Category Archives: Topical Issues

Everyone else is proposing solutions, so I shall restrain myself to a few tips about the Arab World based on personal experience. Continue reading →

The great debate over our intervention in Libya largely misses a key element, the future power of the UNSC as peacemaker. President Obama deserves credit for sensitivity to this issue. Continue reading →

I was smart twelve days ago (“After Cairo”) to hedge my bets. This update is pretty modest too. I repeat, the Middle East is the graveyard of prophets. Continue reading →

In Egypt we find ourselves conflicted between our ideals and our interests. It is a recurrent problem, which we’ll never find answers to until and unless we renounce ambitions to run the world. Continue reading →

Recognizing that the Middle East has buried many prophets, here are a coupole of very tentative thoughts about where the revolution in Egypt is headed, its impact on the region, and how our govenrment may be responding. Continue reading →

Is Keith Olbermann’s removal a sign that the radical right is aiming for a monopoly in TV’s talk show industry? And if so, what does that signify? Continue reading →

Who has the right to define human rights? The prevailing view in the USA is that the UN Declaration of Universal Human Rights is the gold standard. But others, like the Chinese, disagree. I offer one humanist’s view… Continue reading →

Most Americans consider our country exceptional but too many of them do so for the wrong reasons. Continue reading →

Whatever it is, it is not religion. Continue reading →

We need a decison by the Security Council before we participate in a no-fly-zone regime over Libya. Continue reading →

Advice for the exceptionally ambitious young American who aspires to become the dictator of the formerly democratic United States of America Continue reading →

It’s not too late to quit now, before our war there runs completely out of gas. Continue reading →

If we want to stop being the world’s policeman, to whom do we turn over our badge? If we can get over our prejudice against the UN, it’s a logical choice. Continue reading →

The President overrode the establishment in fully backing the revolutionaries in Cairo. Could this be a harbinger of stronger Presidential leadership generally? Continue reading →

Her main target, according to one view, is white American high school grads who have lost their jobs… Continue reading →

Bibi stiffed Obama. If the President doesn’t want to take it lying down, he has options. Continue reading →

OK, the war is winding down. We should learn at least three lessons from the whole sorry history. Continue reading →