If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
You can argue -- however hollowly -- that a political party has been suppressed because it was plotting with foreigners. It is difficult to make that argument against a sycamore tree.
(London) – The Syrian government has interrogated students and carried out violent assaults on their protests and military attacks on schools,&n...
The invaluable and hard-hitting Women Under Seige project, which documents male sexual violence in conflict zones worldwide, has produced a striking article on Syria's rape crisis. Shockingly, Syrian women and girls fleeing sexual violence in their own country are encountering further abuse, appropriation and exploitation once they have left.
Preventing genocide is everyone's business. Congress and the public deserve to know what the administration is doing to tackle America's most haunting foreign policy challenge.
Nawroz shivered as I spoke with her, her dark hair dripping and her thin red top soaked through. Her husband queued at the registration desk in a sodden tee-shirt. But her baby daughter, Ava, was warm and dry. She gurgled, grabbing my fingers tightly, as I played with her.
While "bad guys kill bad guys" in Syria, millions of innocents suffer. The United States and other Western nations seem to feel that their choice is to fight or to watch. Neither is acceptable, and so new efforts should be devoted to working more with the public than with politicians.
The oft-repeated pop psychology definition of mental illness -- doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results -- pretty much sums up America's limp efforts at reconstruction, nation building, hearts and minds, counterinsurgency, whatever tag you choose.
Qardawi's call for jihad completely ignores the world as it is today: a world of nation-states. In order for there to be any progress in the Syrian conflict, Islamists of all colors and sectarian persuasions must throw out sectarian rhetoric. They must reconcile themselves with the idea that all Syrians are citizens and should not take the sectarian bait.
It is not surprising that the power of technology available to support post-conflict humanitarian action vastly surpasses the ability of governments, ...
Clearly there is a correlation between Middle East tensions and high oil prices. Are we seeing a replay of Russian policies that solidified Iranian intransigence on matters nuclear, thereby exacerbating those tensions to bring about significantly higher oil prices?
Democratization is not a simple process that is achievable overnight. I have several family members who have lost their lives in the battle against the police-state of Syria. Unfortunately, democratization is a messy and bloody process that necessitates sacrifices.
To alleviate Russian and other key players' concerns, the U.S. must give them reason to think otherwise. One essential first step to change their opinions would be for the U.S. to re-establish itself as a principled leader on human rights issues in the region, vis-à-vis action in Bahrain.
Moscow's take on the Libya war is that a Security Council resolution crafted to protect civilians ended up enabling regime change, which was never the original intent. Russia is determined that Syria not be Libya redux.
If it weren't for the God-awful mess in Syria, I suspect we'd be paying a great deal more attention to the God-awful mess in Iraq. We should be, anyway. This month alone, more than 500 people have been killed in almost daily bomb attacks, and last month was reported to be the most violent the country has seen for nearly five years.
When I hear Senator John McCain calling for more arms, air strikes, no-fly zones and the like; when I hear the dangerous pronouncements coming from apologists for the various sides, I want to ask "do you know where are you going, and where is this taking Syria, its people and the region?"
A senior Russian official has summed up Moscow's view of what is taking place in Syria and around by saying, "Things are as good as it gets." Meanwhil...
