News Abroad

The Passing of the Postwar Era

by Andrew J. Bacevich

In every aspect of human existence, change is a constant.  Yet change that actually matters occurs only rarely.  Even then, except in retrospect, genuinely transformative change is difficult to identify.  By attributing cosmic significance to every novelty and declaring every unexpected event a revolution, self-assigned interpreters of the contemporary scene -- politicians and pundits above all -- exacerbate the problem of distinguishing between the trivial and the non-trivial.  

How a Neoliberal Shell Game Created an Age of Activism

by Juan Cole

From Tunis to Tel Aviv, Madrid to Oakland, a new generation of youth activists is challenging the neoliberal state that has dominated the world ever since the Cold War ended.  The massive popular protests that shook the globe this year have much in common, though most of the reporting on them in the mainstream media has obscured the similarities.   Whether in Egypt or the United States, young rebels are reacting to a single stunning worldwide development: the extreme concentration of wealth in a few hands thanks to neoliberal policies of deregulation and union busting.  They have taken to the streets, parks, plazas, and squares to protest against the resulting corruption, the way politicians can be bought and sold, and the impunity of the white-collar criminals who have run riot in societies everywhere.  They are objecting to high rates of unemployment, reduced social services, blighted futures, and above all the substitution of the market for all other values as the matrix of human ethics and life.Pasha the Tiger

This Is What Defeat Looks Like

by Tom Engelhardt

How about a moment of silence for the passing of the American Dream?  M.R.I.C.  (May it rest in carnage.)No, I’m not talking about the old dream of opportunity that involved homeownership, a better job than your parents had, a decent pension, and all the rest of the package that’s so yesterday, so underwater, so OWS.  I’m talking about a far more recent dream, a truly audacious one that’s similarly gone with the wind.

Neither the Left nor the Right Gets the Iraq Withdrawal

by Andrew Meyer

Even before the last U.S. soldier has left Iraq, President Obama's order to withdraw forces is being filtered through distorting prisms on the left and right.  In these opposed descriptions Iraq itself appears as if reflected in an array of funhouse mirrors, unrecognizable as a single nation from one account to the next.  It would seem as if, whatever their ideological view, American observers are incapable of seeing Iraqi society as anything but a passive operand of U.S. power.On the right, for example, Charles Krauthammer decries Obama's "unseriousness" in attempting to retain a mere 5,000 soldiers in Iraq rather than the 20,000 recommended by military commanders, demonstrating that "he simply wanted out."  "Years from now," prognosticates Krauthammer, "we will be asking not 'Who lost Iraq?'—that already is clear—but 'Why?'"

Let's Call a Spade a Spade: We're Still at War with Terror

by Walid Phares

Ten years have slipped by since Osama bin Laden’s jihadists massacred thousands of men, women and children on 9/11, sparking the war on terror.  The Obama administration, however, insists on more benign terminology, choosing for political reasons to describe the conflict as an “overseas contingency operation,” and a “war against al Qaeda.”  But are we making progress in this conflict?  To figure it out, we need to ask the right questions, and indeed, one of the outstanding questions is whether or not the global confrontation with al Qaeda is an actual war or simply a series of connected military operations. Is al Qaeda even the primary opponent? In any event, is it U.S. policy that has incited al Qaeda and its sister groups, or a sui generic ideology with a centuries-old agenda?

Obama's Misplaced Mideast Optimism

by Daniel Pipes

Confidently commenting on the execution of Libya's long-time dictator, Barack Obama stated that "the death of Mu'ammar al-Qaddafi showed that our role in protecting the Libyan people, and helping them break free from a tyrant, was the right thing to do."  About his own decision to pull all U.S. troops from Iraq in two months' time, Obama asserted that "In Iraq, we've succeeded in our strategy to end the war."  He then drew triumphalist conclusions from these developments, bragging that they show "The tide of war is receding" and "we've renewed American leadership in the world."How handy:  as Obama's disliked domestic policies (especially concerning health care and employment) sink his popularity, he now claims foreign policy successes.  Democratic Party flacks tout his international achievements: "Terrorists and dictators," says one, "lacking the filibuster, have no effective defense against Barack Obama."

