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  War and Terror
    

May 2008

A deadly miscalculation in Lebanon
As a test of strength, the Lebanese government and its Saudi Arabian backers received a bloody nose in the confrontation with Hezbollah in Beirut. The government woefully underestimated Hezbollah's reaction to having its communications - spy - system interfered with. And the Iranian-backed Hezbollah, with its convincing display of military superiority, made another clear statement: leave our arms alone. - Sami Moubayed (May 13, '08)

Hezbollah's shots ring in Bush's ears
Just about everything the George W Bush administration has tried in the Middle East over the past few years has undermined United States standing and influence in the region, even as it has enhanced Tehran's. Yet as Bush visits Saudi Arabia and Egypt this week, he might be able to turn Hezbollah's stunning show of strength in Lebanon to his advantage. - Jim Lobe (May 13, '08)

US misses Iran opportunity
In a busy week for Iran, key nations negotiating with it over its nuclear program will present an incentive package for the Iranians to consider. At the same time, International Atomic Energy Agency officials will thrash out the last remaining issues on the Iran-IAEA agenda. US President George W Bush will also be in the region, but he won't be dropping by, even though Tehran has indicated they might be willing to talk. - Kaveh L Afrasiabi (May 13, '08)

Hezbollah's street fight just a first step
Hezbollah, in taking its political grievances to the streets, was able to take military control of Beirut in less than 48 hours, while the Lebanese army looked on. The display of force by the opposition Shi'ite group does not leave the government much margin for maneuvering. (May 12, '08)

Another Pakistani D-Day over militants
The peace deals between the Pakistani government and militants in the tribal areas have been exposed for what they were, a delaying tactic for the Taliban to send fresh fighters into Afghanistan. The new government in Islamabad, provided it staves off a political crisis, and its United States ally now have to make the hard decision whether to fight fire with fire or risk losing the battle against militancy. - Syed Saleem Shahzad (May 12, '08)

US tightens its grip on Pakistan
It is no coincidence that US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte chose the National Endowment for Democracy to deliver a key-note speech on Pakistan. For years, the US government-funded NED has specialized as a handmaiden of US policies by funding and supporting foreign politicians. Now it is Pakistan's turn to get the full treatment, for as Negroponte says, US national security is inextricably linked to the success, security and stability of that country. - M K Bhadrakumar (May 9, '08)

Iran woos Farsi-speaking nations
Tehran has stepped up its initiative to forge closer links with the two other Farsi-speaking nations in the region, Afghanistan and Tajikistan. Not only will the move kick-start slow trade ties, it signals a greater degree of Iran's integration into a region deemed important by the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, to which Tehran is pressing its claims to join. - Kaveh L Afrasiabi (May 9, '08)

DISPATCHES FROM AMERICA

The US: Your masters of the universe
The US Air Force's new slogan, "Air Force - Above All" conveys the basic precept that mastery of the air means mastery of the ground. Yet the air force seeks more than that. It wants to extend its "mastery" to space and even to cyberspace. This is a disturbing manifestation of the military's quest for "full spectrum dominance", achieved at debilitating cost to the American taxpayer - and a potentially destabilizing one to the planet. - William J Astore (retired lieutenant colonel, USAF) (May 8, '08)

Pressure for Iraq to pay its own way
The US Congress is expected to soon impose unprecedented conditions on Iraq-related spending, including a ban on major reconstruction projects and support for Sunni militias. The idea is that Iraq cough up more money to rebuild itself, while at the same time challenging the wisdom of the"surge". - Jim Lobe (May 8, '08)

US trains Pakistani killing machine
United States Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte, drawing on his experience in the Philippines and Nicaragua, is behind an initiative for the US to train up special Pakistani forces to go after high-level al-Qaeda and Taliban targets in Pakistan's tribal areas. The move is an admission that operations by massed Pakistani troops have failed, but it gives the US further inroads into Pakistan. - Syed Saleem Shahzad (May 7, '08)

COMMENT
US terror report misses the point
The US State Department's annual terrorism report makes no secret of the fact that al-Qaeda is back, strong as ever. But if al-Qaeda indeed exists on such a large and influential scale in so many countries, is it not time to question the logic used by the George W Bush administration's "war on terror", which was meant to weaken and destroy al-Qaeda in the first place? - Ramzy Baroud (May 7, '08)

Yes, the Pentagon did want to hit Iran
Since soon after the September 11, 2001, terror attacks, it has been an open secret that the George W Bush administration wanted to attack Iran. Now comes further confirmation from a document quoted in then-under secretary of defense for policy Douglas Feith's recently published account of Iraq war decisions. It is confirmed, too, that this was part of a broader plan, explicitly supported by the US's top military leaders, to also take out Syria, Libya, Sudan and Somalia. - Gareth Porter. (May 6, '08)

New offer threatens Iran's 'red line'
The key nations negotiating over Iran's nuclear program hail their latest offer of incentives for Tehran to give up its uranium-enrichment activities as a part of a "twin-track strategy", the other being United Nations sanctions. There is actually a third "war track", the drumbeat of which can be heard in Washington and Tel Aviv. And further, the incentives directly challenge Iran's "red line". - Kaveh Afrasiabi (May 6, '08)

