Asia held hostage on the high seas
It has been centuries since armed robbery on the high seas has taken on the dramatic geopolitical dimensions it has today. But piracy is back, and the brazen recent successes of Somali buccaneers has shocked governments and navies, and thrown oil companies and shipowners into panic. As this week's hijacking of a Saudi oil supertanker shows, the risk of pillage and plunder is getting worse, and leaders from Japan to South Korea to Hong Kong and India want action to protect their trade routes. - Keith Wallis (Nov 19,'08)

Iran cools on Iraq's US accord
A considerable initial softening of Iran's fierce opposition to the security agreement between Iraq and the United States has been tempered by some hardline opposition. Tehran has at best given a yellow light to the accord, while the ability of Iraqi insurgents and al-Qaeda to exploit it remains a prime concern. - Kaveh L Afrasiabi (Nov 19,'08)

Iraq bids farewell to US arms
The security pact between the United States and Iraq closes the door to a further US military presence beyond 2011 even more tightly than the previous draft and locks in a swift end to Iraqi dependence on the US military that appears to be irreversible. What was supposed to be a client regime was instead waiting for the right moment to assert real control. - Gareth Porter (Nov 19,'08)

Economic noose tightens around Iran
Clumsy sanctions imposed by the United States have added to Iran's self-inflicted economic misery but have failed to produce the desired alterations in policy. The advent of Barack Obama to the White House creates the opportunity for more intelligent sanctions to be applied. Allied to patience, therein lies the prospect of real change. - Hossein Askari (Nov 19,'08)



Al-Qaeda 'awakens' in Iraq
The policy of al-Qaeda in Iraq in its fight against Awakening Councils in Sunni tribal areas has been to assassinate the movement's leaders. Al-Qaeda has now set its sights on recruiting council youths disenchanted by the Iraqi government's attempts to integrate them into the regular security forces. (Nov 18,'08)

KEBABBLE
Turkish delights can be deadly
As autumn falls in Turkey, rural and city dwellers alike take to the fields to partake in the traditional past-time of hunting for wild mushrooms. But with 72 people poisoned by deadly dissemblers like the "Village Collapser" in the past week alone, the authorities have been forced into action over the fickle fungi. - Fazile Zahir (Nov 18,'08)

Obama urged to forgo Iran threats
The battle for president-elect Barack Obama's ear on the Iran nuclear issue has intensified, with a recent high-level report recommending rapprochement through careful diplomacy, while hawkish groups want to keep the attack option open. All the while, the jockeying for a place on Obama's foreign policy team continues apace. - Jim Lobe (Nov 17,'08)

US again misfires on Iranian arms
For more than 18 months, the United States has scrambled to link Iran to covert arms assistance to Iraq's Shi'ite militias. But a US military task force has now found that Iranian-made weapons are less than 1% of the total weapons found in Shi'ite caches, suggesting that weapons are arriving from local and international arms markets rather than an Iran-sponsored smuggling network. - Gareth Porter (Nov 17,'08)

US wins early round over Iraq
The Iraqi cabinet's approval on Sunday of a draft agreement with Washington on the United States presence in Iraq is a key landmark in the struggle for influence in the country between Iran and the US. Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and his allies lost this battle, but they have not lost the war - this showdown takes place in the Iraqi parliament in a week's time. - Sami Moubayed (Nov 17,'08)

THE ROVING EYE
A pact with the devil
Influential Shi'ite leader Muqtada al-Sadr is already threatening fire and brimstone over the Iraqi cabinet's approval of a draft security agreement with the United States. But Muqtada, currently studying in Iran, is in a difficult position: he has to confront the problem that in strategic terms, Tehran subscribes to not attacking US troops as the best way for the Americans to eventually leave. - Pepe Escobar (Nov 17,'08)

Turkey in free-fall
Turkey's economic growth is slowing, interest rates are ruinously high and the government wants to splash out before elections next spring. That leaves little hope that the country's stock market will pull out of its precipitous plunge for more than the briefest of breathers. - Robert M Cutler (Nov 14,'08)

BOOK REVIEW
Pseudo-intellectualism on Iran
Iran: A People Interrupted by Hamid Dabashi
Full of factual errors and self-contradictions, this flawed history of Iran's past 200 years often offers little more than a soap box for the author's outdated anti-colonial arguments. The book's credibility is further damaged by distasteful attacks on other scholars and his lazy approach to analysis of post-revolutionary Iran's complex political arena. - Kaveh L Afrasiabi (Nov 14,'08)

COMMENT
UN tackles pillars of intolerance
A high-level conference on the "culture of peace" being held by the United Nations this week offers world leaders a chance to seek moral and ethical solutions to the globe's "moral bankruptcy". Xenophobia, gender and ethnic and racial discrimination are rising, and the conference's message of "common humanity" is particularly resonant at this crucial juncture for Western and Islamic relations. - Kaveh L Afrasiabi (Nov 13,'08)

Obama under the gun over Iraq
President-elect Barack Obama faces a broad campaign by military officials and their supporters in the political elite and the news media to drop his plan to withdraw United States troops from Iraq in as little as 16 months. But a retreat by the George W Bush administration on the same front means Obama may not require the "wiggle room" for compromise that he built into his campaign pledges. - Gareth Porter (Nov 13,'08)

DISPATCHES FROM AMERICA
Breathless in Washington
Political Washington is a conspiracy - in the original sense of the word, "to breathe the same air". It is an imperial capital with deeply entrenched interests, from lobbyists to bureaucrats to the military-industrial complex. Unless president-elect Barack Obama is given "breathing space", he could die from suffocation. - Tom Engelhardt (Nov 13,'08)

SPEAKING FREELY
Strolling out of Iraq
Iraq need not be the worst problem the new United States administration faces, as the American public, Iraq's Shi'ite-majority government and powerful neighbor Iran are all gearing up for an honorable and swift US exit. By achieving this, the Barack Obama administration would free up much-needed financial resources and have attained its first major foreign policy coup. - Brian M Downing (Nov 12,'08)

The inevitability of a nuclear Iran
Plans by neo-conservatives in the United States to use "airstrike diplomacy" to smash Iran's nuclear aspirations and force it to negotiate were derided at a recent council on US-Arab relations as "utter folly" which would unleash a "titanic crisis". Despite neo-con and Israel efforts, diplomatic failures by the George W Bush administration are leading to the inevitable acquiescence of the US to a nuclear Iran. (Nov 12,'08)

