Feb 15
With President Obama’s ongoing escalation of the drone war in Pakistan, the question is which is hurt more by the aerial attacks: al-Qaeda’s leadership or the United States’ standing in Pakistan? As former ambassador Tayyab Siddiqui, a columnist for the News, one of Pakistan’s leading newspapers, notes the answer is obvious, at least in Pakistan.
….last year, there were 44 drone attacks, killing only five key Al Qaeda targets but the civilian casualties exceeded 700 Pakistanis. Passionate appeals have been made to all the visitors from the US – Congressmen, officials, military brass and others that these attacks must stop. Pakistan is absolutely critical for US strategy in the region and its war against terror is solely dependent on Pakistanis’ cooperation. Pakistan must spell out to the Obama Administration that any more cooperation with the US would be subject to US meeting Pakistanis’ concerns.
There’s no evidence that is going to happen. From the point of view of U.S. policymakers, this isn’t a dilemma. In Washington, the answer is equally obvious, though diametrically opposed, to Pakistan’s: the battlefield advantages outweigh the political costs. In the short run, that is surely true. In the long run, it depends on ignoring Pakistani democracy.
Tagged with: al Qaeda • drone war • Obama • Tayyab Siddiqui • The News
Feb 15
Rafik Hariri, Lebanese businessman and political leader, slain in 2005. (Wapedia)
The politics of assassination are a more decisive factor than ever in Middle East politics.
This week thousands commemorated the fifth anniversary of the death of Lebanese billionaire Rafik Hariri who was killed in a huge bomb blast in Beirut on February 13th, 2005. But the United Nations investigation of the crime has since stalled and the feeling that politics is trumping justice is hard to avoid. Hariri’s assassination gave rise to Lebanon’s so-called March 14th Cedar Revolution which brought Syria’s foes to power. Now the demographic and political realities of Lebanon have thwarted the movement and created a new status quo. Hariri’s son, Saad, who followed his father into politics, is calling for reconciliation with the government of Syria, the prime (but not the only) suspect in his father’s murder. As al Jazeera noted:
Re-emerging Syrian influence, the persistence of Hezbollah’s role and internal divisions have all dealt steady blows to the alliance that was brought together by opposition to Damascus.
Is justice possible? Continue reading »
Tagged with: assassination • Daily Star • Le Monde • Michael Young • Obama • Rafik Hariri • Spiegel Online • U.N. tribunal
Feb 05
WOS finds plenty of talk about it among the region’s most credible news organizations.
Tagged with: diplomacy • Israeli Defense Forces • Obama • Syria
Jan 27
Obama needs to perform a U-turn–Stephen Graubard in the Financial Times.
Tagged with: economy • Obama • Republicans
Jan 16
Year Two for the American president starts without much hope in the Arab world.–Al-Ahram Weekly (Cairo).
“As time went by, it became clear that Netanyahu was running circles around Obama. As soon as Netanyahu sniffed the storm that was brewing in Obama’s speech at Cairo University, he took action. Within weeks, Netanyahu had mobilised Jewish pressure groups in America in an effort aiming to obstruct all attempts to change the course of US policy in the Middle East. Netanyahu’s success was as spectacular as it was immediate. Not only did he make Obama eat his words on the freeze of all settlement activities, he also stopped all efforts by the American president to start dialogue with Iran and Hamas.”
Tagged with: Obama • U.S. power
Jan 11
Rami Khouri in The Daily Star on what American TV experts won’t talk about:
“… if the starting point for fighting terror is only the terror attacks themselves and the societies from which they emanate, without a fuller acknowledgment of the wider cycle of political violence that also includes sustained aggressive policies by the US, the United Kingdom, Israel, Arab governments and others in the region, we will only perpetuate the current insanity mentioned earlier: the simultaneous proliferation of terrorism, American armed forces, Israeli assassinations, and other elements of the full cycle of political violence in the Arab-Asian region.
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Tagged with: airport security • Christmas Bomber • Obama • war on terror • Yemen
Jan 11
His uneasy first encounter with a domestic terror spectacular.–Financial Times.
“..the US has not learned to live with terrorism, as it may one day have to. For now, the expectation of safety is unreasonably high. People believe that if the system is well designed and officials do their jobs, the enemy will not get through.”
Tagged with: Obama • terrorism
