Slouching Forward! — Few Notes on the Global Order

After years of reluctance, President Barack Obama appears to have finally re-embraced America's critical role in shaping the Global Order. Will his actions match his rhetoric? Or, will he once again succumb to his ideological inhibitions? — After years of reluctance, President Barack Obama appears to have finally re-embraced America’s critical role in shaping the Global Order. Will his actions match his rhetoric? Or, will he once again succumb to his ideological inhibitions?

The competition that America and Western Europe are facing on a global level from Russia and China, and the local level from a host of countries including Iran, India, Korea, Brazil, etc., is not meant to change the nature of the game, that is, the game of power projection through military and economic might, including operating viable nuclear programs, exercising control over energy sources and routes, involvement in arms production and sales, and engaging in imperialist actions under different guises and while offering all different sorts of justifications.

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The Persecuted!

"In Defense of Christians" Summit was a three day event that took place in Washington, D.C. between September 9-11, and included a meeting with President Obama. — “In Defense of Christians” Summit was a three day event that took place in Washington, D.C. between September 9-11, and included a meeting with President Obama.

The author of this op-ed, Mr. Rich Ghazal, an ordained deacon in the Syriac Orthodox Church, makes some excellent points about the plight of the Middle East’s Christian communities, that is, until he gets to those two paragraphs that capture the real message that he and the IDC conference organizers wanted to deliver to President Obama and the American people at large: preserve the Assad regime.

The first paragraph: Continue reading “The Persecuted!” →

What ISIS is really thinking!

What is ISIS thinking? Five possible explanations for why the group is beheading Americans.

Personally, I think that mass atrocities and beheadings is ISIS’ way of negotiating with the Americans over the issue of recognition of their de facto state. Because without recognition, even if unofficial, the state that ISIS is creating means little. With unofficial recognition, ISIS can make billions rather than millions of dollars from the sales of oil under their control, even if they have to sell it on the down-and-low. Recognition also allows ISIS the time it needs to consolidate its hold on the territories currently under its control, and to govern.

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A Chorus of Doom and Damnation

Getting rid off of a genocidal tyrant like Assad is still an essential component of the remedy needed for Syria, and the region.

The chorus for re-legitimating Assad continues to grow bigger and louder, with two more experts joining the fray through an op-ed in the New York Times that appeared today. The two experts, Julien Barnes-Dacey, a policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, and Daniel Levy, the director of the council’s Middle East program, argue that:

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