Happy Holidays: Time to Increase Our Operational Security

Operational security at the community level is a critical element that needs to be better addressed by both government entities and religious groups alike. While there are millions of worshipers filing into churches and synagogues over the holiday season, security is few and far between at these locations. Nobody knows their communities as well as the worshipers themselves, and even the largest police forces cannot protect every house of worship all of the time. It it critical for religious groups to partner with law enforcement in order to better monitor their communities, and work as trained eyes and ears for the police. Rather than leave it to vigilantism, government agencies should work to nurture responsible organizations.

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Fall of the Qaddafi Regime: A Brief Analysis

On October 20, 2011, the former strongman of Libya, Muammar Gaddafi, was captured and killed in his hometown of Sirte. The "King of Kings" of Africa, who had ruled the oil-rich North African country with an iron fist for over four decades and had an ego that made other megalomaniacs look humble, was no more.

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Negotiating With Terrorists

The world has just witnessed yet another historic, lopsided prisoner exchange between Israel and a terrorist organization. When Hamas abducted Gilad Shalit back in June of 2006, it followed in the footsteps of Hezbollah and numerous Palestinian groups that had successfully kidnapped and traded Israelis, dead or alive, in return for the fulfillment of their own interests. The Shalit deal resulted in the release of over 1000 Palestinian Arabs, including hundreds with "blood on their hands" that were implicated in some of Israel's worst terrorist attacks. Despite Israeli, American, and other Western claims to the contrary, states regularly engage in negotiations with terrorists.

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Withdrawing From Afghanistan

Pressure is growing for the United States to withdraw its forces from Afghanistan. The assassination of Osama bin Laden gave President Obama a passing but welcome reprieve from criticism and low poll ratings, yet it also led to a growing chorus of Americans who are urging the administration to pull out large numbers of U.S. forces from the region.

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Withdrawing Honorably from Iraq

"You have offered us independence; we never asked for it, nor dreamed of such a thing 'til you put the idea into our heads. For hundreds of years, we have lived in a state as far removed from independence as it is possible to conceive; now [that] we have asked for it, you imprison us." Those were the words uttered by an Iraqi sheikh, not in 2011, but around 1920, when the mighty British Empire ruled his land. A rebellion had erupted, and the British government came under considerable pressure from its own population to withdraw. Although order was ultimately restored, the message remained: find a way out of Iraq...

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The Syrian Anomaly

Across the Middle East today the "Arab Spring" appears to be in full bloom...

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Japan May Have Another Nuclear Crisis to Worry About in North Korea

This is a dangerous - and distracted - world we live in. Few countries are more likely to take advantage of this reality than North Korea.

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Where Are the Arab Offers of Aid to Japan?

The massive earthquake, numerous tsunamis, and subsequent nuclear troubles to hit Japan will no doubt go down in history as one of the world’s worst disasters to hit a country this century ...
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Lack of US Policy in the Middle East is Leading to its Decline in Power

American power is on the decline and nowhere is this more evident than in the Middle East today.

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