Posted in Gal Luft, Islam in West, Saudi Arabia on Nov 10th, 2009 Comments Off on How the Saudis radicalized U.S. troops
From Gal Luft The tragic killing of the 13 U.S. soldiers in Fort Hood by Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan is one is a string of events involving Muslim soldiers and veterans who have gone astray, raising delicate questions about the role and trustworthiness of the 3,000 Muslim soldiers in the U.S. military. The major […]
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From Philip Carl Salzman “It is time for the Iranian government to decide whether it wants to focus on the past, or whether it will make the choices that will open the door to greater opportunity, prosperity, and justice for its people.” —President Barack Obama, statement on the 30th anniversary of the seizure of the […]
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Posted in Adam Garfinkle, Afghanistan, Iran on Nov 4th, 2009 Comments Off on The real linkage: Afghanistan and Iran
From Adam Garfinkle As President Obama decides how to proceed in the Afghan war, he needs to add one more variable that is rarely mentioned: Iranian determination to acquire nuclear weapons. An ongoing Afghanistan campaign means that resort to force against Iran would be tantamount to starting a second war. The politics being what they […]
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From Alan Dowty As the Goldstone report on the Gaza war wends it way up the UN food chain, casting further opprobrium on Israel at each level, it is legitimate to question Israel’s handling of this challenge. Did the Israeli response lessen or aggravate the damage? There are serious critiques that could have been levied […]
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Posted in Afghanistan, Iran, Raymond Tanter, Taliban on Nov 2nd, 2009 Comments Off on Iran’s second front in Afghanistan
From Raymond Tanter The role of Iran in fueling insurgency in Iraq, particularly attacks against U.S. forces, has been well-documented and forms one front in Iran’s proxy war against the United States. Receiving much less attention than Iraq, is the role Iran has played in supporting anti-NATO insurgents in Afghanistan as a second front against […]
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From MESH Admin Walter Laqueur contributes a new paper to MESH’s Middle East Papers series, on Russia’s Muslim strategy. That strategy, barely coherent, is riddled with contradictions, as Russia vacillates between resentment of the American-led world order and fear of an ascendant Islam. For now, it’s the resentment against the West that dominates the Russian […]
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Posted in Geopolitics, Soner Cagaptay, Turkey on Oct 26th, 2009 Comments Off on AKP reshuffles Turkey’s neighbors
From Soner Cagaptay Turkey’s ties with its neighbors have been transformed since the Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power almost seven years ago in November 2002. Some analysts have described the AKP’s foreign policy as a “zero problems with neighbors” approach. Under the AKP, Ankara has indeed eliminated problems and built good ties […]
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