August 5, 2022 It is unsettling to see a democratic government like the United States beating its chest over the high-tech murder of a retired jihadist, Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri. The 71-year-old al-Zawahiri succeeded the assassinated Osama bin Laden as chief of the anti-US underground group, al-Qaeda. The mild-mannered, Egyptian had […]

July 25, 2022 In the Mideast, it’s customary for less important people to go call on their betters, not vice versa. The more important you are, the longer you keep callers waiting. US President Joe Biden ignored all these customs on his recent pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia, whose de facto […]

(Originally published in the L.A. Times on June 27, 2006) Intensifying combat and mounting casualties in Afghanistan are growing evidence that what was a sporadic, low-intensity conflict is fast turning into a national uprising against foreign occupation. After the US invasion in 2001, Taliban’s leaders ordered their outgunned fighters to […]