It would appear that we (meaning the United States) will soon have direct talks between our Iraqi ambassador and an equivalent from Iran, in Baghdad. This is a welcome development. Iran has been causing a tremendous amount of trouble for… Continue Reading
A country was founded as a strictly secular state with a Constitution that requires that the government be strictly non-religious. It is poised on the brink of nominating its first religious observant President. The army obviously has serious reservations and… Continue Reading
You may not like Christopher Hitchens, if you know who he is or what he writes about. If you’re a return Reader, you probably have something of a taste for the ironic, iconoclastic, and insightful (whether I provide the insight… Continue Reading
Today I read a story about Black Tom. Black Tom used to be an island in the mouth of the Hudson River. Ninety years ago, there was a massive explosion on the island, which was felt as far away as… Continue Reading
Scott Adams is the cartoonist who publishes the usually-funny Dilbert. And he’s a guy who seems to share my frustration with the overall state of affairs in the government these days.
Iran has found yet another way to polarize world opinion and engage in self-aggrandizement. In one of the more transparent tissues of spin I can recall, the government of Iran has “pardoned” the 15 British sailors and marines and promised… Continue Reading
I was given a very intriguing idea today. The U.S. and its European allies have been, until quite recently, quarreling about continued military activity in Iraq. But for the past week or so, there has been remarkable solidarity amongst the… Continue Reading
Imagine this. The Iranian Navy sends a boat out from its far-western port of Bandar-e Mahshahr to patrol against smugglers. The boat finds a Saudi-flagged ship it does not recognize in their territorial waters, and sends over a boarding party… Continue Reading
Fabio, a blogger from Europe that I read from time to time, decries European ignorance of how the United States works. Fairhandedly, many Americans are similarly ignorant of how things work in the Old World. What’s interesting is that Europeans… Continue Reading
Hollywood as apparently succeeded in inadvertently doing what even a hawkish Bush Administration has failed to do: turn Iranian public opinion against the West. I suppose that the visuals in the movie were all put in just to make things… Continue Reading