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Exodus and Ascent
As the Iraqi government continues their attempts to pull the leaders of the Sunni led insurgency from the battlefield and into the political spectrum, the insurgency continues to lose the power to influence the future of Iraq via violence. Robert F. Worth of the New York Times reports Sheik Harith al-Dari, “a leading spokesman for Iraq’s disaffected Sunni Arabs” and leader of the Sunni Muslim Scholars Association is negotiating with the government to bring in Sunni fighters. The Muslim Scholars Association has openly supported the insurgency and has called for the boycott of the January election. While al-Dari’s demands are…
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Great Games
The United States’ worldwide military posture provides valuable information how the US plans to address present and future threats. The US redeployment from the European theater marks the end of the Cold War strategy of protecting Europe from the threat of the now-defunct USSR. The shift of American forces to the East – Central Asia and the Middle East, and South – the Horn of Africa, reflects the new areas of concern for the United States. In the Asia Times, Ramtanu Maitra documents the proliferation of US bases in Central Asia, and posits the purposes are to surround Iran (a…
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Out of the Bottle
“The democratic genie is out of the bottle”. An update on the status of democratic progress in the Middle East, and how the United States is leveraging diplomacy to promote democracy in the region.
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Shifting Zarqawi
Osama bin Laden’s push for attacks in the United States by Zarqawi highlights several weaknesses in the current state of al Qaeda; a lack of experienced operatives and military and political pressure have forced the organization to modify its operations.