Life after Gaddafi Isn't Going to be Easy

by Deepak Tripathi

Put your sword in its place, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword. This verse from the Bible speaks aloud of the manner of Muammar Gaddafi’s regime, as well as his brutal killing. It is also a lesson for those who fought Gaddafi. The end of him has left a disturbing trail of savagery, from which the victors have not emerged unscathed. Where Western governments have been complicit and the mainstream media sadly restrained and unchallenging, NGOs have strained their conscience and luck to speak out about reprisals by both sides.

Let's Make Sure to Ask the Right Questions About the Gilad Shalit Deal

by Donna Robinson Divine

The deal returning kidnapped Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit to his home while setting free over 1,000 Palestinian prisoners has typically raised questions about who won and who lost in this exchange.  But is that the correct question to pose and does such a balance sheet approach offer much insight into the nature of the Middle East conflict?  Or rather, should we ask if the conventional perspective counting winners and losers obscures more than it reveals about this seemingly intractable conflict explaining, perhaps, more about why the peace process has died than about how a general disposition to broker an accord might be kept alive? 

Christianity is in Danger in the Middle East

by Robert G. Rabil

"It is an incontestable historical fact that Palestine was the home of the Jews and of the first Christians.  None of them was of Arab origin.  By the brutal force of conquest they were forced to become converts to the Moslem religion.  That is the origin of the Arabs in that country.  Can one deduce from that that Palestine is Arab or that it ever was Arab?"

Qaddafi’s People’s Temple

by Juan Cole

The final weeks of Muammar Qaddafi’s violent and coercive life reminded me vividly of Jim Jones and the People’s Temple Cult. It was obvious from late last August that Qaddafi had lost. The people in his own capital of Tripoli rose up against him in all but a few small neighborhoods, courageously defying his murderous elite forces.

Cyprus on the World Stage

by Daniel Pipes

Cyprus, an island near Turkey and Syria of roughly 1.3 million inhabitants, finds itself on the cusp of momentous change. As it belatedly makes its grand debut on the world stage after domestic Greek-Turkish communal issues have consumed its first 51 years of independence, it faces both great opportunity and great danger.The "Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus" controls 37 percent of the island's land area.That communal problem originated in 1570, when the Ottoman Empire conquered the island and its almost entirely Greek-speaking Orthodox Christian population. Over the next three centuries, immigration from Anatolia created a Turkish-speaking Muslim minority. British rule between 1878 and 1960 left this situation basically unchanged. At the time of Cypriot independence in 1960, Turks constituted one-sixth of the population.Cyprus was hardly the only territory rife with ethnic tensions that London eventually abandoned in frustration – think of India, Iraq, Palestine, and Sudan – but it was the only one where it retained a permanent role for itself and brought in patron states, namely Turkey and Greece, as guarantors of the newly-independent state.

A Yemeni Woman Just Won the Nobel Peace Prize—Yet Another Stereotype Averted in the Mideast

by Daniel Martin Varisco

The Nobel Peace Prize for 2011 has just been released with three recipients:  Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Lehmah Gbowee and Tawwakul Karman. All three were chosen “for their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women’s rights to full participation in peace-building work.” Karman is Yemeni; but beyond this she is the first Arab woman to win a Nobel prize, a point proudly noted on the Yemeni media site Yemen Press. It will be interesting to watch the reaction to the choice. Here is an activist who took to the streets to promote a peaceful transition from the corrupt secular dynasty of Ali Abdullah Salih. She is one of many Yemenis sharing the same goal and not a principle organizer, although her superb English skills attracted attention in the foreign media. She is also actively involved in the powerful Islamic party of Islah.

Is Mitt Romney Ready for the World?

by Lawrence S. Wittner

If current polls are correct, Mitt Romney seems likely to become the 2012 Republican presidential candidate and the next president of the United States.  Therefore, we should carefully examine his first major foreign and military policy address—delivered on October 7 at the Citadel, in Charleston, South Carolina—and ponder the question:  Is Mitt Romney ready for the world?

Salvador Allende Has Words for Barack Obama from the Other Side of Death

by Ariel Dorfman

For the last decade, I have been haunted by voices from the other side of death. In this way, back in 2003 I transcribed the words of Pablo Picasso after a tapestry version of his famed painting Guernica at the entrance to the Security Council was covered over at the U.N. just before then-Secretary of State Colin Powell was to present the Bush administration case justifying an invasion of Iraq.  From the depths of ancient Mesopotamia, I transcribed the words of Hammurabi, the exalted prince of Babylon, as he reviled Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld for laying waste to his ancient land.

