After six years in office, Obama broadcasts his world-weariness with wan gestures and pauses, with loose moments in the White House press room. The world has stubbornly denied him his ambition to transcend its cruelties, pivot smartly to the East, and “do some nation-building here at home.” Obama’s halting cool at the lectern now reads […]
From Word War I to Iraq, it has always been about the United States poking its nose into other people’s business… Read here – National Interest
America’s foreign-policy hawks are once again circling high over their maps of the Middle East. They see several countries where they would like America to strike. Some of the hawks are neoconservatives. Others are liberal internationalists. Hillary Clinton’s hawkish shrieks are an unusual blend of their styles. Read Here – The Atlantic
America’s tentative return to the battlefields of Iraq, however reminiscent it is of unfinished American business there, is also a deadly reminder that the Arab world is still trying to sort out the unfinished business of the Ottoman Empire, a century after it collapsed. Read Here – The New York Times
As drones become more commonplace, what’s to stop terrorists from using them? Read Here – Bloomberg
The map of the modern Middle East, a political and economic pivot in the international order, is in tatters. Syria’s ruinous war is the turning point. But the centrifugal forces of rival beliefs, tribes and ethnicities — empowered by unintended consequences of the Arab Spring — are also pulling apart a region defined by European […]
Blithely ignoring the fact that his presidential predecessor ordered the invasion that plunged Iraq into its current chaos and instability, Obama seems to hold the Iraqis at fault for their present U.S.-induced predicament., argues Yuram Abdullah Weiler. Read Here – Tehran Times
The smoke rising from the Iraqi city of Baiji—so dark and thick that it’s visible from U.S. weather satellites—is evidence of one thing: The jihadist conflict engulfing Iraq is fueled by oil. Read Here – Businessweek
Ten years after the fall of Saddam Hussein, Iraq still suffers from the damage wrought in the overthrow of a dictator and the chaos that followed. Watch Here – Aljazeera
President Obama’s instincts about Iraq and Syria have been sound from the beginning: Greater U.S. engagement probably cannot make things better but certainly can make them worse, both for the people of the region and for our national interests. Read Here – Washington Post
looking beyond borders 