The Five Most Common Middle East Conspiracy Theories

by Reese Erlich I speak about the Middle East to people of various political persuasions around the US, from leftist college students to conservatives on AM radio talk shows. Most Americans are wary of further US military intervention in the… Continue Reading

Management by McChrystal: Missing the Forest for the Trees?

by William D. Hartung There are two reigning narratives about Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the former head of the U.S. Special Operations Command and U.S. forces in Afghanistan. One is the story of a loose-lipped, cocky military man who had to… Continue Reading

US Troops Would Have Withdrawn from Iraq With or Without Obama

by Wayne White With the conflict in Iraq yet again dominating news headlines, it might come as a surprise to many Americans that it was Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and his cronies who wanted all US troops out of Iraq by the… Continue Reading

Don’t Put US Advisors in Greater Danger in Iraq

by Wayne White Senior American officials are considering the deployment of US advisors to some largely isolated pockets of resistance in Iraq’s al-Anbar Province. Such a move would be fraught with risk since Anbar is mainly controlled by the Islamic… Continue Reading

Can ISIS be Stopped?

by Mark N. Katz The radical jihadist group, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIL or ISIS), has seized much of Iraq’s Sunni Arab heartland and reached the outskirts of Baghdad. The armed forces of Iraq’s US-backed, Shia majority… Continue Reading