COMMENT
Time for G-7 to count its oil barrels
The rush by leading industrialized nations to reconfigure the global financial system can be viewed as wishful thinking at best and total delusion at worst. Instead, the world's fuel producers could create an energy dollar, which among other benefits would be preferable to consumers such as China and Japan than accumulating ever-greater balances of conventional US currency. - Chris Cook (Nov 12,'08)

US coaches Arab overtures to Iraq
Egypt is one among many Arab states rushing to restore diplomatic ties with Baghdad, despite past promises they would not do so until US troops had left Iraq. Pressure from Washington to counter Iranian influence, rather than the preservation of Iraq's "Arab identity", has led to the overtures. (Nov 11,'08)

Iran extends an early friendly hand
Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad's upbeat letter to Barack Obama is a small olive branch toward the United States. There is every hope in Tehran that it will be well received, and the belief that there can be a noticeable improvement in US-Iran relations if the two countries cooperate over Iraq and Afghanistan. - Kaveh L Afrasiabi (Nov 7,'08)

Syrians stare terror in the face
Syrians have been rocked by revelations that several members of the Lebanon-based terror group that carried out a deadly suicide attack in Damascus in September were Syrians. This is testimony to just how vulnerable Syria has become to terrorism and fundamentalism, and indicates that such groups must have already infiltrated more vulnerable places like Lebanon, Iraq and Jordan. - Sami Moubayed (Nov 7,'08)

Change, and change, in the Middle East
The United States-led "war on terror" has itself now become a threat to peace in the Middle East. A better understanding of Arabs and Muslims by the new US administration will certainly help, but at the same time, "significant self-reflection and hard work has to be done by the Arab governments and extremist Islamic leaders themselves". (Nov 6,'08)

Abu Hussein's invitation to Damascus
Syrians affectionately call Barack Hussein Obama "Abu Hussein" (father of Hussein), even though he has no son, and look forward to him visiting the country. First, though, Obama will have to repair the damage done by the George W Bush administration, such as sending an ambassador to Syria and recognizing that some problems in the Middle East can only be solved with Damascus' cooperation. - Sami Moubayed (Nov 6,'08)

Big names jostle for top posts
Barack Obama has offered fellow Chicagoan legislator Rahm Emanuel the job as his White House chief of staff, launching a mad scramble - and much speculation - over the top spots in the incoming administration. The most likely candidates are diverse: big names, new blood, Republican realists and so-called "Clinton retreads". - Jim Lobe (Nov 6,'08)

Iran also ripe for change
Iran, no less than the United States, is caught in the bitter economic winds that helped to drive the discredited old order out of the White House. The advent of an intelligent president in Washington could be the key factor in removing Iran as a major foreign policy issue for the US. - Hossein Askari (Nov 5,'08)

China tests its mettle in Syria
China's attempts to forge close and multifaceted ties with key Middle East states such as Syria, a country with modest oil reserves relative to its neighbors and a struggling economy, reflect the increasing complexity of Beijing's foreign policy toward the region and show that its concerns extend beyond oil and markets. (Nov 5,'08)

DISPATCHES FROM AMERICA
The end of a subprime administration
On a pile of rubble at Ground Zero, bullhorn in hand, on September 14, 2001, President George W Bush found his calling as "cheerleader-in-chief". From here, he was able to take war play to an imperial level. In the end, however, this act of his life, too, could lead nowhere but to failure. Still, his administration has been foreclosed and now the stables need sweeping. - Tom Engelhardt (Nov 4,'08)

KEBABBLE
Turkey bids farewell to a great racer
As the Turkish saying goes, a man values three things above all others: his gun, his woman and his horse. So it was with much sadness, and the blast of a firing pistol, that the nation watched the final run of its favorite racehorse, the legendary bay mare known as Ribella. - Fazile Zahir (Nov 4,'08)

India seeks 'velvet divorce' from Iran
The United States and Israel have largely succeeded in snatching India from the "other" side of the Middle Eastern geopolitical divide, that is, from Iran's embrace. Delhi's drift from Tehran, apart from potentially costing it in dollars and cents, will debilitate India's overall foreign policy in the Persian Gulf region in the critical period that will follow the election of a new US president. - M K Bhadrakumar (Nov 4,'08)

A strike against 'Iranophobia'
Arriving in Tehran this week with the head of the Gulf Cooperation Council comes the Arab trade bloc's support for Iran's nuclear program and a willingness to discuss Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad's economic, political and security proposals. The oil sheikdoms, it seems, are no longer sold on the West's "Iranphobia" nor the effectiveness of its sanctions regime. - Kaveh L Afrasiabi (Nov 3,'08)

American dream expelled from Syria
The closure of the American school in Damascus, in response to the recent United States raid into Syria, is a blow for Washington's hopes of winning over young hearts and minds in the Arab world. It is also a sad epitaph for the institution, which had promoted the "American dream" to young Syrians since the Dwight D Eisenhower administration. - Sami Moubayed (Nov 3,'08)

Two, three, many 'grand bargains'?
A series of interlocking "grand bargains" could offer the next US president a way out of a foreign policy quagmire. Luckily, a four-pronged regional initiative to pacify Afghanistan, integrate Iran, promote reconciliation in Iraq and launch a credible peace process between Israel and the Arab world has already been devised. - Jim Lobe (Nov 3,'08)

US's Syrian raid sets Iraq on fire
The United States raid into Syria has upset every key actor in Iraq. The government, beyond being embarrassed at not being consulted, is under even more pressure from Shi'ite parties not to sign a security agreement with the United States. The Sunni Awakening Councils are reconsidering their cooperation in fighting insurgents, while powerful tribes which virtually control the border are overnight turning anti-American. As for Syria, it has the power to cause havoc in Iraq. - Sami Moubayed (Oct 31,'08)

A bumpy ride for the US over Syria
The United States raid into Syria marks another twist in the George W Bush administration's policy towards Damascus, which has been dominated by threats and coercion with only a few glimpses of cooperation. At the same time, the policy of isolation has failed. (Oct 31,'08)

BOOK REVIEW
Universally rejected
The Politics of Chaos in the Middle East by Oliver Roy
The George W Bush administration, led by "universalists", believed the "American experience" was the perfect model to stamp on the peoples of the Middle East. But this has instead created instability and, in some countries, chaos. The conclusions to be drawn from the book are that the US should be more accommodating to the traditions of the Muslim world and that it should reach out to pragmatic Muslim nationalists, for example those in Iran. - Dmitry Shlapentokh (Oct 31,'08)

