by Piper Bayard | Feb 23, 2015 | Current Affairs, Foreign Affairs, News
By Jay Holmes The cancerous growth of ISIS across Syria and Iraq since 2014 both exacerbates and illuminates a series of changes in US-Middle East relations. The most crucial and obvious of these changes is to the relationships between the US and Iraq, Iran, Israel,...
by Piper Bayard | Feb 9, 2015 | Amusing Ourselves and Hopefully You, News
By Jay Holmes The hot media story has been the NBC anchor Brian Williams debacle. In an apparent attempt to burnish his personal image, Brian claimed to have been in a helicopter that was hit by an Iraqi RPG, when in fact he had been in a different helicopter. ...
by Piper Bayard | Sep 29, 2014 | Foreign Affairs, News
By Jay Holmes This week, ISIS remains a major news item. For the sake of continuity, we will continue referring to them as ISIS, but be aware that, in recent weeks, they have acquired more aliases than the average Brooklyn mob goon. Since their defeat at...
by Piper Bayard | Aug 18, 2014 | Current Affairs, News
By Jay Holmes On June 29, 2014, after gaining control over large swaths of northern Iraq, ISIS declared itself to be a caliphate. Its intention is to expand this caliphate from Morocco to Malaysia and Indonesia. ISIS “Caliph,” is supreme leader Abu Bakr...
by Piper Bayard | Jun 15, 2014 | Current Affairs, News
By Jay Holmes This week, world governments and the attendant media gaggles are focused on the ISIS militia that has captured much of northern and western Iraq. From popular news reports, we might get the impression that ISIS’s expanding influence is a shocking and...
by Piper Bayard | Mar 20, 2013 | Current Affairs, History
By Intelligence Operative Jay Holmes Ten years ago this week, a US led coalition invaded Iraq to topple Saddam Hussein. While it is still a bit too soon to see the long term prospects for the post-Saddam Iraq, we have enough hindsight to make reasonable judgments...
by Piper Bayard | Mar 18, 2013 | Current Affairs, Foreign Affairs, History
By Jay Holmes As we looked at last Wednesday, US Secretary of State John Kerry’s recent visit to Turkey highlights the tensions between our two countries. (See Turkey–America’s Special Frenemy) In the long history of our “frenemy” relationship, the Kurds...
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