On To Timbuktu II
January 18, 2013 PARIS – Confused over the surging violence in Mali and now Algeria? Trying to find Mali on the map? War, as the great Roman historian Tacitus wrote, teaches geography. This week’s...
View ArticleJust Back From The Mideast – And I’m Really Worried
February 2, 2013 The Mideast is stumbling into one of its most dangerous crisis in decades. I’m just back from the region – and as an old Mideast hand, I am very worried. This region is always tense,...
View ArticleThe Colonel We Love To Hate
March 8, 2013 As millions of grief-stricken Venezuelans thronged the streets of Caracas after the untimely death of 58 year-old President Hugo Chavez, memories flooded back of Sept. 1970, when an...
View ArticleTHE PHONY PULLOUT FROM AFGHANISTAN
December 7, 2013 Those wondering what lies in store for Afghanistan need only look at the way the British Empire ruled Iraq in the 1920’s. As Shakespeare wrote, “what is past is prologue.” Imperial...
View ArticleWORLD DANGER SPOTS 2014
January 4, 2014 Where are the world’s most dangerous places in 2014? *Mostly forgotten, but the highly dangerous, Indian-controlled portion of disputed Kashmir. Rebellion against Indian rule by...
View ArticleBOKO HARAM V. NIGERIA’S CROOKS
May 10, 2014 The kidnapping of some 200 girls in northern Nigeria has sparked world outrage. It’s a perfect media sensation: exotic locale and remarkably nasty kidnappers from a northern rebel...
View ArticleTHE GREAT WESTERN GAS FIASCO
May 24, 2014 GENEVA – Russia’s leader Vladimir Putin usually wears a perfect poker face. But last week in Shanghai, the icy-cold Russian president came awfully close to bursting into a big grin. And...
View ArticleTHE ALLMIGHTY MESS IN IRAQ
June 14, 2014 The late Saddam Hussein was certainly right when he predicted that America’s invasion of Iraq would become “the Mother of All Battles.” Eleven years later, it continues. This week saw the...
View ArticleBACK TO BAGHDAD!
June, 21, 2014 NEW YORK – One would think the neoconservatives who engineered the Iraq War – the worst disaster for the United States since Vietnam – would never emerge from hiding. Not so. With...
View ArticleWERE THE SAUDIS BEHIND 9/11?
7 February, 2015 Claims that Saudi Arabia was behind the 9/11 attacks on America have been circulating since 2001. The Saudis have denied all such claims even though 15 of the 19 aircraft hijackers...
View ArticleHOW TO DEAL WITH THE IRANIAN GENII?
April 11, 2015 The deal reached in Lausanne, Switzerland by Iran and five powers, led by the US, appears to be about nuclear capability. In fact, the real issue was not nuclear weapons, which Iran...
View ArticleSAUDIS – STOP THE OIL FLOOD – OR ELSE
6 February 2016 One night in his tent in Tripoli, Libya, Col. Muammar Khadafi told me, “the Saudis are a very rich family hiding behind high walls, terrified their neighbors will come and steal their...
View ArticleDEFENDING DEMOCRACY TO THE LAST DROP OF OIL
23 April 2016 Poor President Barack Obama flew to Saudi Arabia this past week but its ruler, King Salman, was too busy to greet him at Riyadh’s airport. This snub was seen across the Arab world as a...
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