Category Archives: Featured Analysis

When it comes to cutting through the thicket of nonsense that’s been written and spoken about Hamas winning the Palestinian election, it’s hard to know where to begin. The Bush administration tosses out vacuous denials and equally vacuous threats that … Continue reading →

Sharon’s defeat of the Palestinians was sealed in Washington: Not only did he tear up Oslo; he tore up U.S. Middle East policy and got the administration to thank him for it 1. Arafat Gone, His Rival Patriarch Leaves the … Continue reading →

Saddam and King Abdallah compete for pride of place in an Amman storefront The alliance between the global jihadists of Al Qaeda in Iraq and the various Baathist and other national Islamist and nationalist forces who make up the vast … Continue reading →

Working class hero? In the lexicon of Iran’s faith-based institutional-revolutionary establishment, calling for Israel’s elimination is– well, an article of faith. It’s one of those cornerstones of an outlook whose restatement is, for the most part, unecessary. Ahmedinajad was speaking, … Continue reading →

Bashar, the authoritarian opthalmologist If the outcome of the Iraq war had been even remotely close to that imagined by its architects, the authoritarian regime of President Bashar Assad in Syria would be ripe for the plucking right now. As … Continue reading →

It’s no longer simply the case that U.S. goals in Iraq cannot be achieved; right now U.S. goals in Iraq cannot even be clearly defined. Strip away President Bush’s bumper-sticker bromides about “staying the course” and fighting “Islamo-fascism,” and what … Continue reading →

Tempting as it is, I shall avoid invoking my all time favorite lede in discussing the U.S. effort to get UN sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program. That — my all time favorite lede — would be the observation … Continue reading →

Rumsfeld and Saddam in happier times: Washington backed the Baathists to stem Iranian influence It must be hard for anyone reading the daily media in the U.S. to comprehend the political catastrophe that has befallen the Bush administration’s Iraq plans. … Continue reading →