Playing into Osama Bin Laden’s Hands

We have, once again, played right into Osama bin Laden’s hands. This might seem like an odd assertion, since the al-Qaeda mastermind is finally dead at the hands of U.S. Special Forces, most heads of state have voiced their congratulations, and practically the...

Why I Can’t Celebrate Osama Bin Laden’s Death

I recall precisely where I was, as well as what I was doing, when I heard the horrible and heart-wrenching news of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, and the aborted attack represented by the plane that went down in rural...

Justice, Vengeance, and Osama Bin Laden

[Amman, Jordan] — U.S. agents killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan, apparently without cooperation from the government in Islamabad. The al-Qaeda leader was responsible for great suffering; I do not mourn his death. But every action has causes and consequences,...

No-Doctrine Obama

Zoologists get pretty excited when they discover an unusual animal. They happily devote many hours to the task of classifying the beast. And, if it qualifies as a new species, they give it a name. For the political zoologist, the equivalent of finding a new species is...
U.S. Silences on the Arab Spring are Deafening

U.S. Silences on the Arab Spring are Deafening

The U.S. response to the democratic uprisings sweeping the Middle East and North Africa is as notable for its silence as for its uneven support for the Arab Spring. It took weeks of incessant protest in Tunisia and Egypt before the Obama administration would say much...