I am not betting that Iran changes. It will continue to take power, externally, to hold Iran in check; or an internal change in power, for there to be fundamental change. ========= Mohamad Chatah, a former Lebanese finance minister and potential future prime minister, wrote an open letter last week to Hasan Rouhani, calling on the new Iranian president to end Tehran’s... Read more
Archive for the ‘Middle East’ Category
A Letter to Rouhani From a Murdered Lebanese Patriot – WSJ.com
December 30 | Posted by mrossol | Middle East, Radical IslamSaudi Royal Blasts U.S.’s Mideast Policy
December 17 | Posted by mrossol | Middle East, ObamaI can’t believe that George Bush is still making the world hate us! ======= MONACO—A leading Saudi prince demanded a place for his country at talks with Iran, assailing the Obama administration for working behind Riyadh’s back and panning other recent U.S. steps in the Middle East. Prince Turki al-Faisal, an Arab royal and a brother of Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal, said Saudi... Read more
Review: Days of God, by James Buchan
December 17 | Posted by mrossol | Middle East, Radical IslamSounds like a very good read. Maybe because the 1979 revolution happened as my “political being” started to mature, and I took interest? ========= In “Days of God,” James Buchan comes as close as anyone—certainly as close as any Westerner—to capturing the Iranian predicament of the past 34 years: “Those who make great revolutions forget that prisons and torture chambers survive into... Read more
Simple Questions Stump Obama Officials
December 16 | Posted by mrossol | Middle East, Obama, The LeftDon’t be surprised. Not sure they realize that governing takes real work. ========= Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R., Calif.) had a simple question Wednesday for three of the Obama administration’s top Afghanistan specialists: How many American troops have been killed in Afghanistan this year? None of the witnesses at the House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on Afghanistan had an answer. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R., Calif.)... Read more
Our Former Friends the Saudis
October 23 | Posted by mrossol | American Thought, Middle East, ObamaSo who did you say our friends were “leaving” the US over? What that George Bush? ============= President Obama likes to boast that he has repaired U.S. alliances supposedly frayed and battered by the Bush Administration. He should try using that line with our former allies in Saudi Arabia. As the Journal’s Ellen Knickmeyer has reported from Riyadh in recent weeks, the Kingdom... Read more
U.N. Insecurity Council
October 21 | Posted by mrossol | American Thought, Middle East, ObamaCan anyone imagine the press “feeding frenzy” if Pres. Bush had been “snubbed” like this by Saudi Arabia? Maybe Obama isn’t having enough “dialog”? Maybe he should send Michelle to Saudi Arabia to generate a little more good will? ============ Membership in the United Nations Security Council is supposed to be like a Nobel Prize—no one ever turns it down. So when... Read more
