NewsTrust - Middle East - Most Recent Stories: Opinion (Independent)

Rick Steves: Reflections on Israel and Palestine

Thu, 05 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Rick Steves - Apr. 05 (Opinion) - I've been duped. Do you know the frustration you feel when you believed in something strongly and then you realize that the information that made you believe was from a source with an agenda to deceive? I just watched a powerful and courageous documentar

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Palestine: Gaza Under Attack - Again

Sun, 11 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Global Voices - By Yasmeen El Khoudary - Mar. 11 (Opinion) - Throughout the night of March 9 and into the morning of March 10, Israeli warplanes attacked targets across the Gaza Strip, with a death toll of at least 12, and 20 injured.

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Obama slams GOP for casual war talk re Iran, stresses Costs

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Informed Comment - By Juan - Mar. 07 (Opinion) - President Barack Obama, in his Super Tuesday news conference, explained his thinking on Iran and tensions between it and Israel. The most impressive thing he said was, Now, what’s said on the campaign trail – those folks don’t have a lot of responsibilities. They’re not Commander-in-Chief. And when I see the casualness with which some [...]

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Why Aren’t More Arab Americans Working in Mainstream Journalism?

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Columbia Journalism Review - Jan. 31 - There are anywhere between 3.5 and 5.1 million Americans of Arab descent, according to figures from the Arab American Institute, yet relatively few work in journalism full time. While meaningful estimates aren’t known, as journalism scholars that conduct demographic research in American newsrooms do not typically tally newsmakers of Arab descent, the National Arab American Journalists Association counts around 250...

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Prepping Americans for an Iran War

Sat, 03 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Consortium News - By William Blum - Dec. 03 (Opinion) - There’s no letup, is there? The preparation of the American mind, the world mind, for the next gala performance of D&D — Death and Destruction. The Bunker Buster bombs are now 30,000 pounds each one, six times as heavy as the previous delightful model.. But the Masters of War still want to be loved; they need for you to believe them when they say they have no choice, that Iran is the latest threat to life as we know it, no time to waste.

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Sahar Aziz: Rule Of Law, Not Rule By Law for Egypt

Sat, 26 Nov 2011 23:58:00 -0800

Huffington Post - By Sahar Aziz - Nov. 26 - Egypt is forever changed. Whether ruled by a civilian government or a military junta, gone are the days when the government can blithely dismiss the will of the people or coerce them into obedience. This most recent wave of mass protests demonstrates Egy

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"Arab Spring" Label Hampers Global Protests' Solidarity Potential

Sat, 09 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

truth-out.org - By J.A. Myerson - Jul. 09 (Opinion) - In its unsubtle suggestions of "foreign," "not white" and implicit condescension, the handy moniker American media has developed in its attempt to make sense of 2011's global unrest - "The Arab Spring" - is counterrevolutionary, perhaps deliberately so.

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WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange on Role of U.S. Cables in Helping Stir Arab Spring

Wed, 06 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Jul. 06 (Interview) - Earlier this year, WikiLeaks released a the largest trove of classified U.S. State Department cables in history, exposing the U.S. role in propping up unpopular regimes in the Middle East and supporting human rights abuses against opponents. During a July 2 discussion moderated by Democracy Now!’s Amy Goodman, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange highlighted the importance in releasing the information documented in the diplomatic cables, the impact WikiLeaks has had on world politics and journalism in general, and about the Arab Spring political uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt, now continuing across the region in Yemen, Bahrain, Syria, and Libya.

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In a pure coincidence, Gaddafi impeded U.S. oil interests before the war

Sat, 11 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Salon - By Glenn Greenwald - Jun. 11 (Opinion) - When the war in Libya began, the U.S. government convinced a large number of war supporters that we were there to achieve the very limited goal of creating a no-fly zone in Benghazi to protect civilians from air attacks, while President Obama specificall

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Seymour Hersh on the Arab Spring, "Disaster" U.S. Wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and the Looming Crisis in Iraq

Fri, 03 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Seymour Hersh, Amy Goodman, Juan Gonzalez - Jun. 03 (Opinion) - Veteran investigative reporter Seymour Hersh assesses the popular uprisings sweeping the Middle East and North Africa amidst ongoing U.S. wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan. Despite touted gains and an upcoming U.S. military withdrawal deadline in Iraq, Hersh says: "Whatever you're hearing, Iraq is going bad ... It's sectarian war, and the big question will be whether we pull out or not." On the uprisings, Hersh says Saudi Arabia—fearing an overthrow of the regional order—is driving the embattled regimes' attempts to crush the protests.

