Richard Fernandez reviews and comments on Michael Ledeen’s new book The Iranian Time Bomb. Richard’s conclusion: “In summary Iran may well be ‘the greatest strategic challenge to U.S. interests in the Middle East in a generation’, in the words of Barack Obama. It might even be, as Michael Ledeen says ‘the key to this war’ which if turned will cause ‘the world [to] change overnight’. But it presents a formidable challenge; one which America must...

Keith Olbermann is a drama queen.

Bad news for the Bush administration (but good news for those who aren’t too happy with the way the administration has chosen to fight terrorism): “A federal judge struck down parts of the revised USA Patriot Act on Thursday, saying investigators must have a court’s approval before they can order Internet providers to turn over records without telling customers.” US District Judge Victor Marrero said that the (recently rewritten) Patriot Act “offends the fundamental...

The Iraqi blogger is back – she’s now blogging from Syria. H/t Andrew.

Richard Cohen writes: The way the United States leaves places matters. Having armed mujahedeen fighters to undo the Soviet empire in Afghanistan, America lost interest in a backwater. Payback came in the form of Afghan-trained holy warriors bent on the destruction of the West. That was careless. It is important to be less careless in Baghdad. As reports on Iraq reach Congress this month, it’s worth considering that blow-back from an oil-rich country at the heart of the battle for the Middle...

The Harvard International Review recently published an essay by Governor Richardson. In the essay, Richardson describes the foreign policy he favors as “New Realism.” New realism is an interesting theory, and it’s important for all of us to stop looking at the controversy of the day, and to start talking policies / plans. This is why I have summarized and analysed Richardon’s essay. Governor Richardson calls his take on foreign policy “New Realism.” The essence...

A lot has happened lately: not only has Turkish Daily News published some columns by yours truly, a few days ago I was also asked by Pajamas Media whether I would like to write for them. Of course, I answered that I would be happy and proud to be part of such a fine and constantly growing organization. Today, PJM published my first article. It’s about the arrests in Germany earlier today. It seems that the three suspects had plans to hit Germany hard. Much harder than the London or even the...

Susan Duclos of Wake Up America had the opportunity to interview Melanie Morgan, chair(wo)man of Move America Forward, a pro-war organization. A part of the interview published at Susan’s blog, is also published at the Washington Times (Susan is a freelancer for them). Read the interview, it is a good and interesting read from the pro-war / pro-surge perspective. I do not agree with everything said, and neither I bet will you, but as always we have to be able to listen to all sides of the...

Now this is an interesting research: Using the UK Fourth National Survey of Ethnic Minorities, we explore the determinants of religious identity for Muslims and non-Muslims. We find that Muslims integrate less and more slowly than non-Muslims. A Muslim born in the UK and having spent there more than 50 years shows a comparable level of probability of having a strong religious identity than a non-Muslim just arrived in the country. Furthermore, Muslims seem to follow a different integration pattern...

Vanity Fair published an article describing the treatment Al Gore received back in 2000 from the mainstream media. I am not talking about so-called right-wing media, but about the New York Times and the Washington Post. The author of the article did not just ask Gore and his staffers what they thought about the way the media depicted him, she also talked to journalists themselves and asked them why they did what they did. Read the entire article, it is a fascinating read about how journalists purposefully...

Bill Richardson has made quite some verbal mistakes the last couple of weeks. He has given some – among them yours truly – that he might be just as talented as George W. Bush in expressing himself. Today it seems that Bill Richardson made another idiotic comment; according to the (former) Governor of New Mexico God wants Iowa to be the first state in the primaries. That’s right. Read all about it here.

The more I read about what some call the Armenian genocide, the more I understand how difficult and confusing the subject actually is. There is a lot of material available for free on the web and in just about every library. Some of the sources – many of them – indicate that their was a genocide, others deny it, again others speak about mass killings but not genocide as such. Today, the Jerusalem Post published a good and interesting article by Lenny Ben-David about this. Ben-David writes: AS...

Journalist Piers Morgan made fun of Bush a while ago for falling off a Segway. To be precise, he asked Bush whether he would agree that only “an idiot” could fall of such a machine. Well there is a time moronic questions and a time for justice: it seems that the distinguished gentleman is an idiot himself. Watch the video if laughing at others is your cup of tea.

