On Tuesday, leaders from most of the Syrian rebel groups--excluding ISIS, which isn't really a "rebel" group per se, and the al-Qaeda affiliated Jabhat al-Nusra--got together in Riyadh for a set of Saudi-led talks aimed at bringing them together in a common bloc ahead of peace talks with Bashar al-Assad's government. This was supposed to … Continue reading Hey, that went well

Over the past couple of days, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu has been ratcheting up the war of words between Ankara and Moscow over that Russian aircraft that got shot down by Turkey a couple of weeks ago. Yesterday, in what I can only assume was an appeal to Vladimir Putin's innate sense of fairness, … Continue reading Now this is just getting silly

I know I'm supposed to have a Take on big news, especially when it relates to foreign affairs, terrorism, and politics, but I have to say that I've got nothing when it comes to Donald Trump's latest garbage. It's far too late in the process to say that Trump is a joke candidate, but he … Continue reading All Trumped out

My newest piece for LobeLog (co-authored with Jim Lobe) highlights a recent poll of US opinion on Israel and the Israel-Palestine issue, conducted by University of Maryland and Brookings scholar Shibley Telhami. Telhami's survey used two samples: one to represent the general public, and then an over-sample of self-professed evangelical Christians, in order to gauge … Continue reading Netanyahu and his American evangelical fans

On Friday, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos announced that searchers had found the wreckage of the Spanish galleon San José, which was sunk in battle off the coast of Cartagena in 1708. This is a really cool find. The San José was one of the flagships of the "Spanish Treasure Fleet," which was responsible for … Continue reading A metaphorical wreck over an actual wreck

If Mitch McConnell is capable of feeling the emotion of shame, then I hope somebody holds his eyes open, A Clockwork Orange-style, and makes him watch last night's Daily Show on a loop: Jon Stewart has gone after Mitch McConnell in the past, but now he's so mad that turning him into a bizarre internet … Continue reading The capacity to feel shame

Seriously, I don't know anymore. I'm not talking about the parts of Iraq that are controlled by ISIS--obviously Baghdad has no real control over them at this point, but presumably (hopefully) that's temporary. But of the rest of the country, the parts that aren't controlled by ISIS, and in terms of the normal everyday things … Continue reading How much of Iraq does the Iraqi government actually control at this point?

I won't pretend to have anything more than a general basic awareness of Venezuelan politics, so if you're here looking for deep insight into yesterday's elections, you're in the wrong place. I'm not much of an expert on the global energy market, while we're at it. But I do know one thing, I think: a … Continue reading Cheap oil claims a victim