A few days ago, I posted a clip from a widely-watched TV debate about Iran policy between Norman Podhoretz and Fareed Zakaria. Podhoretz, as per usual, called for more hawkish action; Zakaria, in contrast, argued that, if negotiations don’t succeed, a strategy of deterrence is the obvious solution. I often agree with Zakaria on Middle Eastern policy issues because he’s a thoughtful and non-ideological analyst. Nonetheless, I think the notion that we can just ‘deter Iran’...

Matt Dupuis describes the latest developments in the Iranian nuclear standoff.

The New York Times ran an unusually good piece yesterday on Benazir Bhutto. Given what’s par for the course in American media coverage, I was surprised to read a more honest and nuanced portrayal of the two-time former prime minister. Interestingly, as reporter Jane Perlez notes in her article, Bhutto has a serious grandiosity complex and a disdain for the democratic. Following the idea of big ambition, Ms. Bhutto calls herself chairperson for life of the opposition Pakistan Peoples Party,...

There’s been a lot of discussion in the blogosphere, particularly since the publication of this London Times article, about American policy towards Saudi Arabia. Many commentators have expressed confusion about the right approach to dealing with the Saudis in the context of the war on terror – do we coddle, poke, or threaten them? Dave Schuler, at The Glittering Voice, grapples with this question and decides that there are no good options: “The options for dealing with the [Kingdom...

In some areas of Afghanistan, according to a recent article in the NYT, poppy eradication efforts have led Afghani farmers to begin growing a new crop: cannabis. Matt Eckel, over at FPW, has written a detailed post suggesting that this switch might not be such a bad thing. In fact, he makes the argument that government and military officials should actively encourage the production of cannabis in order to provide “a viable cash crop to the country’s population.”

Every account that I’ve read of the recent developments in Pakistan has suggested that Musharraf has declared a state of emergency in order to go after the liberal opposition. It’s the media, political party activists, pro-democracy lawyers and others who are being targeted; it’s not the Taliban and other radical militants. As Arif Rifaq noted in The Baltimore Sun yesterday, Musharraf has somehow conflated the political opposition and the Taliban as an equally dangerous force. Barnett...

Marc Lynch, writing over at Abu Aardvark, reports on a recent interview with the Iraqi prime minister: Last week Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki mocked Iraqis calling for national reconciliation and dismissing them as self-interested conspirators. On Friday, he elaborated on his views of the current Iraqi political scene in a very intriguing, and frankly troubling, interview with al-Arabiya. …[In the interview, Maliki argued] that Iraqi national reconciliation has not only already been...

Fox News has reached a new low in its Pakistan coverage. Click on the link and watch the clip – amongst other humorous (some might say painful) moments, notice when the “terrorism expert” references Benazir Bhutto’s hometown as Morristown, New Jersey! UPDATE: Joshua Foust, comparing clips from European and American tv outlets, follows up with a post entitled, “Why Regular Americans Don’t Know What’s Going On.”

The New York Times ran a front-page article yesterday about Obama’s plan to aggressively pursue diplomacy with Iran over the nuclear issue. In my opinion, the approach that Obama detailed is very logical: unconditional negotiations, better carrots, harsher punishment for non-compliance, and a reduced American presence in the Persian Gulf. Not everyone in the blogosphere had such a favorable opinion of the proposal, however. Ed Morrissey, a well-known conservative blogger who writes at Captain’s...

It’s not exactly clear how she’s done it, but Benazir Bhutto has effectively recast herself as Pakistan’s “democratic savior.” Interestingly, as The Hill reported not long ago, Bhutto has invested in a major PR campaign to give her image a makeover. To the tune of a quarter million dollars, she has hired the lobbying firm BKSH & Associates to obscure her poor record and build up her reputation as Pakistan’s leading democrat. But Bhutto is no democratic savior....

Robert Spencer, following the publication of my Brown Daily Herald article that criticized his comments during Islamofascism Week, has responded in a post over at his blog. Interestingly, a lot of the criticisms that I’ve gotten at Jihad Watch have to do with my alleged ‘misreading’ of the Quran. The Muslim holy book is much more violent than the Bible, many are suggesting, and therefore Islam is inherently based on violence and oppression. The problem with this line of reasoning,...