Turkish Daily News reports that the Turkish opposition “leveled criticism at the government’s program read out by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip ErdoÄŸan last week,” yesterday. The most aggressive opposition came from Devlet Bahçeli, the leader of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP). Erdogan ignores, according to Bahçeli, the most important issues facing Turkey such as the situation in northern Iraq. Instead of proposing ways to deal with the PKK and northern Iraq, “The...

Nicole Belle links to this video and article at Discovery about the melting of ice near the north pole as a result of global warming. It seems that, according to researchers, all the ice there will be gone by 2050. The bad news? Say goodbye to quite some life. The good news? Say hello to oil. The melting ice is a blessing for oil companies which see a potential treasure opening up before their very eyes.

Thomas Friedman writes for the New York Times: Iraq today is a land of contrasts — mostly black and blacker. Traveling around the central Baghdad area the past few days, I saw little that really gave me hope that the different Iraqi sects can forge a social contract to live together. The only sliver of optimism I find here is in the one region where Iraqis don’t live together: Kurdistan. After that he goes on to describe the situation in Kurdistan, he does so in quite a brilliant manner: Imagine...

The cultural editor of the Danish newspaper that published the infamous Mohammed cartoons has been interviewed by Turkish Daily News. In the interview, Flemming Rose apologizes for insulting Muslims all over the world, while at the same time saying that he does not regret the decision to print them. Personally I believe that he either should have said “I apologize for everything,” or: “I don’t apologize for anything and if you felt insulted you will just have to get used to...

This article at MSN is in Dutch, so let me summarize the key findings of the latest poll: the social democrats would lose bigtime if elections were held today. The traditionally biggest – or nearly biggest – party in the Netherlands, the PvdA, would win a mere 20 out of 150 seats. At this moment, this party holds 33 seats in Parliament. They won these seats during the elections in 06. 33 seats meant failure on part of the social democratic leadership. When I read the first paragraph and...

Good news: Turkish Daily News published another OP-ED written by yours truly. The main subject of the column is the tension that exists between secularists and moderate Islamists. One of the major problems is – quite simply – that the two sides greatly distrust each other. Secularists fear that if they give up an inch, Islamists will demand a foot; moderate Islamists fear that secularists will stage a coup and oppose their wish to live according to their beliefs. In the column I write: The...

That is what some Americans seem to think: Again it comes, for the sixth time now — 2,191 days after that awful morning — falling for the first time on a Tuesday, the same day of the week. gain there will be the public tributes, the tightly scripted memorial events, the reflex news coverage, the souvenir peddlers. Is all of it necessary, at the same decibel level — still? Each year, murmuring about Sept. 11 fatigue arises, a weariness of reliving a day that everyone wishes had...

Chuck Adkins informed me that his blog is back to its original address. It seems that something went horribly wrong with the company that hosted his new blog. Be sure to update your bookmarks.

An interesting article was published at The American Thinker, written by Thomas Lifson. The subject of the article: Arthur Miller, famous playwright. It seems that Lifson is not a big fan of Miller’s work. For one thing, he considers Miller’s plays to be too negative about America. Besides that, he also believes Miller was something of a moralistic phony. Recently, he was confirmed in that opinion: it seems that Arthur Miller has a 41-year old son, named Daniel. Nobody outside of the...

Reuters reports (via the New York Times that Pope Benedict has urged world leaders to do something about global warming before it is too late. The Pope said: “A decisive ‘yes’ is needed in decisions to safeguard creation as well as a strong commitment to reverse tendencies that risk leading to irreversible situations of degradation.” He went on to say that “New generations will be entrusted with the future of the planet, which bears clear signs of a type of development...

Recent developments in Europe make Don Surber conclude that all the stories about growing anti-Americanism in the world since Bush became president are based on a myth. According to Don, Sarkozy’s and Merkel’s victories show that the world really does love America. Although I would like to be able to agree with Don, I cannot do so. His reasoning is false. The voters did not elect these people because they are (relatively) pro-America, they voted for them because they are fed up with the...

Dan Balz wrote a fascinating article for the Washington Post about the presidential elections. He asks seven questions and tries to answer them himself. The first question: “Is the Clinton campaign a true juggernaut — or is that just what she wants everyone to believe?” The answer: “Not a juggernaut, but it is the best campaign on the block right now. That’s a view widely shared among Democratic strategists and emphatically asserted by some veteran Republicans sizing...