SPEAKING FREELY
The impending strike on Iran
An American president is most powerful when in lame-duck status and ceding power to an opposing party. This presents a once-in-a-lifetime "opportunity" for President George W Bush. Military, social and especially economic factors point to a very simple conclusion: America will either attack Iran in the next two-and-a-half months, or it never will. - David Fink (Oct 31,'08)

DISPATCHES FROM AMERICA
The next president and the 'war on terror'
The George W Bush administration will bequeath to the next president an expanding "global war" of remarkable incoherence - which is actually at least three, if not four or five separate wars. These are Iraq, the "orphan war"; Afghanistan; Pakistan's borderlands; and, skipping past the wars-in-waiting in Iran and possibly Syria, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. - Andrew J Bacevich (Oct 31,'08)

Iraq stands firm against US threat
The threat by the George W Bush administration to withdraw all economic and military support from the Iraqi government if it does not ratify a pact to regulate the US presence in the country has fallen on deaf ears. Certainly, the financial loss will hurt, but more than anything politicians - acutely aware of the country's history - know what their fate will be if they are perceived as "agents for the Americans". - Gareth Porter (Oct 30,'08)

IAEA misses the mark on Iran
The International Atomic Energy Agency's demand that Iran should prove "the absence of undeclared nuclear material and activities" is the biggest hurdle on the path of normalization of its nuclear file, even though this demand exceeds the agency's inspection and verification agreement with Tehran. - Kaveh L Afrasiabi (Oct 30,'08)

Why Syria? Why now?
Speculation is intense over the United States' cross-border strike into Syria. Was it a hawkish attempt to provoke war? A political stunt ahead of the US elections? If so, both tacks seem to have failed. A more likely answer is a "messy" US chain of command in Iraq, and gung-ho special operations forces. (Oct 29,'08)

Damascus comes down on dissidents
Twelve Syrian dissidents were on Wednesday sentenced to two-and-a-half years each for activities related to the promotion of democracy. The convictions come as Syria's international image has improved in recent months, but at a time when Damascus' relations with the United States are at an all-time low. - Stephen Starr (Oct 29,'08)

Making America safe for the world
The "war on terror" remains open-ended in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. And as the financial tsunami - made in the United States - is leaving no nation behind, both America and the world are far less secure than before. This situation will severely challenge the new US president, especially if he fails to look beyond the only two tools traditionally stored in the foreign policy toolbox - isolationism and interventionism. - Yu Bin (Oct 28,'08)

The strike that shattered US-Syria ties
A lethal commando raid by United States forces on a Syrian border compound near Iraq has ruptured already rocky relations between Washington and Damascus. The US now claims the strike was a pre-emptive success which led to the death of a top al-Qaeda agent. But Syria is outwardly appalled at the "cowboy" tactics, and the so-called "massacre" may make shattered ties irreparable. - Sami Moubayed (Oct 28,'08)

A third Palestinian Intifada in the making
As the likelihood rises of a third Palestinian uprising, the second and first must be scrutinized. Palestine's revolts have historically been against the failings of their own leaders and the railroading of their cause by other Arab states, as well as the Israeli occupation. While it is certain a third Intifada will result in new, unpredictable realities, it is clear the Palestinian people need to reassert ownership of their destiny. - Ramzy Baroud (Oct 28,'08)

US-Iraq deal awash in 'wiggle words'
President George W Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki face electoral pressure to posture as if they actually do want a pact for US troop withdrawal. As a result, negotiations have focused on finding language that disguises continued US occupation and extols Iraqi sovereignty. For example, the once-rejected idea of a timeline is now a "time horizon" - very beautiful, perhaps, but impossible to get to. (Oct 27,'08)

US raid in Syria spooks Iran
The incursion by US forces into Syria from Iraq reinforces the view in Iran that the pending security agreement between Baghdad and Washington is not simply an internal matter for Iraqis to decide, but rather a regional issue that calls for direct input by Iraq's neighbors. Worse, Tehran fears the US action is a dress rehearsal for a strike against its "terrorist" Revolutionary Guards. - Kaveh L Afrasiabi (Oct 27,'08)

Wrecked Iraq
Post-"surge" Iraq is being touted in the United States as a "modest" success and returning to "normalcy". Yet Iraq has suffered quite another fate: what was once the most advanced Middle Eastern society - economically, socially and technologically - has become an economic basket case, rivaling the most desperate countries in the world. - Michael Schwartz
(Oct 24,'08)

US worldviews worlds apart
Both United States presidential hopefuls are surrounded by foreign policy advisers from widely divergent schools - from the Manichean worldview of neo-conservatives to "liberal internationalists", with realists caught in the middle. Such differences have historically wrought heavy damage in administrations and will invariably result in splits over such key issues as dealings with Iran and Russia. - Jim Lobe (Oct 24,'08)

DISPATCHES FROM AMERICA
The Bush doctrine in ruins
President George W Bush's "report card" on the United States economy has been marked with an "F" for failure. But there's another report card that's not in. The record of the "war on terror" (and the Bush doctrine that once went with it) will also show flunking grades, leaving the new US administration to inherit an unprecedented record of failure. - Tom Engelhardt (Oct 23,'08)

Details of Iraq pact reveal US debacle
The final draft of the Status of Forces agreement on the United States military presence in Iraq presents a stunning defeat for Washington - setting a firm withdrawal deadline for 2011 and rendering US troops and contractors accountable to Iraqi laws. But even these concessions may not satisfy the anti-occupation sentiment of Shi'ite groups led by Muqtada al-Sadr. - Gareth Porter (Oct 23,'08)

Elusive consensus on Iran
Neo-conservative groups in the United States are using the presidential transition period to strengthen perceptions of an Iranian nuclear threat and stymie any plans for the next administration to change policy on Tehran. At the same time, the revived international efforts on Iran have exposed a widening split over how to deal with its nuclear program. - Kaveh L Afrasiabi (Oct 22,'08)

All aboard for Istanbul
Members of the Baha'i faith have been singled out for persecution since Iran's revolution in 1979 and many have fled, taking an arduous train journey towards a uncertain future in Turkey. Asha Shahir traveled with one group, finding amid the tales of heartbreak an unexpected love for the homeland they were leaving behind. (Oct 22,'08)

KEBABBLE
Straight as an arrow
Semray Tas Ozer has triumphed over Turkey's deep-seated prejudices to achieve academic success and become a top disabled athlete. Defeating even able-bodied opponents at archery, her new bionic hand promises to help her realize even higher targets, including, with state nurturing, the Paralympics. - Fazile Zahir (Oct 21,'08)

