In choosing now to label Iran’s Revolutionary Guards as a “terrorist group,” the United States is shooting itself in the foot.

Traveling in the Middle East last year, Lebanon was the only place where I felt a strong sense of unease. Unlike in Syria, Jordan, or even Israel — which all felt fairly safe — in Lebanon I felt a palpable sense that things were highly unstable. Although Lebanon had been depicted to me as a “paradise on the Mediterranean,” the “Paris of the Middle East,” and even, by some disgruntled foreigners, as “the only place in this goddamn region worth visiting,”...

David Dryer, my co-blogger over at Foreign Policy Watch, has written a fascinating piece about the oft-stated notion that Iraq is like Bosnia, and that it should be treated as such (i.e. divided into pieces). It’s definitely worth a read.

Cheney is still lobbying for a more aggressive approach towards Iran. His latest plan, according to McClatchy News, is to spark a war by provoking the Iranian government into attacking American targets.

When most people talk about powerful American lobbies, they might list the NRA or AIPAC. The arms industry, however, is rarely mentioned. Yet its ability to sway events in Washington and pass legislation favorable to its interests is…well, frightening. …How has the arms industry been able to influence policymaking so much? Besides the obvious impact of large campaign donations, weapons manufacturers have also made inroads in Congress because they’ve been highly effectively in “sanitizing”...

For a long time, I’ve defended Hugo Chavez. I thought that he was fighting a worthy battle against greed and corruption, against years of foreign domination and cronyism. I thought he was trying to improve the lives of poor people, while establishing a strong economy, an independent and self-respecting nation, and a vibrant democracy. But now, after watching events unfold in the past few months, I’m ready to admit that I was mistaken. Like many of those who lean left, I figured that...

With the Taliban gaining strength in recent months, it is widely agreed upon that the Bush administration has underdone it in Afghanistan. In particular, critics allege that Afghan reconstruction and counter-insurgency efforts have been hampered by a lack of political will and an unwillingness to deploy enough American/NATO troops. But Rory Stewart, in a compelling op-ed in The New York Times recently, argues that the problem in Afghanistan is not that we have too few troops, it’s that we have...

Although it’s not getting much play in the American press, there is a major crackdown on opposition groups being carried out by the Iranian government. In fact, there have been more executions in the past few weeks in Iran than at any time in over two decades. Ahmadinejad’s government has justified this wave of repression by alleging that the country is under siege from internal and external enemies. To bolster this claim, several American hostages have been forced to ‘confess’...

…unless there is a major shift in focus. Here’s why.

For awhile, there has been speculation about the deteriorating health of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei. As the country’s highest political authority, his death will have major implications for Iran. Indeed, the succession of a new leader will largely determine the direction that Iran will take in the upcoming decades, both in its stance towards the international community and on domestic issues such as economic and political freedom. Thankfully, if Khamenei passes away, it’s...

The seeds of a women’s rights movement have been planted in the Islamic world. However, it is not secular or liberal groups who have finally succeeded in pushing a more progressive vision of Islam. Instead, it is women in groups like Hezbollah and the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood who are starting to question their role in society.

In the American press, most of the discussion about Hezbollah is hawkish and militaristic, caught up in the details about how best to “wipe them out.” The general consensus amongst most analysts seems to be that Israel, in its campaign against Hezbollah last summer, just didn’t go far enough. If they’d only been willing to commit more troops or drop more bombs, Hezbollah would no longer be such a powerful actor in the region. But such conclusions ignore the lessons of history....

J.K. Rowling, Britain’s second richest woman and the author of the Harry Potter series, will be protected by a large crew of bodyguards during an upcoming interview on American television. The concern? That al-Qaeda might decide to target the high-profile author as a way of getting “maximum publicity for the jihadist cause.” This may sound ridiculous and, yes, it sort of is, but al-Qaeda has reportedly considered targeting celebrities like — I kid you not — Brad and...

