Archive for 'Middle East'
The answer is always Clausewitz
By Mark Perry, Bitter Lemons, April 30, 2009
The wry and oft-repeated saying among senior American military officers is always good for a laugh: “no matter what the question,” they claim, “the answer is always Clausewitz.” Unlike many war theoreticians, Prussian Major General Carl von Clausewitz actually served in the military–fighting Napoleon and spending time in […]
Posted: May 3rd, 2009 under ARTICLES, Iran, Israel, Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Mark Perry, Middle East, Obama administration.
Comments: 5
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Imagined affinities, imagined enmities: The strange tale of Iran and Israel
By Alastair Crooke, Le Monde diplomatique, February, 2009
The early Zionists never believed they would be accepted in the Arab world and pinned their hopes on the non-Arab periphery instead, particularly Iran. Israel reversed that policy by opening talks with a weakened Arafat in the early 1990s. But peace with the Palestinians did not happen and […]
Posted: February 7th, 2009 under ARTICLES, Alastair Crooke, Iran, Israel, Middle East.
Comments: 3
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Little shop of horrors
By Mark Perry, Bitter Lemons, November 6, 2008
I once asked one of my Palestinian friends what he thought the United States should do to help the peoples of the Middle East. He was incredulous: “Haven’t you done enough?” In retrospect that pained reply seems the perfect answer to my presumption: I’m from America and I’m […]
Posted: November 20th, 2008 under ARTICLES, Mark Perry, Middle East.
Comments: 3
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[PAL - ah - STIN -ians]
By Mark Perry, Bitter Lemons, February 21, 2008
While it may be difficult to remember, George W. Bush was once considered a debater who could match wits with the likes of Al Gore and John Kerry. This judgment was the result, at least in part, of Bush’s uncanny ability to transform claims that he was stupid […]
Posted: March 3rd, 2008 under ARTICLES, Bush Administration, Mark Perry, Middle East.
Comments: none
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Nasrallah forecasts the prospect of coming conflict
On January 15, the Secretary General of Hezbollah Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah delivered a speech celebrating the death anniversary of Shi’i Imam Al-Husayn. The following is the text of the speech carried by Hezbollah-affiliated Al Manar TV. The text is reprinted here with permission from and thanks to Mideastwire.
“Esteemed scholars, brothers and sisters…I would like to […]
Posted: January 22nd, 2008 under Bush Administration, CF REPORTS, Gaza, Hezbollah, Iran, Israel, Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Lebanon, Middle East, Syria.
Comments: 4
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Dependency politics
By Alastair Crooke, Bitter Lemons, January 3, 2008
“I can’t see what more the international community can do to help,” the exasperated official in Brussels complained as she contemplated the likelihood of a further postponement of Lebanon’s presidential election. Many envoys indeed are involved with “helping” Lebanon but it seems that for presidents George W. Bush […]
Posted: January 6th, 2008 under ARTICLES, Alastair Crooke, Middle East.
Comments: none
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