The US is your know-it-all friend who should just keep his mouth shut
WHEN MAKERS OF American foreign policy dream of an ideal world, they fixate on one word: primacy. It used to be called “full-spectrum dominance.” On the street, it comes out as “Don’t even think about it.” Tough guys in Western movies put it differently: “This town ain’t big enough for both of us.” However it is […]
9/11 Saudi Arabia bill opens US to avalanche of lawsuits
LAST WEEK, as the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks approached, members of Congress gathered on the Capitol steps to pray, followed by a rendition of “God Bless America.” Then, evidently energized, they went inside and passed a bill that would allow relatives of 9/11 victims to sue Saudi Arabia for its apparent support of the attackers. […]
The kingmaker club
VIOLENTLY INTERVENING IN the affairs of other countries has brought the United States much grief over the last century. We are hardly the only ones who do it. The club of interventionist nations has a shifting membership. During the current round of Middle East conflict, two new countries have joined: Turkey and Saudi Arabia. […]
Dangerous Dynasties
POLITICAL DYNASTIES HAVE a romantic appeal, but not to most people who live under them. They are inherently unstable. The iron regimes of Reza Shah in Iran and “Papa Doc” Duvalier in Haiti collapsed when sons proved unable to handle their inheritance. In some countries, like Egypt and Yemen, entire populations rose in rebellion when presidents […]
Don’t blame the masses
WHETHER OR NOT the world is in an unusually bad state these days, it certainly seems so. Even Americans, famous for our lack of interest in world affairs, now closely follow news from far away. Much of it is frightening. Terror attacks are claiming innocent lives around the world. Syria is being torn apart. China and […]
