November 24, 2012 A year ago, I was mixing with demonstrators in Cairo’s Tahrir Square calling for an end to Mubarak’s dictatorship and democracy for Egypt’s 84 million people. Being a natural-born firebrand,  I find most revolutions intoxicating – if almost inevitably disappointing or even ghastly. What a difference a […]


October 13, 2012 Welcome Mali, our newest crisis! Open your maps. Mali is a huge, arid nation extending from the Sahara Desert and Algeria’s border in the north to the steamy south along the Niger River. Most of Mali’s 14.5 million people eke out an existence farming and fishing. France […]


September 25, 2012 The killing of the US ambassador to Libya and angry demonstrations across the Muslim world over a tacky anti-Islamic hate video have produced the usual flood of wrong-headed commentary from our media and politicians. Across the land comes the familiar cry, “why do they hate us?”  That […]