International Political Will

On May 25, I will return to the United States after four years abroad. I am doing a countdown from 10 – starting at 10 and ending with 1 the last week of May when I depart India. And then that’s it – the end. I’ll ride off into the sunset where all the other [...]

The strategy behind Israel embarrassing the United States with their recent announcement on building new settlements in East Jerusalem doesn’t require much dissection or analysis. The Israel right wing has seen the Obama Administration as an enemy from day one – an administration, they believe, that is inimical to the Israeli state. It’s no wonder [...]

Almost a full eight years into the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan, there are still three institutional sources of violence in the country: the Taliban, the warlords, and the foreign occupation. Each of these institutions feed off each other, generating a vicious cycle that Afghanistan appears unable to break.
The only winning strategy in Afghanistan is reconstruction. [...]

After the shooting rampage in Binghamton that left 13 people dead, the city’s police chief – the man charged with protecting the citizenry – said in a moment of stupidity:
“If some crazy lunatic decides to pick up a gun and go someplace and start shooting people, I really don’t have the answer how…[to] prevent anything [...]

Last week, the New York Times published an article headlined “Why the Arabs Splinter Over Gaza” that was anything but a description of “why.” The story was actually just another example of observations disconnected from context that masquerade as news.
Three Arab countries (Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan) refused to attend an Arab League summit on [...]