By Barry Rubin

Quick! Tell me. Who’s desperate to make a deal? Who acts as if they are the weaker party, eager to negotiate solutions in order to end their people’s suffering and the costs of conflict?

Certainly not Iran. It has been pushing ahead with its nuclear program for more than three years during a period of intense Western diplomatic effort, lots of talk about sanctions, and even the implementation of some. Iran is indifferent to threats of attack or warnings of isolation. To a large extent — but not completely — the regime thinks the West is bluffing. But if Tehran really sought nuclear energy, not bombs, it could easily cooperate and have power stations in operation far faster. And if Iran was really acting out of fear of being surrounded by American power, it could help resolve the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq — instead of inflaming them — in exchange for U.S. forces withdrawing more quickly.

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by William Bache*

The President of the United States expressed his desire to build a democratic Iraq that could serve as an example to the rest of the Arab and Islamic nations. The American military was the instrument chosen to build an Iraqi security structure that could fight terrorism and still promote ethical leaders and democratic values. However, efforts to transfer American military values to Iraq have been a failure. The leaders of the Iraqi Joint Security Forces have politely listened to what the Americans have determined is best for them and then have gone back to doing what they feel is best for them—namely situational leadership, corruption, and human rights violations.

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by Daniel Pipes*

“Everything” did not change on 9/11, as some expected, but one thing certainly did: the U.S. government’s willingness to preempt enemies before they act. This new policy has outraged so many, it may be discontinued.

In foreign affairs, preemption replaced the long-established policy of deterrence. A series of speeches established the new policy, culminating in George W. Bush’s June 2002 declaration that “our security will require all Americans to be forward-looking and resolute, to be ready for preemptive action when necessary to defend our liberty and to defend our lives.” Nine months later, preemption justified the invasion of Iraq before Iraqis had attacked the United States, to the fury of many.

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By Jeffrey Imm*

Three weeks after the arrest of suspected Jihadists in Austria, today the U.S. Embassy in Vienna foiled an apparent nail bomb attack by a 42 year old Bosnian man. The Bosnian man, who lives in Austria, was stopped with a backpack with hand grenades, nails, and Islamic literature as he tried to enter the U.S. Embassy in Vienna today. The Daily Telegraph reports that Doris Edelbacher, of Austria’s counterterrorism office stated “There were a lot of nails in that bag. Had it exploded, it would have had an enormous shrapnel effect”. The Bosnian man was detained after the metal detector stopped him and he attempted to flee, and the man is now being questioned.

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by Joseph Puder*

Alireza Jafarzadeh, president of Washington-based Strategic Policy Consulting and spokesperson for the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), was the guest of the Middle East Forum at Philadelphia’s Cozen O’Connor law offices last Wednesday over lunch. Bob Guzzardi, chairman of the Middle East Forum, introduced Jafarzadeh, who used his visit with the Middle East Forum to promote his new book, The Iran Threat: President Ahmadinejad and the Coming Nuclear Crisis.

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by Phyllis Chesler

Let me state what is painfully obvious. Despite our most hopeful illusions, people are not really “good” nor do they really practice “peace”. While power corrupts, absolute powerlessness corrupts absolutely and there is no safe place, neither high nor low, for the most vulnerable of our citizens.

The world is always at war. People fight, it’s what we do. We quarrel, often in deadly ways with other family members and we fight bitter, brutal battles with anyone who is “different” in terms of gender, class, race, ethnicity, tribe, religion, and ideology. The planet is perpetually plagued by civil and national wars. Not to be outdone, persecuted peoples internalize the prejudice and hatred leveled against them and unleash it against others like themselves.

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By Barry Rubin

The big picture can be found in the little details. Here’s a great example. Iran recently held a summit meeting bringing together Palestinian leaders. Hamas was there, of course, and Islamic Jihad, too. No surprise that. But there was someone else participating in the gathering: Farouq Qaddumi.

Qaddumi is a veteran Fatah and PLO bureaucrat who now heads the former group. He is one of three men–the other two were Yasir Arafat and Mahmoud Abbas–who represented Fatah on the PLO Executive Committee. He has never accepted even the 1993 Oslo agreement. In most ways, he is more representative of Fatah leadership than the Palestinian Authority’s relatively moderate two heads, Mahmoud Abbas and Salam Fayyad.

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By Barry Rubin

Everybody in Washington has been waiting for General David H. Petraeaus to give his report on the Iraq war. Expectations became most inflated, as if he would deliver America of this seemingly unsolvable problem in a messianic manner.

Now Petraeaus has spoken and he has done a pretty good job. There are some major paradoxes in his analysis and prescription but given the nature of the issue that was certainly inevitable.

For Democrats, eager to have an American withdrawal from Iraq, Petraeaus became something of a trap. To show they were patriotic and supported the troops, congressional Democrats praised Petraeaus. Now, however, disliking some of the things he said, they look rather craven trying to find ways to criticize him.

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By Mark Krikorian*

(Click here to read “Fixing Immigration”)

I was delighted to see Yuval Levin engage the issue of immigration, particularly its most basic element — the shape of our policy for legal immigration — rather than the conceptually simpler matter of enforcement. I also welcome some of Mr. Levin’s specific recommendations, especially that family-based immigration should extend only to the nuclear family and that assimilation into American society should be given a higher priority.

