Tag Archives: Bashar al-Assad
“The Enemy of My Enemy is My Friend”: Obama, Syria, and Islamism
Apart from the loss of life and destruction, one of the tragedies of the Syraq war is that the Obama-led U.S. has pulled into the conflict on the side of the Sunni supremacists and Brotherhood-affiliates posing as freedom fighters. In this case, we must learn to think in terms of sober Realpolitik, and to acknowledge that ISIS toppling Assad is not in the U.S. interest. Continue reading
World Summit on Counter-Terrorism
HERZLIYA, Israel – The 13th annual World Summit on Counter-Terrorism ran Sunday through Wednesday, September 8-11, and was hosted by the Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) Herzliya. Sponsored by the IDC’s International Institute for Counter-Terrorism (ICT) founded in 1996 by Dr. Boaz Ganor, the Summit is now a must event for the growing counter-terrorism community. The Summit is held the week of 9/11 to commemorate the victims of the biggest terrorist atrocity ever to occur and marks the 12th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade Center in New York by Islamist terrorists.
In Syria, Assad’s Shawarma Republic is Burning
Syria is burning, not because of the Arab Spring or Tyranny or Twitter, or any of the other popular explanations. The fire in Syria is the same firestorm burning in Iraq, in Turkey, in Lebanon and throughout much of the Muslim world. It has nothing to do with human rights or democracy. There is no revolution here. Only the eternal civil war.
Syria’s religious fault lines: the plight of Christians in the Middle East
Though the Syrian civil war continues to rage, it’s mostly defined as a Sunni versus Shiite conflict, where the plight and suffering of this country’s ancient Christian communities is increasingly becoming an influential factor.
Obama’s Dangerous Nomination of Samantha Power
With the nomination of Samantha Power as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations replacing the infamous Susan Rice, Barack Obama has filled out his second term foreign policy team, and it isn’t pretty. With the appointment of Chuck Hagel as Secretary of Defense, to that of John Kerry as Secretary of State, the Obama administration has unsurprisingly failed to appoint a responsible foreign policy team that is willing to promote strong American interests in the Middle East.
John Kerry’s first foreign trip: Much ado about nothing
On March 6, Barack Obama’s new Secretary of State, John Kerry—who succeeded Hillary Clinton as a result of the fallout following the terrorist attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi last September 11 — has returned home after an eleven-day nine-nation grand tour. During his first trip abroad as head of the Department of State, he visited the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Turkey, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar.
