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Tag: Foreign Policy
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“A New United Nations of Human Rights Countries” – Huffington Post
My latest article has come up on Huffington Post. Appreaciate your consideration, comments, and critiques!
“A New United nations of Human Rights Countries,” Huffington Post
…The ten most successful nations on earth, in terms of well-known categories of human rights adherence, as well as other quality of life metrics, such as equal pay, women’s equality, the basic freedoms, environmental sustainability, should form a union that will come with very clear and enviable privileges and for the governments and peoples of said states…
The goal of such a union is simple: incentivized expansion, the creation of a club that aspires to include more and more member states, as those states reach the appointed threshold metrics of human rights adherence. This will create incentives, from both top down and bottom up, to improve a human rights record. This will revitalize a global movement in a better direction for many nations, and it
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“Kurds Call to Arms as Islamic State Closes in on Syrian Town” -Reuters
Kurds call to arms as Islamic State closes in on Syrian town.
There is going to be a massacre in the large city of Kobani in Syria, and ISIS is closing in with tanks. Tanks! Hard to spot those with stealth fighters??? Someone please explain.Kurds Call to Arms as Islamic State Closes in on Syrian Town, Reuters
A statement issued by the YPG, the main Kurdish armed group, vowed “never ending” resistance to Islamic State in its advance on Kobani. “Every street and house will be a grave for them.”
“Our call to all the young men and women of Kurdistan … is to come to be part of this resistance.”
(Photo: Basnews)
…
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Analysts Where Art Thou: A sad look at media
This is not the first time in history that jihadi armies destroyed by their own funders. Analysts!! Think! Look into conquest of Arabia at the beginning of the 20th century.
It is amazing how enthralled analysts become with trees when paid not to look at forests.
Analysts are so enthralled with all the jet toys Gulfies are throwing at ISIS they forgot to ask who financed such extremism to begin with.
I am just amazed and appalled at the lack of questions being asked about the coalition and I for one want to do anything to protect Syrians in any way possible from ISIS. And I understand what Obama is doing, but if we do not name the problem with the Gulf, we cannot escape this insanity.
(Photo: Los Angeles Times)
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“Iran and the ‘Coalition of Repenters'”- from The New Yorker
Read every word. This is the dark truth about why the United States is on the wrong side of the Gulf. Why its allies have destroyed the democrats of the Arab Spring, deliberately, turned it into an Islamist and jihadi nightmare, and why we must completely rethink our allies and adversaries. Someday the story will be told of the decline of America at the hands of its despotic and repressive allies who made this country die on the altar of military and oil sales. And I include right-wing led Israel and Pakistan in this disaster of allies. yes, Iran must give up or neutralize Assad, but that is impossible as long it faces an American armed coalition surrounding it on all sides. We have solutions here, and the greatest victims, are Sunni peoples, held hostage by desperately insane Wahhabi regimes.
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Reflecting on “Dancing”
I wrote this during the Gaza war. I think the theme of dance is very important, post-quantum physics way to understand the complex interaction of enemies, how they build on each other, and what it must teach us in reverse. I am amazed at how much of a dance enemies have, how much they depend on each other’s worst behaviors. We know this scientifically but it is hard to internalize as a definition of fluid reality. All our debates are as if enemies are fixed entities not evolving with each other. We warriors for peace still do not know how to really counteract that. We have tried the arts, we have tried tourism, we have tried commerce, but the dance of death is more frightening and compelling to the masses. Why did the young generation succeed in the 1960’s to create a real alternative that attracted the masses, but …
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Deus Ex Machina
Men who represent governments are not entitled to their own opinions nor do they control absolutely anything. Therefore those who are risking their lives around the world and ask government officials for their opinion are not only wasting their time, they are also putting themselves in danger. Do not make revolutions or rebellions or demonstrations based on external promises. Ever ever ever.
…
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The Cycle of Intimate Relations
The cycle of intimate relations between angry men with great power just continues to suck us all into its vortex , and it makes me profoundly sad and bewildered by its power. Think about the world we live in today, conditioned by Jibril, but more to the point, Bin Laden, Bush, Khameini, Assad, Nasrallah, Putin, Erdogan, Al Badghadi, Meshal, and, of course, my very own dearest and nearest, Netanyahu. We must face the darkness here of this moment in history of the Middle East, so that we know best how to shift the vortex in a new direction beyond these angry violent men.
(Photo source: US News)…
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“Gaza becomes Syria: Middle East geopolitics 2.0”- +972 Magazine
Aziz and I published an article in +972 Magazine. You can read the full article by clicking here, but here is the extract below.
…There are two main camps involved in negotiating a ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel. However, the players are not within the camp that most would have expected. What started as Israel vs. Hamas is quickly becoming a geopolitical issue involving many new actors. While this might seem good for some, it should be seen as terrible news for Palestinians and Israelis alike.
Today this same is happening in Gaza. ISIL, the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant, is already reported to have a presence in Gaza and is likely to try to take power from Hamas. While all the other regional powers are arguing about which “proposal” for a ceasefire should be accepted, more than 1,040 Palestinians have been killed and 6,000 injured,
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Short Reflections on the Gains and Losses of War
ENEMIES
When you stay with a family that thrives on hatred of everyone else, 99.9% of humanity fears you, and certainly dislikes you. When you grow into your original family of humanity, your enemies are only a small percent of your old family that thrived on fear and hatred of the rest.
LOVE
If you want the joy of loving humanity, you must endure the sorrow of losing many loved ones. The more you love, the more you lose. If you are not prepared, bitterness will swallow you.If you prepare yourself for loss, then the light of love will endure and even conquer the darkness dividing you from enemies, when the men with guns slink into the shadows exhausted and defeated.
CALCULATIONS
Miscalculations cause much human violence. Each side thinks its escalation of inflicted pain will cause the other to back down, and then it does the …
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A Tale of HL
Once upon a time the known world of E was divided up between nasty C’s and nastier F’s who learned from each other how to destroy the poor M’s. The poor M’s hid in every shadow they could find. Then one day, many decades later, the M’s got tired of the shadows, and even more tired of the F’s and C’s, and so they made a big home for themselves to which the F’s and the C’s were not terribly welcome. The C’s disappeared into thin air. Some became F’s, and many just disappeared. But the F’s retreated to the shadows, and then spread their wings like bats and flew in the night across the world to another world called the HL. And there they nested for decades, until they one day grew and grew, and then grew so large that they divided the HL among themselves between IF’s …
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