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Let’s stop blaming America

Sun, 29 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

arabnews.com - By Khalid Alnowaiser - May. 29 (Opinion) - I am a proud and loyal Saudi citizen, but I am tired of hearing constant criticism from most Arabs of everything the United States does in its relations with other countries and how it responds to global crises. No nation is perfect, and certainly America has made its share of mistakes such as Vietnam, Cuba and Iraq. I am fully aware of what happened when the atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the unprecedented abuses at Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib. However, what would we do if America simply disappeared from the face of the earth such as what happened to the Soviet Union and ancient superpowers like the Roman and Greek empires? These concerns keep me up day and night. It’s frustrating to hear this constant drumbeat of blame directed toward the United States for everything that is going wrong in the world. Who else do we think of to blame for our problems and failures? Do we take personal responsibility for the great issues that affect the security and prosperity of Arab countries? No, we look to America for leadership and then sit back and blame it when we don’t approve of the actions and solutions it proposes or takes. For instance, if a dictator seizes and holds power such as Egypt’s Mubarak and Libya’s Qaddafi, fingers are pointed only at America for supporting these repressive leaders. If the people overthrow a dictator, fingers are pointed at America for not having done enough to support the protestors. If a nation fails to provide its people with minimum living standards, fingers are pointed at America. If a child dies in an African jungle, America is criticized for not providing necessary aid. If someone somewhere sneezes, fingers are pointed at America. Many other examples exist, too numerous to mention.

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Actions Not Words Show US Middle East Policy

Fri, 20 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

readersupportednews.org - By Rep. Dennis Kucinich - May. 20 (Opinion) - We all want to be supportive of our President as he attempts to broaden America's positive role in the Middle East and North Africa. But it is important to critically analyze what the President does, not what he says, when it comes to U.S. policy abroad. When the President says '[i]t will be the policy of the United States to promote reform across the region, and to support transitions to democracy,' we must look more carefully at how this policy has been implemented as well as the implications of the actions that have already been taken.

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"The U.S. And Its Allies Will Do Anything to Prevent Democracy in the Arab World"

Wed, 11 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Noam Chomsky: - May. 11 (Speech) - Speaking at the 25th anniversary of celebration of the national media watch group, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, world-renowned political dissident and linguist Noam Chomsky analyzes the U.S. response to the popular uprisings sweeping the Middle East and North Africa. "Across the [Middle East], the overwhelming majority of the population regards the United States as the main threat to their interests," Chomsky says. "The reason is very simple ... Plainly, the U.S. and allies are not going to want governments, which are responsive to the will of the people. If that happens, not only will the U.S. not control the region, but it will be thrown out."

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Ex-Defense Intelligence Analyst Joshua Foust: Death of Bin Laden Will Not Have Enormous Impact on Operations of Al Qaeda Affiliates Worldwide

Mon, 02 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - May. 02 (Interview) - n addition to Afghanistan, the United States is fighting al-Qaeda in the Arab Peninsula. We discuss the impact of Osama bin Laden’s death on al-Qaeda across the globe with Joshua Foust, a fellow at the American Security Project and former Defense Intelligence Agency analyst. "From an operational standpoint, Osama bin Laden doesn’t maintain very tight operational control over the different al-Qaeda franchises that are out there, including in Yemen, including in Somalia, and other places as well. So, this is mostly a symbolic victory," says Foust.

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Arab Spring: A Discussion on Libya, Egypt and the Mideast with Palestinian Writer Rula Jebreal, Author of “Miral" & Journalist Issandr El Amrani

Wed, 27 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Apr. 27 (Interview) - With former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in detention and Libyan Leader Col. Muammar Gaddafi under attack, we discuss the state of the region with two leading Middle Eastern writers. Rula Jebreal, a former broadcast journalist in Italy, reflects on Italy's decision to join the NATO bombing of Libya. Issandr El Amrani of Arabist.net talks about Libya and post-revolution Egypt.

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Who Owns the World?

Thu, 21 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700

readersupportednews.org - By Noam Chomsky - Apr. 21 (Opinion) - 'The democracy uprising in the Arab world has been a spectacular display of courage, dedication, and commitment by popular forces - coinciding, fortuitously, with a remarkable uprising of tens of thousands in support of working people and democracy in Madison, Wisconsin, and other US cities. If the trajectories of revolt in Cairo and Madison intersected, however, they were headed in opposite directions: in Cairo toward gaining elementary rights denied by the dictatorship, in Madison towards defending rights that had been won in long and hard struggles and are now under severe attack.