With a new report from the US intelligence community suggesting that al-Qaeda has found a safe haven in tribal areas of Pakistan, there is increasing talk of war. The Washington Post, for example, suggested in an editorial today that we should bomb Pakistan in order to take out militant strongholds. But the Post is way off base. An examination of what’s going on in Afghanistan shows that bombing as a counter-terrorism technique has proven a significant failure. In Afghanistan, NATO’s...

The “tabloidization” of American cable news has been hailed as an unfortunate, but necessary, step to maintain viewership. CNN, MSNBC, FOX and other channels have reduced air time for political and world news and supplemented it with stories about celebrity scandals, small town murder mysteries, and sports. But a recent show on ABC has shot a hole in the theory that Americans aren’t interested in hard-hitting international news. The program — a gritty, violent, in-depth look...

Pervez Musharraf is often touted as an important ally in the war on terrorism. With his strong control over the military, he has cracked down on Islamic militants operating in Waziristan and other parts of Pakistan. Or so we’ve heard. Frederic Grare, in a new report from the Carnegie Center for International Peace, thinks that we’re being duped. He suggests that Musharraf is not so useful of an ally and that the billions of dollars of American aid since 9/11 have not been nearly as effective...

Despite widespread optimism that North Korea might agree to permanently dismantle its nuclear program, there have been some unnerving signs in recent days. Matt Dupuis, over at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, has written up a must-read analysis of the recent developments.

The Iranian populace, a new poll has revealed, is a heck of a lot more moderate than their government. Take, for example, the fact that 80% of Iranians favor an end to the nuclear program in exchange for international aid.

The Opposite Direction, hosted by Faisal al-Qassem, is the Arab world’s most popular program. Broadcast on al-Jazeera, Qassem’s debate show regularly pits two people against each other to discuss highly controversial topics. I’ve written about the show before, and noted that al-Jazeera, by facilitating such programs, has been an awesome force for change in the Middle East. Recently, The Opposite Direction hosted a debate on this explosive question: do Islamists or secularists pose...

Anwar Ibrahim, writing in The Washington Post recently, makes a very compelling argument about the upcoming Turkish elections. Although the situation is often painted as a conflict between Islamism and secularism, this characterization is misleading. Instead, Ibrahim argues, the elections are a struggle “between the forces of freedom and democracy on the one hand and authoritarianism on the other.” The outcome will decide whether Turkey continues down the modernizing path it was set...

Reading The Washington Post last night, I came across a fascinating piece that points out some of the early, visible differences between the governing style of Gordon Brown versus that of Tony Blair. Brown is less excitable and more calculating, for one thing, and it has already won him some praise. In a particularly interesting tidbit, the article depicts Brown’s steady, careful approach to the foiled terrorist plot: Brown’s response to the incidents — in which a group of foreign-born...

About two weeks, Glenn Greenwald wrote a widely-cited post that questioned the oft-stated notion of a strong al-Qaeda role in the Iraqi insurgency. That the Bush administration, and specifically its military commanders, decided to begin using the term “Al Qaeda” to designate “anyone and everyone we fight against or kill in Iraq” is obvious. All of a sudden, every time one of the top military commanders describes our latest operations or quantifies how many we killed, the enemy...

(Cross-posted at Foreign Policy Watch.) Or that’s at least what some military officials are now saying. Dave Kilcullen, Senior Counterinsurgency Advisor to General Petraeus, had this to say recently: I know some people in the media are already starting to sort of write off the “surge” and say ‘Hey, hang on: we’ve been going since January, we haven’t seen a massive turnaround; it mustn’t be working’. What we’ve been doing to date is putting...

Cross-posted at Foreign Policy Watch. (Stop by and leave a comment!) There is some discussion that Tony Blair might be tapped to become the Middle East envoy representing the international community in its efforts to wage peace between the Palestinians and the Israelis. Supposedly, it’s the White House that has been pushing this idea. Am I the only one that this strikes as somewhat odd? Indeed, since when has the Bush administration started caring about the Palestinian-Israel conflict? In the...

There has been a lot of talk – as well as confusion – over recent reports and accusations that the Iranians have been arming…their historical enemy, the Taliban.