Iran
2009 Chickens and their 2010 Roost by Victor Davis Hanson
By Victor Davis Hanson December 31, 2009 In the coming year, plenty of our chickens will be coming home to roost. Take foreign relations. In 2009, the new administration assumed that George W. Bush was largely responsible for global tensions. As a remedy, we loudly reached out to our foes and those with whom we had uneasy relationships. But so far these leaders -- like Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and Russia's Vladimir Putin -- have only interpreted Barack Obama's serial goodwill gestures as weaknesses to be exploited. They play the part of the pushy class bully, we the whiny nerd. In the waning days of 2009, Iran has announced it has no intention of dismantling its nuclear facilities and ignored the latest Obama deadline to cease. There's no reason not to expect the theocracy to make significant strides in its nuclear program in 2010, while continuing without rebuke to beat and murder democratic dissidents in its streets. Russia has announced plans to … [Read More...]
Who Wins In Iran’s Nuclear Game? By David Ignatius
By David Ignatius, The Washington PostDecember 5, 2009 How will the confrontation over Iran's nuclear program evolve during the next year? If a simulation game played at Harvard last week is any guide, the situation won't look pretty: Iran will be closer to having the bomb, and America will fail to obtain tough U.N. sanctions; diplomatic relations with Russia, China and Europe will be strained; and Israel will be threatening unilateral military action. My scorecard had Team Iran as the winner and Team America as the loser. The U.S. team -- unable to stop the Iranian nuclear program and unwilling to go to war -- concluded the game by embracing a strategy of containment and deterrence. The Iranian team wound up with Russia and China as its diplomatic protectors. And the Israeli team ended in a sharp break with Washington.Mind you this was just an exercise. But it revealed some real-life dynamics - and the inability of any diplomatic strategy, so far, to stop the Iranian nuclear … [Read More...]
Middle East Power Shifting to Turkey and Iran
By Alastair Crooke, The Christian Science MonitorNovember 25, 2009Beirut, Lebanon - While the United States and Europe have been struggling to find a path forward in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Afghanistan, and Iran, the strategic ground upon which their assumptions about the region rest has begun to shift dramatically. Most significantly, Turkey has finally shrugged off the straitjacket of a tight American alliance, grown virtually indifferent to beckoning European Union (EU) membership, and turned its focus toward its former Ottoman neighbors in Asia and the Middle East. Though not primarily meant as a snub to the West, this shift does nonetheless reflect growing discomfort and frustration with US and EU policy, from the support of Israel's action in Gaza to Iran and the frustrated impasse of the European accession process. It also resonates more closely with the Islamic renaissance that has been taking place within Turkey. If … [Read More...]
Our Pushover President by Pat Buchanan
"This state visit is ... a terrible mistake," said Rep. Eliot Engel, chairman of the House Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere. "He is illegitimate with his own people, and Brazil is now going to give him the air of legitimacy at a time when the world is trying to figure out how to prevent Iran from having nuclear weapons." Engel was speaking of the state visit of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that began Monday, at the invitation of President Luiz Ignacio Lula da Silva of Brazil. Extending such an honor to the leader who hosted a conference of Holocaust skeptics and deniers, often predicts Israel will disappear from the map, stole his last election and is stiffing the West on Iran's nuclear program is clearly a poke in the eye of Barack Obama. Nor is this the only dissing of Obama and America by Lula. The Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa has, for two months, been host to Honduran President Manuel Zelaya, a Chavista, who was ousted by his own Supreme Court and booted out of the … [Read More...]
Cuba
2009 Chickens and their 2010 Roost by Victor Davis Hanson
By Victor Davis Hanson December 31, 2009 In the coming year, plenty of our chickens will be coming home to roost. Take foreign relations. In 2009, the new administration assumed that George W. Bush was largely responsible for global tensions. As a remedy, we loudly reached out to our foes and those with whom we [...]
Who Wins In Iran’s Nuclear Game? By David Ignatius
By David Ignatius, The Washington Post December 5, 2009 How will the confrontation over Iran’s nuclear program evolve during the next year? If a simulation game played at Harvard last week is any guide, the situation won’t look pretty: Iran will be closer to having the bomb, and America will fail to obtain tough U.N. [...]
Middle East Power Shifting to Turkey and Iran
By Alastair Crooke, The Christian Science Monitor November 25, 2009 Beirut, Lebanon – While the United States and Europe have been struggling to find a path forward in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Afghanistan, and Iran, the strategic ground upon which their assumptions about the region rest has begun to shift dramatically. Most significantly, Turkey has finally [...]
Our Pushover President by Pat Buchanan
“This state visit is … a terrible mistake,” said Rep. Eliot Engel, chairman of the House Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere. “He is illegitimate with his own people, and Brazil is now going to give him the air of legitimacy at a time when the world is trying to figure out how to prevent Iran [...]
Israel
Who Wins In Iran’s Nuclear Game? By David Ignatius
By David Ignatius, The Washington Post December 5, 2009 How will the confrontation over Iran’s nuclear program evolve during the next year? If a simulation game played at Harvard last week is any guide, the situation won’t look pretty: Iran will be closer to having the bomb, and America will fail to obtain tough U.N. [...]
Our Pushover President by Pat Buchanan
“This state visit is … a terrible mistake,” said Rep. Eliot Engel, chairman of the House Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere. “He is illegitimate with his own people, and Brazil is now going to give him the air of legitimacy at a time when the world is trying to figure out how to prevent Iran [...]
Armageddon Time
By Peter Robinson, Forbes.com October 23, 2009 Victor Davis Hanson is a military historian; Robert Baer a former CIA field officer. Both have studied the Middle East for decades, traveled to the area repeatedly in recent years and written about the region extensively. And both have become convinced that we may be facing a cataclysm. [...]
Iran’s Latest Nuclear Gambit
With the revelation that Iran has been secretly working on an undeclared uranium enrichment facility near the holy city of Qom, the world finds it’s attention once again riveted on the recalcitrant regime in Tehran and it’s opaque nuclear aspirations. Following the harsh condemnations and cryptic warnings of the united front of American President Barack [...]
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