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By Kamal Nawash

Recently, several reports by various military experts have painted a grim picture of Iraq. The assessments differ in key conclusions, however all the experts, including Gen. David Petraeus and former Gen. James Jones agree that Iraqi forces are currently unable to take over security operations from American troops. While this assessment may be disappointing to many Americans, the Free Muslims Coalition believes that Iraqi forces’ inability to takeover security operations may be the only leverage the United States has to facilitate reconciliation and a political solution between the parties in Iraq.

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By Andrew L. Jaffee

Dear Ms. Whoopi Goldberg, don’t tell me that torturing animals (dog-fighting) — “hanging, drowning, and slamming at least one dog’s body to the ground” — is an integral part of Southerners’ “cultural upbringing.” I’ve lived in the Deep South for about 5 years, visited family there many times, and vacationed there more times than I can remember. My experiences? Good, decent people, and beautiful cities, countryside, and beaches. So how did this dog-fighting controversy get started?

Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick was busted red-handed running a chamber of horrors for canines. Not only was he fighting dogs, but torturing them too, presumably for his own pleasure. From the Smoking Gun, including the federal indictment against Vick:

…After a March 2003 loss by a female pit bull, codefendant Purnell Peace, “after consulting with Vick,” electrocuted the animal. In April, prosecutors allege, Vick, Peace, and Quanis Phillips, “executed approximately 8 dogs that did not perform well in ‘testing’ sessions.” These animals, the indictment claims, were killed “by various methods, including hanging, drowning, and slamming at least one dog’s body to the ground.”

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By Andrew L. Jaffee

Ramadi is one of Iraq’s success stories. Can the U.S. and Iraqis leverage this lesson into future successes? From the Times Online:

How life returned to the streets in a showpiece city that drove out al-Qaeda
An American ‘martyr’ is being hailed in the Sunni Triangle for restoring peace to a town where soldiers now fight only water leaks

…Captain Patriquin played a little-known but crucial role in one of the few American success stories of the Iraq war.

He helped to convert Ramadi from one of Iraq’s deadliest cities into arguably the safest outside the semi-autonomous Kurdish north. This graveyard for hundreds of American soldiers, which a Marine Corps intelligence report wrote off as a lost cause just a year ago, is where the US military now takes visiting senators, and journalists such as myself, to show the progress it is making. Ramadi will be Exhibit A when General David Petraeus, the US commander in Iraq, appears before Congress in two weeks’ time to argue that the country as a whole should not be written off.

In Ramadi last weekend I did things unthinkable almost anywhere else in this violent country. I walked through the main souk without body armour, talking to ordinary Iraqis. Late one evening I strolled into the brightly lit Jamiah district of the city with Lieutenant-Colonel Roger Turner, the tobacco-chewing US marine in charge of central Ramadi, to buy kebabs from an outdoor restaurant – “It’s safer than London or New York,” Colonel Turner assured me. …

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By Andrew L. Jaffee

So “Muslims are an oppressed minority in this country?” One wouldn’t have made this conclusion if attending my hometown’s annual Maronite Christian Lebanese festival, held last weekend here in downtown Middle America. Amongst the throngs of Polish-, German-, Lithuanian-, Franco-, Scottish-, Irish-, Anglo-, African-, Jewish-, Latino-, etc.-Americans were Muslims, too. Several women were sporting their hijab (head scarves). If so oppressed, would Muslims have been there having a good time with the rest of us? Conversely, if these women were radical Islamists, would they have been at a Christian-sponsored festival involving belly-dancing, beer-kegs, and plenty of male/female fraternization? Everybody needs to chill out a little bit.

Festival organizers had a display on Lebanese history, including Phoenician and Maronite factoids. There was no shilling for the Palestinians; no railing against Israel; no anti-Muslim sentiments. It all was in good taste, despite how badly Lebanese Christians have been treated in their homeland by other Arabs and Muslims.

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by Andrew Garfield*

Defeat of the insurgency and terrorism in Iraq requires not only a military approach but also a political component. Although the “surge” may stabilize parts of Iraq and reduce the level of violence while the additional troops remain in place, long-term stability requires a more holistic approach.

Frank Kitson, a retired British military officer whose writings influenced British operations in Northern Ireland, argues that the “main characteristic that distinguishes campaigns of insurgency from other forms of war is that they are primarily concerned with the struggle for men’s minds.”[1] To defeat the insurgency, coalition forces must persuade the Iraqi population to reject extremism and deny safe haven to those fighting the new Iraqi political order. This will require dialogue, inducements, and the proportionate use of force to win the battle for “hearts and minds.”

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New Report Takes Detailed Look at Impact of Different Levels of Admissions

WASHINGTON (August 2007) — New projections from the Center for Immigration Studies show that the current level of immigration (legal and illegal) will add more than 100 million people to the nation’s population by 2060. The report also shows that immigration has only a small impact on slowing the aging of American society.

While population growth has not been at the center of the immigration debate, polls show the public is deeply concerned about issues related to population size, including congestion, sprawl, preservation of open spaces, and greenhouse gas emissions.

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