Andrew Bacevich: On Building Foreign Armies and Watching Them Fail
How the US persists in trying to build foreign armies that fail again and again.
Read more...Category Archives: Middle East
Russia’s Move In Syria Threatens Energy Deals With Turkey
Will the Turkish Stream project be a casualty of Putin’s bold moves in Syria?
Read more...John Helmer: US Strategy In The Middle East Is Dying, Along With Its Authors, Carter And Brzezinski; Putin, Al-Assad Get To Dance On Their Graves, David Ben-Gurion Too
US experts try to claim the Russians are vulnerable in the Middle East as the window for US intervention closes. A German military analyst: “The Red Army is invigorated to a level that has never been fielded on the Middle Eastern map.”
Read more...Could The Syrian Conflict Irrevocably Change Global Geopolitics?
A concise, high-level overview of the main issues at play in the Syrian conflict.
Read more...Is Russia Plotting To Bring Down OPEC?
Can Russia succeed in creating an anti-Saudi bloc to split OPEC by taking advantage of having oil supplies less vulnerable to transit risk?
Read more...Michael Hudson: Obama Re-Defines Democracy – A Country that Supports U.S. Policy
Obama has decided to use “democracy” as a weapon of coups to turn recalcitrant countries into failed states.
Read more...Debacle, Inc.: How Henry Kissinger Helped Create Our ‘Proliferated’ World
If all Henry Kissinger contributed to the Middle East were a regional arms race, petrodollar addiction, Iranian radicalization, and the Tehran-Riyadh conflict, it would be bad enough. His legacy, however, is far worse than that: he has to answer for his role in the rise of political Islam.
Read more...Ilargi: Europe’s Refugees Are a Global Crisis
European leaders are still in denial about the seriousness of the refugee crisis and are focused on what amount to stopgap measure.
Read more...Imperial Overreach: U.S. Special Ops Forces Deployed in 135 Nations
The US has special ops missions in 70% of the countries in the world,, more than at the height of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Read more...Iran Deal May Redefine The Middle East
A detailed discussion of how the US-Iran nuclear agreement is leading to considerable changes in alliances and priorities in the Middle East.
Read more...CalSTRS, Maryland Fund Private Equity Players Seeking Profits in the Refugee Crisis
Private-equity-backed providers undercut charities in providing refugee services. It’s not hard to imagine how the results are coming in.
Read more...Low Oil Prices Could Break The “Fragile Five” Producing Nations
Five countries, and not necessarily the ones you’d expect, are particularly vulnerable to protracted low oil prices.
Read more...William J. Astore: Seventy Years of Military Mediocrity
How the US has developed military muscle at the expense of brainpower.
Read more...Saudi Oil Strategy: Brilliant Or Suicide?
Does it make sense to look at the Saudi strategy within the oil industry alone, or do analysts need to start factoring in deflationary economic policies around the world?
Read more...The Balance of Power in the Middle East Just Changed, U.S.-Iranian Relations Emerge from a 30-Year Cold War
Don’t sweat the details of the US/Iran nuclear accord. What matters is that the calculus of power in the Middle East just changed, big time.
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