Note: This article was published today by the Brown Daily Herald. Originally a blog post, it was written in response to a recent speech by Robert Spencer who visited the Brown University campus for Islamofascism Week. As I outline here, I think it is a serious mistake to reference random passages in the Koran in order to paint Islam as inherently violent or oppressive. It’s the interpretation that matters, and there are very broad differences in how Muslims view their faith. Most don’t,...

A change in strategy: Al-Qaeda in Iraq appears to be taking a page directly out of the US Army Counterinsurgency Field Manual. David Dryer writes: Mohammed at Last-of-Iraqis recently reported on rumors that al Qaeda’s Iraqi iteration is fighting the battle of hearts and minds in the predominantly Sunni Adhamiya neighborhood of Baghdad (Recall that Adhamiya is the controversially walled-off neighborhood of Baghdad), presumably trying to win back the love they’ve lost through so much...

American officials are badly misunderstanding the reasons for Russian opposition to an Eastern European missile defense system, argues arms control guru Matt Dupuis.

Garry Kasparov, the main opposition candidate for the Russian presidency, has repeatedly denied that Putin’s approval rating is as high as 70-80% (as a number of polls have suggested). He argues that Russia is a police state and, as a result, poll numbers can’t be trusted. Is he on to something? I explore this idea over at Foreign Policy Watch.

It makes me cringe when I hear references to Ayaan Hirsi Ali. An ex-Muslim, a former Dutch parliamentarian, and a feminist, Hirsi Ali is often trotted out as some sort of spokeswoman for moderate Islam. A few years back, she wrote a book (”Infidel”) and produced a movie (”Submission”) that condemn harsh treatment associated with Islam; since then, she’s been a celebrity. As blogger Shadi Hamid notes, “people seem intent on treating her as some kind of anointed...

Awhile back, I wrote a post for The Moderate Voice about the torture debate in this country. A few days after putting the piece up, I noticed a comment by a man who went by the pseudonym “mondliath.” He had written the response after much of the discussion had died down, so I doubt that many people had a chance to read it. A Western expatriate, mondliath testified to having been subjected to torture when living in Saudi Arabia back in 2000. The detached, yet highly detailed, manner in...

The Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood has recently released a draft of its first party platform. Citing several controversial clauses, some analysts are arguing that the draft proposal hints at the Brotherhood’s true authoritarian nature. Is this an accurate analysis? If not, what exactly does the document say about the organization and its goals?

The words ‘feminism’ and ‘Middle East’ are not often used in the same sentence. But, increasingly, women in the Arab world are beginning to demand greater authority for themselves in their societies. Interestingly, it’s not secular or liberal groups that are effectively leading the way in pushing forward on women’s rights issues; instead, it is Muslim women, involved in conservative Islamist organizations like Hezbollah and the Muslim Brotherhood, who are starting...

As Blake Hounshell notes, Bush “doesn’t seem to have done a lot of thinking about the legal implications of outsourcing the Iraq war to companies like Blackwater…” (Hat tip: Belgravia Dispatch)

In most cases – and this one is no different – it’s better to leave history to the historians. Via The Washington Post, it looks as though a House panel has ignored that advice and passed a non-binding resolution to recognize the label of “Armenian genocide.” Turkey is pissed, of course, and they’ve withdrawn their ambassador to Washington. While its goals are undoubtedly admirable ones, the panel’s decision to choose now — of all times — to...

Not nearly as much as they could, that’s for sure.

Case in point: the inane decision of 42 Congressmen to stage an act of protest against the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Gregory Djerijian points us to a recent Meet the Press interview in which Bill Clinton suggests that while torture should officially remain illegal, American soldiers — a la Jack Bauer — should not hesitate in ticking bomb scenarios. Although they would have to be prosecuted for violating the law (in order to preserve our national image), these soldiers should be considered great patriots acting on behalf of their country. This is a deceptively dangerous precedent to set, however. Contrary...

I’ve yet to read Mearsheimer and Walt’s book, The Israel Lobby, but I have been following the controversy surrounding its publication. Cries of anti-Semitism have, I’m afraid, been the major way that critics have attempted to discredit the work. Jeffrey Goldberg, in a 7000-word-plus article for The New Republic, provides a typical example. He argues that the book “represents the most sustained attack, the most mainstream attack, against the political enfranchisement of American...