...tal crackdown of Iraqi Shia and Kurds. But the latest news out of Washington suggests a totally different understanding of the MEK. Last week, the U.S. State Department removed this very group from its weighty list of foreign terrorist organizations, a change overseen by Hillary Clinton herself. On the face of it, the United States just pardoned a terror group with a record of terrorist activity. Worse, this group is Iranian, suggesting that the...
...tions with the Taliban, the Haqqani network, and Lashkar-e-Taiba. And you had Osama bin Laden hiding in the basement this whole time. We both know what these people do, and that makes it all the more inexcusable. That these terrorist organizations have ties to the upper echelons of your military and intelligence services is even more frustrating. I’m never sure exactly what secrets you are going to give my enemies, and I never know for c...
...often publicly perceived as more acceptable than those of multinational corporations because of differences in the way each organization explains its actions. For example, when the United States launches drone strikes against terrorist operatives in the Middle East, it justifies its actions on the basis of national security, something even the most human rights-conscious Americans tend to support. Goals like national security or promoting democra...
...e in recent times, a notion that is untrue. He claims that “no longer is Hamas an absolutely illegitimate actor,” but in reality Hamas’s reputation remains unchanged: those countries and organizations who recognize it for its terrorist actions continue to do so, and those who do not continue not to. Neither has Hamas “won favor with the Palestinian population;” contrary to the recent poll numbers Eliot cites that document an expected surge of sup...
...explained. The Turkish government was equally Machiavellian in pursuing peace. It hoped to develop the eastern parts of Anatolia, along the Armenian border, which are the poorest regions in the country and hotbeds for Kurdish terrorist groups and separatists. Turkey’s border closure with Armenia in 1993 isolated these regions from a key potential Armenian market. The number of exporters in the Turkish city of Kars, a historical gateway to the Cau...
...dfellow for Iran; indeed, many in the organization “revile” the ayatollahs. Still, Jones argues that there are two very good reasons why Iran is pursuing this policy. First, the detained operatives act as hostages, preventing terrorist attacks on Iran. Second, as with the Taliban, they afford Iran a way to strike back at the United States through terrorist attacks, in response to a strike on its nuclear facilities. This would be a very dangerous...
A great deal has been written on President Obama’s continuation of many of the Bush administration’s policies in regards to terrorism. Growth in the size and operational tempo of special warfare units, the extensive use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) against terrorist targets worldwide, and the National Security Agency’s (NSA) ongoing warrantless surveillance programs – all of these began with President Bush. That Obama has not only ma...
...ing of Iraq, the November 18-21 CBS/NYT poll still had Bush garnering approval ratings of nearly 60 percent for his prosecution of the war on terror. 73 percent said he would make the right decisions in protecting the US from terrorist attacks. The growing pile of polling data confirms the logic of common sense: foreign policy matters. A lot. That Vision Thing Democrats did do a couple things right. Unlike in previous elections, “we weren’t scare...
...rt. Sixty years later, George W. told his embattled fellow citizens, “Get down to Disney World in Florida.” Who could help but feel that the times warranted something more than that? Along with the horror and destruction, the terrorist attacks had left in their wake a national reservoir of human resources and energy; Bush seemed reluctant to tap it. To his credit, the President eventually did summon up both a rhetoric and a policy of national ser...
...drone technology is extremely precise and used only after extensive information on the target and his environment has been compiled. Contrary to popular belief, drones do not cause mass civilian deaths. In fact, the number of terrorists eliminated by drones far outnumbers the unfortunate casualties that sometimes occur. The policy group The New America Foundation estimates 500 militant and 250 civilian deaths since 2006; The Long War Journal coun...
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