A newly released report reveals Obama is the greatest arms exporter since the Second World War. The dollar value of all major arms deals overseen by the first five years of the Obama White House now exceeds the amount overseen by the Bush White House in its full eight years in office by nearly $30 billion
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The Arab uprisings as international relations - 0 views
Obama: Global arms dealer-in-chief | Middle East Eye - 2 views
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I knew there were record deals with the Saudis, but to outsell the eight years of Bush, to sell more than any president since World War II, was surprising even to me, who follows these things quite closely. The majority, 60 percent, have gone to the Persian Gulf and Middle East, and within that, the Saudis have been the largest recipient of things like US fighter planes, Apache attack helicopters, bombs, guns, almost an entire arsenal
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The Congressional Research Service found that since October 2010 alone, President Obama has agreed to sell $90.4 billion in arms to the Gulf kingdom.“That President Obama would so enthusiastically endorse arming such a brutal authoritarian government is unsurprising, since the United States is by far the leading arms dealer (with 47 percent of the world total) to what an annual State Department report classifies as the world’s “least democratically governed states,” notes Micah Zenko, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.
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Why the U.S. (still) can't train the Iraqi military - The Washington Post - 1 views
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Research on military effectiveness suggests that even very brave, highly motivated soldiers won't be successful in their efforts to take territory if they fail to master these key skills. It also suggests that these skills are particularly unlikely to develop in regimes that are more concerned with maintaining power, especially in the face of political threats from their own military organizations, than combating conventionally powerful adversaries. This problem has historically plagued most Iraqi efforts to generate effective military forces, dating to the time of Saddam Hussein.
PostPartisan - NASA: Mission to Mecca? - 0 views
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We did not pursue space partnerships with Europe because it was “Christian” or Israel because it was Jewish, did we?
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I dunno - did you?
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the label of “Muslim” or “Muslim-majority” that the administration seems so eager to pin on them.
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There is a difference between these two labels, and the second one is generally perceived to be politically neutral. To say a country is 'Muslim majority' is to say nothing about it beyond demographics. That is why it is the preferred term in many official and academic communications.
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Syria Comment » Archives » Iraq-Syria Row Calming, but Maliki Needs to Shift Blame for Elections - 0 views
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Increasingly analysts are arguing that Maliki is failing in his gambit to blame Syria for his security failures in order to stanch the bleeding of his Shiite support in the run up to elections.
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David Ignatius writing in the Washington post, calls for an “international support group,” as was recommended in the Baker-Hamilton Report, that can draw together the neighboring countries to keep Iraq from blowing apart. He writes that “This is where America still has the leverage to help, by drawing together all the volatile powers on Iraq’s borders — Syria, Jordan, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and, yes, Iran. A regional security framework will aid Baghdad, but it can also reduce tensions in an area that resembles a ticking time bomb.”
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President Obama’s speech in Cairo this summer gave the Arab and Muslim worlds heightened expectations. His insistence on a freeze on settlement activity was a welcome development. However, all Israeli governments have expanded settlements, even those that committed not to do so. No country in the region wants more bloodshed. But while Israel’s neighbors want peace, they cannot be expected to tolerate what amounts to theft, and certainly should not be pressured into rewarding Israel for the return of land that does not belong to it. Until Israel heeds President Obama’s call for the removal of all settlements, the world must be under no illusion that Saudi Arabia will offer what the Israelis most desire — regional recognition. We are willing to embrace the hands of any partner in peace, but only after they have released their grip on Arab lands.
David Ignatius - On red alert and perilously uninformed - 0 views
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What do you think? Where is the balance between alarmism and insufficient information sharing?
David Ignatius - Afghans want their country back - and Americans should listen - 0 views
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In the region that was Osama bin Laden's stronghold, 81 percent say that al-Qaeda will come back if the Taliban returns to power, and 72 percent say that al-Qaeda will then use Afghanistan as a base for attacks against the West.
Amid transition, more Egyptians cling to safety of long-hated emergency law - The Washington Post - 1 views
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A broad swath of society — from glassworkers to accountants, Christians to Islamists — say the emergency law is one of the few things keeping them safe.
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“We’ve taken the emergency law for 30 years. One more year won’t make a difference.”
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symptom of a deeper problem
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The protests that toppled President Hosni Mubarak were driven in large part by hatred of the 30-year-old emergency law that gives the government broad powers to censor and detain citizens. But in a sign of the topsy-turvy world that Egyptians now live in, many here say they want the law to stay for the time being.
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This seems more comparative politics than international politics, which is why there isn't much in this group about similar topics. I have another group that you might find useful if you are interested in such topics: http://groups.diigo.com/group/authoritarianism-in-mena
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