Energized Iran builds more bridges
In terms of whom it conducts its energy business with, Iran keeps all its options open, and it will not allow itself to be pushed out of the European market as exports are the bridge that will facilitate its all-round integration with the Western world. Tehran's hectic diplomatic activity in this regard has put the "Iran Six" countries dealing with its nuclear dossier on the defensive: none of them wants confrontation with Iran. - M K Bhadrakumar (May 5, '08)

SPENGLER
The heart has its own unreason
In one of the weirder acts of recent diplomacy, a delegation of robed and turbaned Iranian mullahs went to Rome to declare with due solemnity they shared the pope's view that reason and faith are compatible. The issue, however, will not be decided by the Iranian clergy or the Holy See, but by people such as journalist Magdi Allam. - Spengler (May 5, '08)

DISPATCHES FROM AMERICA
The last war and the next one
There is no end in sight to the war in Iraq, but United States Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has been criticizing the military for not getting fully behind an imperial strategy for "the next war", counterinsurgency battles across the globe similar to the (futile) one now raging in Sadr City in Bagdad. - Tom Engelhardt (May 5, '08)

How under-the-gun Iran plays it cool
What Iranian leaders dream of is an Iran respected as a major power. To this end, they have little choice, faced with the enmity of the globe's "sole superpower", but to employ a sophisticated counter-encirclement foreign policy. And given President Mahmud Ahmadinejad's place in the country's politico-religious politics, he might be betting on the usefulness of an American air assault. - Pepe Escobar (May 2, '08)


Iran moving into the big league
From the Persian Gulf to the Caspian region, the Caucasus, Central Asia, South Asia and beyond, Iran thanks to its geographical location is an ideal connecting bridge that has not until now fully exploited its advantageous equidistance from India and Europe. This is exemplified in the US$7.6 billion gas pipeline that will flow from Iran to Pakistan to India, and which is finally close to reality. Tehran is ambitiously moving from regional power to global power. - Kaveh L Afrasiabi (May 2, '08)

Taliban claim victory from a defeat
In their first offensive since arriving last month, thousands of US Marines have captured the town of Garmsir in the southern Afghan province of Helmand from the Taliban. The Taliban are unconcerned. They claim the mass of foreign troops will now be tied down chasing shadows and battling drug cartels, while the Taliban concentrate on the east of the country. - Syed Saleem Shahzad (May 2, '08)


BOOK REVIEW
America's university of imperialism
Soldiers of Reason by Alex Abella
The RAND Corporation was the Cold War granddaddy think-tank of them all, one of the most unusual private organizations in the field of international relations, and it's still with us. It helped administrations plan and fight the Vietnam War, turning theory into an all-too-grim reality. Yet its record of advice on cardinal policies involving war and peace, arms races and decisions to resort to armed force has been abysmal. - Chalmers Johnson (May 2, '08) 

The heat is on Muqtada
The fierce battle raging in Baghdad's Sadr City between Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army and United States and Iraqi forces has claimed more than 1,000 lives over the past few weeks. What is not clear is the motive behind the offensive against the Shi'ite militia. It could be the Americans, trying to nip in the bud any united front between Muqtada and Sunnis. Or the Iranians, wanting to eliminate a potential thorn in their side. Either way, Muqtada has a fight on his hands. - Sami Moubayed (May 1, '08)

Al-Qaeda searches for unity in Iraq
A series of messages from al-Qaeda deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri and its chief in Iraq, Abu Hamza al-Mujahir, indicates al-Qaeda is pulling out all the stops to try to prevent the Sunni Iraqi mujahideen from militarily winning the war but then losing the political spoils because of disunity. - Michael Scheuer (May 1, '08)


 April 2008

Cost of the war in Iraq
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ATol Specials



Syed Saleem Shahzad reports on the Afghan war from the Taliban side
(Dec '06)

How Hezbollah defeated Israel
By
Mark Perry and
Alastair Crooke
(Oct '06)

Mark Perry and
Alastair Crooke
talk to the 'terrorists'
(Mar, '06)

  The evidence for and against Iran's alleged nuclear weapons program

  Nir Rosen goes inside the Iraqi resistance

Nir Rosen rides with the 3rd armored cavalry in western Iraq

Islamism, fascism and terrorism

by Marc Erikson


For earlier articles go to:

April 2008
March 2008
February 2008
January 2008
December 2007
November 2007
October 2007
September 2007
August 2007
July 2007
June 2007
May 2007
April 2007
March 2007
February 2007
January 2007
December 2006
November 2006
October 2006
September 2006
August 2006
July 2006
June 2006
May 2006
April 2006
March 2006
February 2006
January 2006
December 2005
November 2005
October 2005
September 2005
August 2005
July 2005
June 2005
May 2005
April 2005
March 2005
February 2005
January 2005
December 2004
November 2004
October 2004
September 2004
August 2004
July 2004
June 2004
May 2004
April 2004
March 2004
February 2004
January 2004
December 2003
November 2003
October 2003
September 2003
August 2003
July 2003
June 2003
May 2003
April 2003
March 2003
February 2003
January 2003
Dec 24-Nov 11 2002
Nov 10-Oct 11 2002
Oct 10-Sep 10 2002
Sep 9-Jul 20 2002
Jul 19-Jun 21 2002
Jun 20-Apr 9 2002
Apr 9-Jan 2 2002
Dec 31-Jul 26 2001

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