Israel’s invasion of the Gaza Strip and its drive to decapitate HAMAS came
as no surprise to the incoming Obama administration. After extensive
preparation the offensive launched during George Bush’s final days is
calculated to give Israel a one month window to decapitate HAMAS and
destroy enough of its military infrastructure to change the political
facts on the ground. What [...]
When Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is defeated in Iran ’s 2009 presidential elections, Barack Obama may have the best opportunity to recast U.S.-Iranian relations of any American leader since the 1979 Khomenei-led revolution. Despite Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei’s dominion over economic, military and judicial matters, and dissenting candidates nullification from seeking office by the Guardian Council, Iran [...]
World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland, 28 January – 1 February 2009.
I’m surprised I haven’t yet read any mention this year of Thomas Mann’s novel, The Magic Mountain, which was set in Davos. As Timothy Garton Ash wrote at The Guardian in February 2005: it “shows how the economically interdependent pre-1914 Europe, [...]
The Iraq War is over. Other than some occasional bombings and shoes thrown at President Bush in press conferences, the end game is coming to Iraq . The Pro-Iranian Shiite majority and the Kurds have won. After battling U.S. troops, the Shiia and Al Queda, the Sunni have lost. What is left is a partitioned [...]
Eliminating al Queda’s stronghold in Pakistan and defeating the Taliban in Afghanistan has moved to the top of President-elect Barak Obama’s foreign policy agenda. Circumstances on the ground in Central Asia have grown increasingly grave as a resurgent al Queda has pivoted toward a new strategy in Central Asia; destabilizing the nuclear armed government of [...]
Should Barak Obama become America’s 44th president, his plan to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq in sixteen months and “end the war†will require the cooperation of Iran. While the presidential campaign debate narrowly focused on the troop surge, the reduction of violence in Iraq has obscured one fundamental truth; the Iraqi government will continue [...]
