Ilan Berman’s new book,“Winning the Long War, Retaking the Offensive Against Radical Islam,” (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2009) catalogues American successes and failures to defeat radical Islam post-9/11. In its quiet, detailed, meticulously researched way, it is a powerful call to action in the war against radical Islam—especially the war of ideas.
The book is …
From the Middle East Quarterly
By HEATHER ROBINSON
Spring 2009
Amid growing conservatism and ethnic and sectarian populism in Iraq, parliamentarian Mithal al-Alusi, a Sunni Arab, has become the country’s chief advocate for liberal values including a free market, free press, religious pluralism, cooperation among democracies in fighting terror, …
Saturday’s provincial elections in Iraq were a great triumph for democracy worldwide and especially for the Iraqi people. William Shawcross in The Guardian has written an excellent column on the subject.
For the first time in Iraq’s democratic history, Iraqis handled security themselves - a remarkable accomplishment.
When considering the courage …
In today’s American Spectator online, I have a piece about the Iraqi Parliamentarian Mithal al-Alusi, whose sons were murdered in February 2005 following his visit to Israel to attend a counterterrorism conference there. Over the weekend, I received an alarming e-mail from al-Alusi’s friend Esther Kandel, who alerted me …
Check out this terrific story about an Iraqi sheikh who helped U.S. forces expel al Qaeda from Anbar province. Apparently he is now providing the U.S. with information about Afghan tribes, presumably including those along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.
This courageous sheikh, Ahmad al-Rishawi, says of President Bush, “He is a brave man. He is a …
In today’s New York Times Sabrina Tavernise reports that young people in Iraq have begun to turn against extremist Islam.
“The religion men are liars. Young people don’t believe them. Guys my age are not interested in religion anymore,” she quotes one young man as saying.
Her reporting also contains some interesting and important facts that …
I’ve received a couple of comments to my last post about Angelina Jolie to the effect that celebrities are generally full of it and I should be skeptical of anything they come up with. Fair enough, but at least Ms. Jolie spoke with the troops directly before sounding off about whether or not they …
On Thursday, actress Angelina Jolie published an opinion piece in The Washington Post arguing that U.S. troops should be allowed to stay in Iraq and provide the security necessary for the United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees (UNHCR) to address the humanitarian crisis in Iraq.
While I’m a bit skeptical of any United Nations undertaking …
From The Los Angeles Daily News
BY HEATHER ROBINSON
October 30, 2005
What better way for terrorist insurgents in Iraq to make headlines in the U.S. during a heavy news cycle than to attack journalists?
Monday’s three-stage attack on a hotel compound housing Western media in Baghdad was the latest desperate attempt on the part of …
Iraq’s Maverick
From The American Spectator
By HEATHER ROBINSON
Last month, Iraqi parliamentarian Mithal al-Alusi contacted me by phone from Baghdad with an urgent warning that Iran could be a lot closer to attaining nuclear weapons than most analysts believe.
“Do they have an atom bomb? Not yet,” he told me. …