SPENGLER
Sharansky's mistaken identity
We must belong to cultures and nations, author Natan Sharansky asserts, rather than to the insipid soup of global citizenship. The trouble is that some identities are hostile to other identities by nature. From Ireland to Afghanistan, for example, the identities of all tribes and nations have become a response to Israel. (Oct 20,'08)

Saudis resurrect a rival for Hezbollah
Saudi Arabia, amid its efforts to undermine Hezbollah and its leader Hassan Nasrallah in Lebanon, is reportedly funding a rival Shi'ite wing of the group led by Sheikh Subhi Tufayli, a Hezbollah founder who has been little seen since the 1990s. But Saudi money may just be lining Tufayli's pockets and his resurrection is little threat to the power and popularity of Nasrallah. - Sami Moubayed (Oct 20,'08) 

Maliki in damage-control mode
Never say "surrender" and keep bad news hushed up as long as you can, that was the credo of British leader Winston Churchill. Today, embattled Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki is attempting a similar tack in Iraq, but he has had little luck in bringing hope to a people who have every reason in the world to feel miserable and defeated. - Sami Moubayed (Oct 17, '08)

DISPATCHES FROM AMERICA
How to manage an imperial decline
As shown with the British empire in the post-World War II years, there is inherent danger when a great power in economic crisis disastrously miscalculates what it can actually do in the world. Now, just as Britain had its Suez crisis, the United States has Iran. - Aziz Huq (Oct 17, '08)

BOOK REVIEW
Delinking options on Iran
Iran: Assessing US Strategic Options edited by James J Miller, Christine Parthemore and Kurt N Campbell
Architects of a new US foreign policy on Iran should shun this toxic compendium, which recommends a dangerous military-diplomatic cocktail in dealing with Tehran. The authors call for "turbocharged sticks" and "periodic refresher" strikes, rather than the real solution - nuclear ambitions which are verified, fully monitored and peaceful. - Kaveh L Afrasiabi (Oct 17, '08)

Ba'ath seeks showdown with Baghdad
A coalition in Iraq of at least 22 Ba'athist insurgent groups has announced a switch from guerrilla tactics using small arms in hit-and-run attacks to a more conventional approach with a regular army capable of launching a large-scale attack for the final "liberation" of Baghdad. At this stage the move might contain more rhetoric than reality, but it is a clear indication of what lies ahead. (Oct 17, '08)

US diplomacy tainted by 'militarization'
A hollowing out of the United States' diplomatic services - particularly in comparison to the funds and resources lavished on the Pentagon - has accelerated the "militarization" of diplomacy and foreign policy, former senior foreign service officers warn in a new report. The foreign service needs 50% more civilian staff if the US's "vital interests" are to be preserved, they conclude. - Jim Lobe (Oct 16, '08)

US blowback in Iran's elections
The key issues in next year's presidential elections in Iran will be the country's nuclear program, its economy and the winner in the race for the White House in the United States. Of these three, the identity of the new US president is likely to be the determining factor, and jockeying has already begun in Tehran. - Hossein Askari
(Oct 16, '08)

Bush set to go with a whimper
With the clock ticking on his presidency, George W Bush is infuriating neo-conservatives and hawkish allies with moves to calm relations with Iran and North Korea. Worse for the hawks, the moves undercut the campaign of Republican presidential candidate John McCain, and may reflect a "realist restoration" in Washington's approach to international problems. - Jim Lobe (Oct 15, '08)

In the shadow of war and peace with Iran
The on-off saga of the United States establishing a consular office in Iran is on again, while a mostly American advocacy group has also been given permission by Washington to set up an office in the country. These positive moves are offset by highly influential analysts in the US continuing to portray the US-Iran dialogue through the prism of a new cold war. - Kaveh L Afrasiabi (Oct 15, '08)

McCain's 'crusader' logic concerns Syria
After a year of hoping for a Barack Obama presidency in the United States, Syrians have begun to publicly rethink the prospect of John McCain in the White House. Unfortunately, many of those now banking on a McCain victory have forgotten his questionable comments about Syria and the Arab world which go back to 1984. - Sami Moubayed (Oct 14, '08)

Ayatollah's sums not of this planet
Whatever the merits of an Iranian cleric's views linking America's economic turmoil to divine wrath, the impact of the US crisis on the Iranian economy and Iranian people will be severe. As oil prices tumble, the forces of supply and demand may do to Iran in a few months what the mighty US has been unable to do in 30 years. - Hossein Askari (Oct 14, '08)

Europe dares to dream in Palestine
It's no secret that Europe is maneuvering for a much more significant role in the Israel-Palestine peace process. But is it prepared to dispel its embarrassing track record of acquiescence to US-tilted and pro-Israel stances, and take on a conflict of such magnitude? To do so it would need to function as a truly independent political body, and defy "true friend" Israel. - Ramzy Baroud (Oct 14, '08)

A mad scramble over Afghanistan
The Saudi Arabia-brokered Afghan peace talks that include the Taliban have opened a new turf war. Washington is determined to exclude Russia from the country, even as Moscow insists on its legitimate role. The prospect of peace and a United States-sponsored oil and gas pipeline via Afghanistan suits India, but Delhi has been slow off the mark. Iran has begun counter moves to assert its authority. Hapless Afghans can only look on as others decide their fate. - M K Bhadrakumar (Oct 14, '08)

Syria reaches out for growth
Syria is pushing through legal, financial and education reforms to pull back the role of government and create job opportunities for its young population. European and Chinese partners are keen to help out where Washington-imposed sanctions keep US companies at bay. - Stephen Starr (Oct 9, '08)

THE ROVING EYE
Wall Street: a new Iraq War
The Wall Street US$810 billion - and counting - bailout is being interpreted by millions of angry Americans as no less than a class struggle weapon of mass destruction. It may cost US taxpayers over $2 trillion after real interest payments are added. Whoever is elected will inherit this toxic mess - which includes the biggest fiscal and foreign deficits in US history and no control of monetary policy. Yes, this bailout is a second Iraq war. - Pepe Escobar (Oct 9, '08)

SPEAKING FREELY
A new dawn for Iran
The irreversible decline of the US dollar-based global financial system highlights the need for a currency based on the intrinsic energy value of carbon-based fuels. Iran, protected from the "Anglo disease" by the very sanctions aimed at damaging it, is placed to lead the way. - Chris Cook (Oct 8, '08)

