Category: Americana

Lebensraum & Implications

People who believe that they can afford to ignore this, that they don't have a responsibility to stop it, cannot build a better world. But this was only part of the price for the Iran Deal.
People who believe that they can afford to ignore this, that they don’t have a responsibility to stop it, cannot build a better world. But this was only part of the price for the Iran Deal.

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he idea that Iran is entitled to have a sphere of influence in the Middle East ignores the wishes and aspirations of the majority population in the region. From a religious point of view, the majority of the population in the region is made up of Sunni Muslims, and most of those, while demonstrably religious, may not want to live under theocratic rule, especially when the version under consideration is premised on an extremist interpretation of Shiism. In terms of nationality, the majority population in Middle East is made up of Arabs, Turks and Kurds, and one of whom relish the prospect of Persian domination.

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Tyranny Is Imperialism. Liberty Is Security.

r2p

Imperialism is product of power, and a manifestation of our lingering autocratic tendencies. There is an imperialist impulse inherent in every state and it manifests itself in ways commensurate with her power. Only free and empowered people acting inside each state can ever check that impulse. This is why empowering people is important. This is why the fight for democracy is important. Democracies can come together to establish real lasting alliances, but the best that can be achieved in case of autocracies is limited-scope agreements and temporary truces.

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Here I Stand

President Barack Obama speaks about the breakthrough in the Iranian nuclear deal in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington on Thursday, April 2, 2015. World leaders, he said, had come to a “historic understanding” on a possible deal to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.
President Barack Obama speaks about the breakthrough in the Iranian nuclear deal in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington on Thursday, April 2, 2015. World leaders, he said, had come to a “historic understanding” on a possible deal to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.

A rare point of agreement between the critics and advocates of a deal with Iran starkly captures the nature of my own disaffection with it and with the current state of affairs in our world. The point simply put is this: the deal is being inked with Syrian, Iraqi and Yemeni blood.

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Freedom Matters!

Bush Institute - March 25, 2015

I was honored to take part in the launch of Freedom Matters! – “a supplemental curriculum developed to help high school students connect the foundations of freedom to today’s global struggles for liberty,” prepared by the wonderful people at the Bush Institute.

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