse has centered on the specific incident itself (such as who fired first and whether Israeli troops were right to protect themselves), and not about the politics and conditions in Gaza overall.
Reader Challenge: Trade Flotilla Investigation for Blockade?
Israel intends to ease the blockade on Gaza in exchange for American support for a whitewash of the investigation into the Flotilla incident. Is this nothing more than appeasement?
Poking a Stick Into the Honor Killing v. Domestic Violence Debate
Is it wise to sweep honor killings under the general heading of domestic violence? Does something get lost in translation?
What Does Gary Brooks Farber’s Quixotic Mission Say About the Rest of Us?
Bin Laden’s crime may have been a form of blowback. But why do Americans show little interest in bringing him, if still alive, to justice?
Leave Afghanistan and Declare bin Laden Dead in One Fell Swoop
What if we not only left Afghanistan but declared bin Laden dead? (The burden would be on jihadis to prove he’s alive.)
Are Foreign Lives of Equal Worth to Ours?
The mechanization of war has resulted in treating other nations’ citizens as less than equal to citizens of the United States. U.S. military actions kill innocent civilians in a repeated and almost routine manner. However, modern communications are informing people around the world that U.S. policies value other citizens less than its own.
An Iran-U.S. Grand Bargain
Iran’s nuclear program has become the centerpiece of global security discussions for the last 10 years. It is a main sticking point in the relationship between Iran — a key regional player — and western countries, and it has acquired oversized significance in the international war against extremism. Despite Obama’s promise for change, and greater emphasis on multilateralism and diplomacy, the specter of military confrontation between Iran on the one hand and either Israel or the United States on the other persistently looms over the horizon, even though the probability remains low.
Hostility to Plans for New Mosques
It has been said before that Al-Qaeda’s greatest victory was not September 11th but Abu Ghraib. Indeed, the images of Americans reveling in the humiliation of Arab prisoners enhanced the potency of al-Qaeda’s narrative and won it scores of new recruits. But to achieve this propaganda victory, the terrorist organization first had to accomplish something more basic: provoking a vigorous hatred of Arabs and of Islam among Americans.