Syria plays hardball with the Saudis
Saudi Arabia's refusal to denounce the deadly September 27 attack in Syria has enflamed relations between Damascus and Riyadh. The Syrians believe the Saudis, furious over defeat in Beirut and Syria's diplomatic successes, are now financing radicals in Lebanon to strike at both Hezbollah and Syria - a move that could set the region ablaze. - Sami Moubayed (Oct 7, '08)

Look who came to dinner ...
Former Taliban foreign minister Wakeel Ahmed Muttawakil was one of the special guests at a dinner hosted by King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia at which a peace process with the Taliban is said to have been discussed. Muttawakil tells Syed Saleem Shahzad of the good relations the Taliban once enjoyed with the Saudis, but won't be drawn further. If previous Saudi efforts are a guide, a Muslim peacekeeping force for Afghanistan is on the menu. (Oct 7, '08)

A fatal flaw in Afghan peace process
While the parties involved are playing coy, it is beyond doubt that Saudi Arabia-brokered Afghan peace talks have begun. Using a mix of the godly and the worldly, which is useful for finessing a movement like the Taliban that crisscrosses religion and politics, the United States aims to keep the process within a tiny, exclusive circle of friends and allies. This means no role for Iran and Russia. It also means failure. - M K Bhadrakumar (Oct 7, '08)

US wars keep the money flowing
Doom and gloom merchants in the United States military/industrial complex have got it all wrong. There is no chance of the Pentagon's massive budget being cut any time soon, or the military in any way "transformed", no matter who takes over the White House. The simple fact is, the United States is at war. - David Isenberg (Oct 7, '08)

SPEAKING FREELY
More US ears in Israel
Why did the United States Senate approve a US$89 million bill to deploy an immensely powerful and precise long-range radar system to Israel one year ahead of schedule? Most likely because the X-band radar - which can locate an object the size of a baseball 4,700 kilometers away - adds one more strategic base to contain and intimidate Iran, Syria and Lebanon. - Ardeshir Ommani (Oct 7, '08)

Bush's final Iran blunder?
The George W Bush administration's decision to turn down the opportunity of a diplomatic presence in Iran - despite Tehran's strong signals welcoming the idea - can be seen as a move not to undermine Republican Senator John McCain's presidential chances. More ominously, it could be tied to the drumbeats of war sounded by Israel. - Kaveh L Afrasiabi (Oct 6, '08)

US cool to Israeli strike on Iran
Washington is sticking to its policy of sanctions on Iran, reports say, and won't give Israel a green light to strike at its nuclear facilities - for now. The US is worried that Israel won't knock out all Iran's nuclear sites and that retaliation would target US troops.(Oct 6, '08)

The odd couple of global spirituality
In an electrifying salvo, Miguel d'Escoto, the current president of the United Nations General Assembly, has infused new energy into his position with a call to tap spirituality as a wellspring of global solidarity. The former Sandinista-sympathetic priest has found an unlikely ally in Iran's President Mahmud Ahmadinejad, and the UN may never be the same. - Kaveh L Afrasiabi (Oct 2, '08)

Bad tidings in Iraqi Kurdistan
A volatile situation has developed in northern Iraq, where Baghdad's decision to launch "Operation Good Tidings", a military offensive to grasp control of Kurdish-controlled territories, has turned Kurds against the government. Mindful of old wounds, autonomous Kurdistan sees the deployment as a test of its power and promises to match each Iraqi brigade with two of its own.
(Oct 1, '08)

Iran fears nuclear witchhunt
The cash-strapped International Atomic Energy Agency's flip-flops on Iran, now saying it cannot confirm the absence of a clandestine nuclear program, raise concerns that the United Nations' nuclear watchdog is under pressure from the West to tighten the screws on Tehran. At the same time, the longer the nuclear crisis continues, the less isolated Tehran becomes internationally. - Kaveh L Afrasiabi (Oct 1, '08)

Syria's unlikely shepherd
The United States may be easing its stance towards Syria, an ally of Iran still listed by the US as a sponsor of terror, with talk of a "potential thaw" following recent talks. Damascus has appealed for Washington's help in its burgeoning peace process with Israel, while Saturday's deadly car-bombing in Damascus highlights the need for coordinated counter-terrorism efforts. - Jim Lobe (Oct 1, '08) 

DISPATCHES FROM AMERICA
How forgotten Iraq may elect
the US president
The centerpiece of the United States presidential race may turn on an almost forgotten war in a forgotten country - Iraq, a tinderbox that could explode at any moment. The war is causing two powerful riptides just below the surface of American politics. There is Democrat Senator Barack Obama's war, the realistic disaster that most Americans have now accepted, and Republican Senator John McCain's war, the symbolic success story that so many Americans still wish was the reality. - Ira Chernus (Oct 1, '08)

The cost of boots on the ground in Iraq
The 190,000 contractors in Iraq and neighboring countries, from cooks to truck drivers, have cost US taxpayers US$100 billion from the start of the war through the end of 2008, a new US government study says. Yet while it costs half a million dollars per year to maintain a Blackwater professional armed guard, it costs exactly the same to keep one sergeant in combat in Iraq.
(Oct 1, '08)

KEBABBLE
Are Turkey's women too posh to push?
Last year, only 59% of Turkey's new mothers gave birth naturally. The rest chose the more costly but relatively more sanitized option of a Caesarean section: Turkey's moms are allowing technology and terror to override an intuitive experience. - Fazile Zahir (Sep 30, '08)

Syria back on the terror map
The main suspects behind Monday's car bombing in the Lebanese city of Tripoli and a similar attack at the weekend in Damascus are Sunni extremists bent on destabilizing the region and seeking revenge for Syria's longstanding ties to jihadi elements. For Syria, "Black Saturday" marks a return to the dark days of its confrontation with the Muslim Brotherhood in the 1980s. - Sami Moubayed (Sep 30, '08)

Israel lobby loses on Iran resolution
In a surprise defeat for pro-Israel lobby groups in the United States, the House of Representatives has shelved a resolution aimed at curtailing Iran's nuclear program by means of a naval blockade. The initiative, which critics had decried as an "act of war", was defeated by a last-minute charge of lobby groups calling for diplomatic engagement with Tehran. - Jim Lobe (Sep 29, '08)

DISPATCHES FROM AMERICA
We have the money
Few blinked when a US$612 billion Pentagon budget sailed through the US Congress, even as negotiators in Washington were scrambling to find a similar sum to deal with the catastrophic financial meltdown. Congress has been corrupted by the military-industrial complex into believing that, by voting for more defense spending, they are supplying "jobs". In fact, they are diverting scarce resources from the desperately needed rebuilding of the American infrastructure. - Chalmers Johnson (Sep 29, '08)

