If I hadn’t just used this formulation for another post, I would have titled this one, “Dude, Where’s My Oil Contract?”

Middle East: Things Look Catastrophic but It Will Work Out, Why I’m Optimistic By Barry Rubin Every day dreadful things happen in the Middle East and in the echoes of that region—diplomacy, news coverage—in the West. Yet things are by no means as bad as they seem. Precisely because a lot of what happens simply doesn’t reflect reality, ultimately the material effect is minimized. “All that is...

Mural to the dead: Revolutionary Guard members look at pictures of commanders and colleagues killed in Sunday’s suicide bombing. Who is responsible for Monday’s devastating attack on members of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard? According to Iran and others, the U.S. and Britain are responsible, since they back the Sunni group that has claimed responsibility and is fighting for an independent...

Consolation prize?: Vice President Joe Biden and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk in Warsaw, Oct. 21. Has America agreed to station U.S. forces in Poland to ease the pain of canceling the construction of elements of an anti-missile shield in that country? In addition to discussing the new version of the U.S. anti-missile shield with its East European allies, according to this article by Andrzej Talaga of...

If Barack Obama had been president in 2002, he says he would have stayed out of Iraq and pursued al Qaeda in Afghanistan. But that “war of necessity” is now morphing into the biggest foreign policy headache of our time, a Hydra of impossible choices in Pakistan, the whole Middle East and beyond. Even as Hamid Karzai agrees to an election runoff with who-knows-what prospects of national unity in Kabul,...

This evening (Wed) at 6:30pm, I’ll be part of a panel discussion on the topic of “Afghanistan: Should We Stay Or Should We Go?” Details here. I assure you, if you live in Washington, there is nothing more intellectually enriching you can do tomorrow night other than listen to me. (Assuming you have a DVR and don’t have to miss a brand new episode of So You Think You Can Dance.) So,...

Paresh Nath, The Khaleej Times, UAE This cartoon is copyrighted and licensed to run on TMV. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited. All rights reserved.

More troubling news from the anti-terrorism. front. How serious is the situation now in Pakistan? So serious that the government has temporarily closed schools due to bombings: Pakistan closed schools nationwide for five days after suicide bombers struck a university in the capital, a step that may further erode public tolerance for the country’s Islamic militant movement. “Educational institutions under...

Could it be that the United States is somehow behind or involved with the suicide attack on a meeting that included senior members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard? According to this editorial from Pakistan’s Frontier Post, which is published right along the Afghan-Pakistan border, there is every reason to believe that the attack, claimed by the Sunni group Jundallah which is fighting for an independent...

One doesn’t normally expect to find articles of an inspirational nature in an in-flight magazine. On a flight yesterday, I started my perfunctory flipping of pages of the “American Way” magazine, and there, tucked among descriptions of alluring vacation paradises, interesting travelogues and colorful promotions for fine dining and wining, were not one, but two gripping and inspiring stories about our wounded...

Americans love movie rereads. The same types of characters in the same types of places doing the same types of things in only slightly different ways. Think Star Wars. Think Matrix. Think the Smokey flicks. We also seem to love political disaster retreads. Think Vietnam. Think Iraq. Think what’s about to happen in Afghanistan. One good way to appreciate the newest addition to the ongoing America’s...

In regard to Afghanistan, should Russians indulge in a little schadenfreude - a German word meaning taking pleasure in the pain of others – or should it help the United States out of its predicament. For Russia’s Kommersant newspaper, columnist Sergey Markedonov asks his readers: “Should we be happy over the misfortune of our ’sworn friend’ the U.S. – particularly against...

Continuing with our look at Obama’s Nobel Prize through a global prism, this article from Syria’s state-controlled Thawra Al Wada shares the rest of the world’s surprise with the award – but with a distinctly anti-Israel Syrian twist. For Thawra Al Wada, Khalaf Ali Al Moftah argues that Obama has time to earn the award, as long as he does a few things no American chief executive is ever...

Yes, you heard me right. Here’s what Kerry had to say on CBS about relying on counterterrorism instead of counterinsurgency in Afghanistan: SENATOR JOHN KERRY: That’s correct. I– I– I do not believe that a counterterrorism strategy all by itself without a sufficient level of counterinsurgency will work because if you don’t have a presence on the ground that’s effective, it–...

Are new tensions about to swirl around Afghanistan? At a time when President Barack Obama and his advisers are huddled in comprehensive reviews of the war and what do do next, recent elections and the next phase of U.S. involvement, the New York Times reports that an audit of election results submitted today “appeared likely to show that President Hamid Karzai had won about 48 percent.” Attributing...

Some of Iran’s top military commanders were killed in a terrorist attack on Sunday, and according to this article from Iran’s state-controlled Kayhan newspaper, the regime holds the U.S. and Britain responsible. The Kayhan news item says in part: “A terrorist blew himself up at a meeting of tribal elders in southeastern Iran Sunday, martyring at least 31 people, including top commanders. The...

For critics claiming we cannot afford health care reform for our own people in which 45,000 uninsured die annually — a report I admit may be high — consider these apples. It costs about $400 a gallon to deliver fuel to our troops in Afghanistan. The Pentagon reports it costs about $1 billion for ever 1,000 troops in that land-locked nation which has an infrastructure worse than the poorest barrio...

Glenn Greenwald tells us about an important turn of events in a lawsuit filed by Binyam Mohamed, a former Guantanamo detainee (emphasis is in original):

Here is Sharon Otterman’s report in yesterday’s New York Times on the United Nations Human Rights Council’s decision and what it means going forward:

Pakistan is pressing its military battle against Taliban forces that seek to destabilize its government — and the region — into Taliban strongholds. in recent recent weeks, Taliban forces have staged a series of stunning attacks and now the Pakistan government seems to be saying in effect “it’s our turn.” Meanwhile, in Washington, recent Taliban bombings in Pakistan have been so...

You know me by now. I find that Letters to the Editor generally depict the unvarnished views of “regular” Americans, and I often use them support a particular point of view. Of course, these same letters can also express points of view that I do not agree with. I am sure that those who oppose my views can and will use those in order to support their views. Anyway, in the debate to eliminate discrimination...

I have always believed that if there is a clear and present danger to the security of the United States or an imminent attack, our country has every right to launch a preemptive military strike against the potential source of such a threat. Regrettable, such a valid doctrine, in my opinion, was adulterated by the previous administration. Early in his administration—and, yes, as a result of 9/11—Bush...

Paresh Nath, The Khaleej Times, UAE This cartoon is copyrighted and licensed to run on TMV. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited. All rights reserved.

In many parts of India you can see people enjoying bhang/hashish (or cannabis/marijuana) by the roadside without attracting a look of surprise or disapproval. It is only when the Western world began to raise hue and cry that people in the urban areas began to smoke/drink it discreetly at the occasional activation of the dormant laws. In nearly 80 per cent of India it is still openly consumed (generally in...

After being invaded by the previous U.S. administration based on faulty information, how do Iraqis feel about the current president of the United States winning the Nobel Peace Prize? In the first translation on the subject we’ve had from Iraq, Abd Al Razzak Al Rabihi doesn’t spare the use of exclamation points in his understandable outburst of exasperation. He writes for Iraq’s Kitabat newspaper...