Welcome! This is an unapologetic, agenda-free zone. Just commentaries on current events that’ll move you to think, laugh, rage, and even cry.
Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar is dead. And Israel will celebrate like America did after killing al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. But killing Sinwar won’t “destroy Hamas” any more than killing bin Laden destroyed al-Qaeda. In its “war on terror,” America invaded and destroyed Afghanistan and Iraq. It killed hundreds of thousands of innocents to get… Read more.
It’s been a while since I felt constrained to pooh-pooh “Breaking News” about the killing of a “high-value” terrorist. But this I could not resist: The Islamic State’s spokesman and overseer of external terrorist operations, Abu Muhammad al-Adnani, was killed in the Syrian province of Aleppo, the group’s news outlet reported on Tuesday… Accounts from… Read more.
Almost two years ago I wrote a commentary titled, “Obama Saluting War Dead Will Be Defining Image of His Presidency.” Nothing vindicates this commentary quite like the president feeling compelled to clear his schedule yesterday to be at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware to salute the Navy Seals who were returning home from Afghanistan in… Read more.
The killing of Osama bin Laden has policy makers in the United States finally debating in earnest about what is the best way to fight the war on terrorism. And, in a similar vein, they are wondering whether this pivotal development provides an expedient pretext for President Obama to accelerate the timetable he has laid… Read more.
[Author’s Note: Due to unprecedented reader interest, I’ve decided to run this commentary, which was published originally yesterday (Monday at 12:27 pm), for another day. iPINIONS cuts through the flag-waving and asks hard questions about justice, vengeance, and what we were really celebrating.] Tonight, I can report to the American people and to the world… Read more.
Robert Baer, a celebrated former CIA field officer, confounded politicians and socialites alike in Washington yesterday with the publication of his very provocative article at TIME.com entitled When Will Obama Give Up the Bin Laden Ghost Hunt? Their bewilderment, of course, stems from the fact that President-Elect Barack Obama has made capturing or killing bin Laden a… Read more.
The Guantanamo Bay trial of Salim Hamdan, Osama bin Laden’s driver, was billed as the most important in the annals of international military justice since the Nuremberg trials of Nazi war criminals over 60 years ago. Yet, with all of the media focus on the US presidential campaign (complete with this week’s surreal cameo by Paris Hilton), you can be… Read more.
Kola Boof: lost girl speaks out Kola Boof is promoting her autobiography, Diary of a Lost Girl, all over TV. This Egyptian-Sudanese-American is an award-winning novelist, poet, and activist. But, unsurprisingly, her relationship with Osama Bin Laden is all anyone wants to talk about. Kola writes about it in dramatic and thrilling detail. Reading it, you might think her… Read more.
When it is over, if it is over, this war [in Iraq] will have horrible consequences….Terrorism will be aggravated….Instead of one bin Laden there will be one hundred bin Ladens. Terrorist organizations will be united. Everything will be insecure. [Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak – March 2003] Yesterday, news anchors across America stumbled over the name… Read more.