Al-Qaeda's opportunity to hurt the US
Al-Qaeda's self-appointed role as the inciter of jihad has contributed to a world that is much more afflicted with jihadism than it was in 1996, when Osama bin Laden declared war on the United States. From India, the Philippines and Thailand to Pakistan, Afghanistan and North Africa and the North Caucasus, jihadi movements flourish. Now al-Qaeda could accelerate the unraveling of the US financial system with a September 11-like attack in the continental United States. - Michael Scheuer (Sep 26, '08)

Financial crisis threatens US influence
The added burden of a US$700 billion Wall Street bailout to the US$15 billion the US is already spending every month on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will almost certainly damage Washington's ability to get its way abroad. The first cuts can be expected in foreign aid, which the US uses to influence the behavior of countries. - Jim Lobe (Sep 26, '08)

BOOK REVIEW
A peek into a Persian paradox
The Ayatollah Begs to Differ by Hooman Majd
Raised and educated in the West before working closely with two Iranian presidents, Majd is the perfect raconteur to give a deeper perspective on Iran and its relationship with America. Part autobiography, part political reporting, the book juxtaposes a disarming view of the contradictions in Iranian society with sweeping insights into the nation's political affairs, international relations and culture. - Ian Chesley (Sep 26, '08)

A dangerous obsession
Neo-conservatives and former Israeli diplomats are said to be behind the distribution of millions of copies of the controversial, allegedly Islamaphobic movie Obsession in swing states in the United States ahead of November's presidential elections. Now federal authorities have been asked to investigate the "hate propaganda" campaign. (Sep 25, '08)

THE ROVING EYE
A bailout and a new world
While the US is trying to implement its US$700 billion financial bail-out plan, French President Nicolas Sarkozy talks of "rebuilding" capitalism. In the corridors of the United Nations, there is talk of another kind of rebuilding, of a new multipolar world that would get rid of imperialism and colonialism. Call it the revenge of the developing world. - Pepe Escobar (Sep 25, '08)

Damascus fears deviation on peace road
As Israeli premier-in-waiting Tzipi Livni battles to form a government, Syria is preparing for the possibility she will call off the indirect talks with Damascus. The Syrians remember Golda Meir, Israel's first women prime minister, for her role in the October War of 1973. And when Syria is worried, it heads for countries such as Russia, and organizations like Hamas in Palestine. - Sami Moubayed (Sep 25, '08)

Iran plays up its peacemaker role
In his speech before the United Nations General Assembly, Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad called for free elections in Israel-occupied territories, blasted the West's "bullying" policies and reiterated Tehran's right to nuclear technology. At the same time, blending theology with diplomacy, Ahmadinejad positioned Iran as a conflict mediator. - Kaveh L Afrasiabi (Sep 24, '08)

Shady deals in Iraq's arms bazaar
Clandestine gun suppliers, funded by the United States and Iraqi governments, have flooded Iraq with millions of weapons since 2003, many of which have ended up in the hands of insurgents, a new report says. And faulty or non-existent US government tracking systems have allowed companies with patchy records to remain in the lucrative business. (Sep 24, '08)

Al-Qaeda uses Yemen as springboard
Al-Qaeda's recent attack on the US Embassy in Yemen is only a part of its operations in the region. The group is intensifying acts of piracy off the coasts of Yemen and Somalia as a step towards the establishment of a caliphate. - Olivier Guitta (Sep 24, '08)

Palestine: From bad to wretched
The state of the Palestinian economy is deteriorating to almost unimaginable depths. Adding to the tragedy for its people, yet offering hope, is that the disaster is mostly man-made, thus reversible. - Ramzy Baroud (Sep 24, '08)

KEBABBLE
A pyrotechnical Ramadan in Turkey
Once marked by the blast of castle-bound cannons, the daily breaking of the fast during the holy Muslim month of Ramadan is now heralded in Turkey with the whiz and bang of cheap Chinese firecrackers. A growing national obsession with pyrotechnics and easily evaded fire precautions mean the new displays are more risky than the old artillery. - Fazile Zahir (Sep 23, '08)

Business as usual for US arms sales
It is the season for weapons industry conferences in the United States, and business has never been better. The prize is a slice of the current half-trillion-dollar defense budget. Giants such as Lockheed Martin have their eyes on US$32 billion in contracts, while the Pentagon will offer about $34 billion in weapons to Iraq, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. (Sep 23, '08)

Call for more balanced security budgets
Instead of throwing money at bolstering its military might, the United States could invest more in international diplomacy and homeland security, a group of experts, including retired generals and admirals, advises. Even Defense Secretary Robert Gates agrees. Canning costly programs to develop fanciful hi-tech weapons would be a start. - Jim Lobe (Sep 23, '08)

New realities in the Strait of Hormuz
The closure of the Strait of Hormuz by mines or blockade has been "a reliable nightmare" for decades. A new analysis suggests Iran could not truly mine the strait, but neither could the United States respond without a great threat to the world economy. - David Isenberg (Sep 22, '08)

Ahmadinejad sets pulses racing
Many Iranians dread the prospect of President Mahmud Ahmadinejad again trotting out virulent anti-Israel rhetoric at the United Nations next week, preferring he use the platform to build bridges with the United States. Others relish the opportunity to give Ahmadinejad a special New York welcome. (Sep 19, '08)

The saga of the rebel princess
A 30-episode television series about the life of Princess Amal al-Atrash, better known by her stage name Asmahan, has been banned in her native Syria. But audiences in Saudi Arabia and Lebanon are transfixed by the unfolding saga of the Druze princess who rebelled against society and marriage to become one of the 20th century's most colorful, controversial and inspiring Arab women. - Sami Moubayed (Sep 19, '08)

Iran plays the mediator
"Rogue state" Iran has embarked on a whirlwind of diplomacy across the Caucasus and troubled Central Asia. Tehran's momentum as a "main pillar of regional stability" is partly due to fears that regional tensions could affect its national security interests, and its determination to counter attempts to form a "Caucasus alliance" which would exclude it. - Kaveh L Afrasiabi (Sep 19, '08)

BOOK REVIEW
'We blew her to pieces'
Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan
by Aaron Glantz
This gut-wrenching chronicle gives vivid and searing accounts of the devastation the United States occupation has brought to Iraq, as well as to its own soldiers. Compiled from emotionally charged testimonies and under the guidance of the Iraq Veterans Against the War, this is an important and disturbing account of "the true face of war". - Dahr Jamail (Sep 19, '08)

