Biting the nuclear bullet

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The world according to Gorbachev

Sees enlightened leadership as sparking wide change

Tuesday, Nov. 17, 2009

Did Mikhail Gorbachev launch glasnost and perestroika in the mid-1980s with the aim of bringing about genuine democratic change in the Soviet Union? That's what he says in two interviews on both sides of the Atlantic - with Euronews' Maria Pineiro and Nation editor Katrina vanden Heuvel - to mark the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War.

Rampage of extremism

Expected tie-in with electronic 'caliphate'

Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2009

Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan is the proverbial canary in the mine. Gunning down 12 soldiers and one civilian and wounding 31 was not a random act of violence by an army psychiatrist who was slated to deploy to Afghanistan, an evil war in his mind, where American infidels are killing good Muslims.

Warlords R Us

Real battlefield is not Afghanistan but Pakistan's madrassas

Friday, Nov. 6, 2009

If we are successful beyond President Obama's wildest dreams - e.g., Taliban is wiped out and a tough new Afghan government does not allow al Qaeda or other terrorists to conspire against us on their territory - would that make us safer from radical Islam?

Nation-state nonstarter

A deal with tribal chiefs is the key to peace

Monday, Nov. 2, 2009

A wise veteran Arab intelligence hand said Afghanistan is now tailor-made for deals with the principal tribal chiefs designed to detach them from the Taliban they fear more than U.S. and NATO troops.

No fix soon on Palestinian question

Portents of a two-state or one-state solution?

Monday, Oct. 26, 2009

Unless former Sen. George J. Mitchell, President Obama's special Middle Eastern envoy, is prepared to commute by government executive jet for the next five to 10 years, this isn't a bad time to turn in his badge.

Ground shifting under nuclear arsenal

Anti-American wave and perilous Taliban counteroffensives

Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2009

Talib is a male student who is attending or who has graduated from a madrassa and can recite the Koran in Arabic by heart. To learn Arabic and use the language of the prophet to recite in rhythmic tones the entire Koran's 114 chapters and 6,236 verses takes about 10 years.

Trust quotient needle near zero

Reset required before conspiracists brandish nukes

Friday, Oct. 9, 2009

Before we throw caution to the wind and build a new embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan - a la Baghdad - fit for 1,000 employees, let's first acquire a proper understanding of the nature of the U.S.-Pakistan relationship. A majority of Pakistanis believe that Sept. 11 was a CIA-Mossad conspiracy designed to enlist the world in a giant push-back against Islam's growing popularity. Think I'm kidding?

Unraveling at the seams

Gloom and doom and Moore is less

Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2009

"The American dream fell apart at the seams," Willie Nelson sang on CNN as he described the plight of small farmers going bust.

Defeat is now conceivable

A loss of focus on eradicating Taliban

Thursday, Oct. 1, 2009

President Obama the juggler has been spinning too many plates. From unemployment at 15 million, to health care reform, God knows how or when; to the Middle East where the peace process has fizzled yet again; to Iran where the options are narrowing to what hawks say are "an Israeli or U.S. military strike now, or a nuclear Tehran soon"; to Afghanistan, where U.S. troops have heard their commander trigger a verbal bombshell to a worldwide television audience: Defeat is conceivable.