Over the past six months, a number of analysts have attempted to dispense with the facile analogy of the Iraq surge to the Afghan surge and dissuade policymakers from grafting the success of Iraq on to US strategy in Afghanistan.
Amjad Atallah co-directs the New America Foundation/Middle East Task Force. President Obama today delivered an exemplary speech that has the potential to significantly advance America’s national security interests in the Middle East.
Iran’s nuclear program is the one issue above all others that is preventing a whole-hearted American effort to change the parameters of the U.S.-Iran relationship. Each side has set a red line, and the lines are miles apart.
This post is a “professional courtesy salute” to Helene Cooper who we now see so frequently in White House press conferences with Barack Obama. She often gets the first question in at some of the high sizzle press moments with the President.
I have been watching parts of this online feed of a historic meeting today of the Organization of American States. A final, persistent chunk of the Cold War is in the process of quickly thawing and breaking up in these very minutes.
From about 12:10 pm PST/3:10 pm EST, I will be chatting with Warren Olney of To The Point, a nationally syndicated NPR show produced by KCRW and Public Radio International. It is often easiest to listen live online — but a roster of other stations around the country and air times is available here.
(Photo Credit: jamesdale10’s photostream) More than six years after the United States invaded Iraq, Iraqi Kurds finally exported oil to Turkey for the first time yesterday. The oil exports indicate two important developments. First, Ankara has made a strategic decision to engage the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) in Erbil, Iraq.
Video journalist Max Blumenthal talks to many in the Jewish settler movement who put it all out there. Winners of the Moskowitz Prize state frankly that they want to continue the ethnic cleansing of Occupied Territories — and young kids parrot the meme that Palestinians have no right to lands that are Israel’s holy lands….
Loyal reader of and passionate commentator at The Washington Note, Pissed Off American (aka POA) sent this rendition of his loyal pup “Jake” for me to post. I’ve been meaning to do it for some time — and have enjoyed it on my desk top on somewhat of an exclusive basis.