Muqtada reinvents himself
Iraqi Shi'ite leader Muqtada al-Sadr has reorganized his militia, the Mahdi Army, into a "cultural and religious force". The move follows heavy pressure from Iran, which is trying to diminish Muqtada's influence in a way that will strengthen the Nuri al-Maliki government. Yet the transformation of the militia and Muqtada's deeper involvement in the clerical establishment is more likely to enhance his popularity and legitimacy as a political leader. (Sep 18, '08)

Cairo cool to Tehran's clinch
Egypt continues to reject Iran's diplomatic overtures, even after it was revealed that an anti-Egyptian film cited by Cairo as a reason for not talking to Tehran was not made in Iran. Egypt, it seems, will find any excuse to keep the Iranians at arm's length, and Washington happy. (Sep 17, '08) 

Damascus warily eyes the prize
Indirect negotiations between Syria and Israel have gone as far as they can in breaking the thaw between the countries. Damascus is now awaiting the election of a new Israeli premier and a new occupant of the White House to go to the next level - direct peace talks. That is, provided war does not break out in the meanwhile.(Sep 17, '08)

A peek at Obama's Middle East vision
War with Iran will be avoided at all costs if the US is led by Barack Obama, says the Democratic presidential nominee's senior foreign policy advisor, Susan Rice. As a former assistant secretary of state for African affairs under president Bill Clinton, Rice has a grand vision for strengthening security in Iraq and the greater Middle East. (Sep 17, '08)

Big-bang report blasts Iran
The International Atomic Energy Agency's "serious concerns" and "outstanding questions" about Iran's nuclear program open the door for more sanctions against Tehran, or worse, a strike against its nuclear infrastructure. Lost in the scramble to condemn Iran is the fact the agency has on previous occasions deemed these issues resolved, and even in its latest report ruled out any military diversion at Iran's facilities. - Kaveh L Afrasiabi (Sep 16, '08)

Iran ill-prepared for reformists
Ahead of presidential and parliamentary elections next year, Iran is already abuzz with talk of a post-Mahmud Ahmadinejad era. In the highest places where it really matters, though, the president is viewed as the best man for the job, including the way in which he deals with the United States. Reformers face an uphill battle. - Sami Moubayed (Sep 16, '08)

DISPATCHES FROM AMERICA
The Pentagon's cubicle mercenaries
During the George W Bush years, American war fighting has been privatized and the Pentagon largely turned over to corporate contractors, hired guns, hired hands, private cubicle mercenaries and private sub-contracting warriors, who raked in US$151 billion in 2006. What's left is "a Pentagon bloated almost beyond recognition and crippled by its dependence on private military corporations". - Frida Berrigan (Sep 15, '08)

US a step closer to Iran blockade
The new unilateral United States sanctions on Iran's shipping industry are unlikely to have much economic effect. They do, though, indicate the George W Bush administration's intention to escalate pressure on Tehran as a prelude for more serious and dangerous actions, such as a naval blockade to choke Iran's access to imported fuel. - Kaveh L Afrasiabi (Sep 12, '08)

Russia and Turkey tango in the Black Sea
Moscow has welcomed Ankara's proposal for a stability and cooperation pact in the Caucasus - the core of Russian thinking lies in the preference for a regional approach that excludes outside powers, that is, the United States. Effectively, the Black Sea is now a Russo-Turkish playpen. Moscow has also thrown a curve ball by seeking to link Iraq and Iran to this emerging pact. - M K Bhadrakumar (Sep 11, '08)

Tehran feels an Arab sting
The decision by the United Arab Emirates to open an embassy in Iraq comes in close coordination with other Arab states, aimed at bringing Iraq back into the Arab family and away from Iran. Tehran's role in the region is also increasingly under attack in the Arab media, with the specter of a "nuclear Iran" being raised. Iran in turn is sending mixed signals, including attempts to placate Sunnis in Lebanon. - Sami Moubayed (Sep 11, '08)

THE ROVING EYE
Iran-bashing from al-Qaeda's corner
Al-Qaeda's leadership, in a battle to seduce Muslim hearts and minds, says its top strategic enemy is Shi'ites - be it Tehran or Hezbollah - and not the United States. Winning over Shi'ites will fuel al-Qaeda's objective of a "long war" in which the only winner will be the US military-industrial complex. That's the sorry legacy of 9/11, seven years on. - Pepe Escobar (Sep 11, '08)

The next peace and false bells on Iran
Voters in the United States presidential elections are being urged to vote for the candidate best prepared to handle the "unavoidable war with Iran". This can be dismissed as campaign rhetoric. There is nevertheless a renewed intensity in the drumbeats over Tehran's nuclear program, even though the next chapter in US-Iran relations need not be written in blood: the "next peace" is still a possibility. - Kaveh L Afrasiabi (Sep 11, '08)

Oil for the people
The United States has an obligation to prevent Iraq's oil revenues from funding another Saddam Hussein, and appropriate mechanisms can ensure normal folk get a cut of the cash too often purloined by autocrats in such resource-rich countries. The poor of Venezuela would appreciate a similar share-out. - Per Kurowski (Sep 11, '08)

COMMENT
Seven years on, three big 9/11 lies
The George W Bush administration still can't tell the truth about September 11. It keeps claiming the deadliest attacks on the American mainland as a badge of honor, rather than as a stain on its record. The greatest political mystery of the 21st century is why Americans keep getting fooled. - Muhammad Cohen (Sep 10,'08)

Iran wants Hamas to help, but not win
The relationship between Hamas and Iran has become one of the major obstacles to Palestinian peace. Unlike Hezbollah, there are limits to what Iran offers Hamas - a Sunni group not fully eligible for "full honors". But Hamas does not take orders from Tehran, it uses Iran, just as much as Iran uses it, to achieve objectives in Palestine. - Sami Moubayed (Sep 9,'08)

When success is failure in Iraq
The George W Bush administration and the John McCain presidential campaign are pounding the "success" and even the "victory" drums over Iraq. There is another reality: for all the talk over the years about "tipping points" reached, and "corners" turned, it's possible the US might be heading for a genuine tipping point - a resounding defeat at the hands of the very government it has supported all these years. - Michael Schwartz (Sep 9,'08)

THE ROVING EYE
All square
It's more than possible that within the next few months a pro-gun, pro-Big Oil, mooseburger-eating PR stunt named Sarah Palin, whose foreign policy credentials are burnished by a visit to Canada, will have her finger on America's nuclear button if anything untoward should happen to a septuagenarian president. But fear not: Palin will have a plan, just as she has/will have (it's not at all clear) a plan for Iraq: "[T]hat is what we have to make sure, [that] there is a plan and that plan is God's plan." - Pepe Escobar (Sep 5, '08)