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Hundreds of Thousands of Arabs Protest their Governments

Sat, 09 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Informed Comment - By Juan - Apr. 09 (Opinion) - On Friday, the US Congress endeavored to decide whether American democracy has irretrievably broken down because the representatives of the Billionaires refused to compromise with the representatives of the People (“cutting spending” while “cutting taxes

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Inside the Intervention

Sat, 02 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700

New Republic - By Steven Metz - Apr. 02 (Opinion) - Put simply, Obama’s Libya strategy is designed to avoid the most undesirable outcomes rather than optimize the chances of a desired outcome, to do something without “owning” the conflict, to maintain maximum flexibility as the situation evolves, and to do all of this in the face of powerful constraints. The question is whether this strategy can actually work.

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Obama’s Missionless War

Sat, 02 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700

National Review - By Mark Steyn - Apr. 02 (Opinion) - The “Arab Spring” turns out to be a bit more complicated than it looks on CNN, and a CIA that failed to see the bankruptcy of its own pension plan looming is unlikely to be a very useful guide to the various forces in play. For the Western powers to be bogged down in the least consequential Arab dictatorship’s low-grade civil war desultorily providing air support to incompetent al-Qaeda sympathizers may be an artful if expensive piece of misdirection.

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Obama Moved at Warp Speed on Libya

Thu, 31 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Steve Clemons - Mar. 31 (Opinion) - President Obama has been criticized by many on the political left and right for moving too slowly in reacting to Libya -- and while I have been one constantly urging caution -- there is simply no truth to the notion that Obama dragged his heels in orchestrating action there.

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In Libya, Inaction Was Not an Option

Tue, 29 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Real Clear Politics - By Richard Cohen - Mar. 29 (Opinion) - The Libyan intervention established a precedent: There is such a thing as the international community and, as inchoate as it may be, it will insist on certain minimum standards even for dictators: Your people are not yours to kill.

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An Open Letter to the Left on Libya

Sun, 27 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Informed Comment - By Juan Cole - Mar. 27 (Opinion) - I would like to urge the Left to learn to chew gum and walk at the same time. It is possible to reason our way through, on a case-by-case basis, to an ethical progressive position that supports the ordinary folk in their travails in places like Libya.

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Just a Bad, Bad Idea

Mon, 21 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Talking Points Memo - By Josh Marshall - Mar. 21 (Opinion) - At the end of last week I couldn't help tweeting that everything I was seeing in Libya was bringing out my inner foreign policy Realist. And everything I've seen this weekend has confirmed me in that view. Indeed, there are so many reasons this strikes me as a bad idea I really hardly know where to start. So let me focus on the three biggest problems I see.

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UN Allies Bombard Libya to protect Protesters

Sun, 20 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Informed Comment - By Juan Cole - Mar. 20 (Opinion) - United Nations allies France, Britain and the United States took the lead Saturday evening in imposing a no-fly zone on Libya. French and British fighter jets flew dangerous missions, given that the anti-aircraft batteries of the pro-Qaddafi forces had not yet been knocked out. Then the United States launched a barrage of 110 Tomahawk cruise missiles, targeting Qaddafi’s anti-aircraft installations. Apparently this role of taking out Qaddafi’s air defenses is the primary one envisaged for the US, after which it will fade into the background and allow other UN allies to take the lead. In Paris, the Qatari foreign minister announced that Qatari jets would join the mission, but did not say when. In international law,there are few constraints on the UN Security Council, and it certainly was within its rights to pass the no-fly resolution and to lobby for it to bear fruit. In some ways, the stated mission, of protecting civilians in Libya, resembles the Genocide convention. It wasn’t invoked, but it could have been. This protection mission also implicitly authorizes the UN alliance to go beyond establishing a no fly zone to other sorts of military action.

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Barack Obama’s Moral Concession to Evil

Tue, 01 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Commentary Magazine - By Peter Wehner - Mar. 01 (Opinion) - The Obama administration’s position assumes that Muammar Qaddafi needs a pretext to kill Americans. He actually doesn’t. He has done so in the past, and he could just as easily do so now, regardless of what kind of “messaging” emerges from our government.

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