It's a MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD World for Iran

by Walid Phares

My first book, The Iranian Islamic Revolution, published way back in 1986, dealt with the historicity of the 1979 Khomeinist Revolution in Iran.  In it, I exposed the Khomeinist regime’s long-term ambitions and revisionist account of events that led to the Shah’s overthrow and Ayatollah Khomeini’s ascent to power in the alleged Islamic “Republic” of Iran.  From my observatory in Beirut where Hezbollah and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard (IRG) were growing into a force to be reckoned with in the region and beyond, I absorbed and digested the thinking and logic of Tehran’s strategists.  Boiled down, that strategy involved sending as many mixed signals in as many directions as possible so as to confuse opposing forces and make them tentative.  This would allow the Khomeinists to pursue their global ambitions with minimal opposition.

The World is Actually Safer than It Used to Be ... And It Keeps Getting Safer

by Christopher J. Fettweis

While global anxiety rises over the deepening financial crisis, perhaps it is worth noting what is unlikely to occur.  No matter how deep the recession gets, or how many countries default and drag their neighbors into the economic abyss, none are likely to fight one another.  There will be no replay of the 1930s, in other words, when depression was soon followed by world war.In fact, over the course of the last two decades, warfare has been quietly disappearing from the planet.  The world in 2012 is a less violent, less belligerent place than at any time in recorded history.

Is Turkey Going Rogue?

by Daniel Pipes

In a Middle East wracked by coups d'état and civil insurrections, the Republic of Turkey credibly offers itself as a model thanks to its impressive economic growth, democratic system, political control of the military, and secular order. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan effectively bought the June 2011 elections by pumping credit into the Turkish economy. But, in reality, Turkey may be, along with Iran, the most dangerous state of the region.  Count the reasons: Islamists without brakes:  When four out of five of the Turkish chiefs of staff abruptly resigned on July 29, 2011, they signaled the effective end of the republic founded in 1923 by Kemal Atatürk.  A second republic headed by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his Islamist colleagues of the AK Party began that day.  The military safely under their control, AKP ideologues can now pursue their ambitions to create an Islamic order.

The Two-State Solution in Israel/Palestine is as Dead as Burhanuddin Rabbani

by Deepak Tripathi

All eyes were focused on the game of brinkmanship over the Palestinians’ bid for full United Nations membership when Afghanistan’s ethnic Tajik leader and ex-president Burhanuddin Rabbani was assassinated in Kabul on Monday (September 20). Rabbani’s murder has as much to do with the past rivalries, as well as the future, of Afghanistan and is significant, as is the battle for Palestinian statehood.  The stakes are high in each case.  What will transpire seems uncertain at this stage.

U.S. Support of the Bahraini Monarchy and the Threatened Palestinian Veto are Prime Examples of Hypocrisy

by Juan Cole

Brazen hypocrisy most often deeply damages the reputation, whether of a person or of a country.President Barack Obama appears to have thought that he could go to the UN with a liberation of Libya and a further postponement of Palestinian rights to boast of, and that these stances would make him popular in the global south.  But in fact he just looked inconsistent and hypocritical and self-interested.The United States was not at the forefront of the changes sweeping the Middle East in the past year, and its instinct as a Great Power is to support the status quo.  Thus, the Obama administration had almost nothing to say about Tunisia until after the populace had forced their president out.  President Barack Obama appears to have been on the fence about what to do about Egypt after January 25, but his instinct certainly wasn’t to support the revolutionaries against their own government.  Only about a week before it was all over did Obama join the chorus of those saying that Hosni Mubarak had to go.

A U.S. Veto of Palestinian Statehood would be Astonishingly Hypocritical

by Neve Gordon and Yinon Cohen

U.S. President Barack Obama's decision to use the US's veto prerogative if the United Nations votes to recognize a Palestinian state will constitute a blow to those seeking peace in the Middle East.His administration's claim that peace can only be achieved through dialogue and consent rather than through unilateral moves ignores the complex power relations that constitute peace-making between Israelis and Palestinians.  History teaches that peace is achieved only when the conflicting sides believe that they have too much to lose by sustaining the conflict.  And, at this point in history, the price Israel is paying for continuing the occupation is extremely small.But if, for the sake of argument, one were to accept the view expressed by President Obama—that unilateralism is a flawed political approach—then one should survey the history of unilateral moves within the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and examine the U.S. response towards them.