BOOK REVIEW
The ashes of American morality
The Dark Side by Jane Mayer
The core of the book is a dissection of the United States' reaction to the September 11 attacks and how it led to the "war on terror" - a war the author describes in all its sordid details. The deduction drawn is that the US has seen many of its core values eroded to the point of endangering the very principals on which American society is allegedly based. - Alexander Casella (Sep 5, '08)

Palestinians play a wild card
The lead Palestinian negotiator has warned of scrapping the peace process with Israel and demanding that Israel annex the Palestinian territories with all their residents. Jerusalem has rejected this sea-change in attitude as it carries with it apocalyptic possibilities for the Jewish state. But the concept of a bi-national state can be re-imagined as a positive development: it has its roots in progressive Jewish thought. - Mark LeVine (Sep 4, '08)

Slave trade heads to Israel
Israel has narrowly avoided United States economic sanctions over its unsavory role in the international white slave trade. Still, Israel remains a haven for the trafficking of women for the sex industry, and the government faces sharp criticism for its visa policy which ties foreign migrants to an Israeli employer. (Sep 4, '08)

Iran courts Russia and the Latin left
The growing rift between the United States and Russia presents Tehran with options. Iran can seek to neutralize United Nations nuclear sanctions and explore strategic cooperation with Russia and Latin America's leftist governments. It can also act as Moscow's junior partner, rallying "rogue" nations in a front against the US. - Kaveh L Afrasiabi (Sep 3, '08)

Lebanon's economy looks to a revival
Renewed tourist interest in Lebanon points to a sense of stability in the wake of the Doha accords signed in May. Even so, the government of President Michel Suleiman has much to do before the country again becomes the Switzerland of the Middle East.(Sep 2, '08)

Iran tightens screws on Iraq's Kurds
Iran is carefully monitoring the health of ailing Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, who has helped maintain a delicate balance between the pro-Tehran ruling Shi'ite bloc and the Kurdish community. Already, Baghdad has introduced an Iranian-inspired crackdown to ensure the Kurds remain "tamed". - Sami Moubayed (Sep 2, '08)

Ahmadinejad gets a crucial boost
An apparent public endorsement of President Mahmud Ahmadinejad by Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei throws a new light on the 2009 presidential elections. Khamenei's backing could silence some government critics and Ahmadinejad is already calling the leader's approval "a medal of honor". (Aug 29, '08)

BOOK REVIEW
Rebranding 9/11
The Second Plane by Martin Amis
This incendiary collection of short stories and articles smolders like the rubble of the twin towers. Taking on fundamentalism, Islamism in particular, as well as the West, in absorbing, dialectic prose, Amis scores a direct hit against victim and victor alike. - Julian Delasantellis (Aug 29, '08)

Tehran exploits US-Russian tensions
Iran's geopolitical leverage has increased sharply as a result of the West's faceoff with Russia over Georgia. Tehran is potentially a valuable ally for either side in Cold War II, and for now it is cleverly keeping its options open - while the price for its cooperation rises. - Jim Lobe (Aug 28, '08)

Maliki picks a date with destiny
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has put himself on the line by insisting that all American troops leave the country by the end of 2010, as a precondition to signing a security accord with the US. Maliki's stance, clearly influenced by Iran, is unacceptable to Washington. Something has to give. - Sami Moubayed (Aug 28, '08)

Sectarian clashes flare in Iraq
A United States-backed security operation meant to target al-Qaeda has instead focused only on Iraqi cities with large Sunni populations. Sunni residents claim the operations are clearly sectarian and also blame Shi'ite militias backed by the government in Baghdad. - Ahmed Ali and Dahr Jamail (Aug 27, '08)

Turkey has a rough road ahead
Turkey is trying to develop an autonomous foreign policy, including deeper energy ties with Iran, in unprecedented conditions, among them war on its doorstep. Yet its regional Caucasus Stability and Cooperation Platform will not solve the country's basic economic problems and the outlook cannot be optimistic amid the worldwide downturn. - Robert M Cutler (Aug 27, '08)

The Biden factor in US-Iran relations
The Democratic ticket in the US presidential race holds with it the possibility of a serious change in American foreign policy, especially with regard to Iran. Senator Joseph Biden is a strong advocate of engagement with Tehran and a vocal opponent of any military action against it as a result of its nuclear program. Iran has already indicated it would respond positively to a softer US approach. - Kaveh L Afrasiabi (Aug 27, '08)

Biden's stumble over Iraq
In response to the consequences of the US invasion of Iraq and the resulting weakening of popular support for the war, Senator Joseph Biden has recently joined the chorus of Democrats calling for the withdrawal of most combat forces. Yet Biden's key role in making possible the US Congress' authorization of the 2003 US invasion will not convince the anti-war constituency. - Stephen Zunes (Aug 27, '08)

KEBABBLE
Turkey's odd man of the sea
Turkey's one-man environmental crusade, Imdat Avci, has spent years sailing the turquoise inlets and bays off Marmaris on the Mediterranean coast to protect its fragile marine ecology and accost its violators. The salty, stubborn Don Quixote has used tactics such as hunger strikes and threats to cut off his fingers, for which he is becoming famous. - Fazile Zahir (Aug 26, '08)

Georgia war rooted in US 'self-deceit'
Whether Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili had encouragement from his "buddies in the White House" or not, the deeper roots of the Russia-Georgia war lie in US bureaucratic self-deceit about the objective of expanding the North Atlantic Treaty Organization up to the borders of a highly suspicious and proud Russia in the context of an old and volatile ethnic conflict. - Gareth Porter (Aug 25, '08)

Iran's economic self-mutilation
Belated acknowledgement in Iranian popular media of the country's economic failures incorrectly attributes such failings to economic sanctions. Slow growth, high unemployment, pervasive corruption, economic injustice - these are self-inflicted. - Hossein Askari (Aug 25, '08)

Syria reaps a Russian reward
After the Russian tanks rolled into Georgia, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was the first world leader to visit the Kremlin. Moscow sees a good ally in Assad, a man who realizes that the Russians are back and intends on using this strong reality to advance Syria's interests. Foremost is the peace process with Israel, which, given the events in the Caucasus, the United States might now feel compelled to support. - Sami Moubayed (Aug 22, '08)

Apocalypse later
It's the year 2016 and a professional futurologist looks back at some unfortunate predictions m