Tag: Iran
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Will Lebanon ever get peace
Lebanon has a problem that cuts deeply into its identity as a state. It has a war that it is not fighting, but a proxy of Iran is and that is Hezbollah. The south of Lebanon to the Litani river is either occupied or a no go zone, towns and villages have been demolished and…
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The making of the theocracy
Shia across the Middle East accepted Ayatollah Khomeini as a political leader, but most sought spiritual guidance from Ayatollah Abol-Qassim al-Khoi, Ayatollah Sistani’s mentor. But, as said in other arguments throughout my articles on Iran, the argument of the state’s identity is never settled; it is an evolving argument—where it is impossible to follow the…
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Without realising the beginning, middle or end…
America is in trouble, whether it wants to hear this assessment or not. Without a flip to help Ukraine, the war in the Middle East is coming to bite this presidency, whether the so-called commander in chief accepts an argument that without pouring tech and lessons learned into Ukraine, there will be an escalation in…
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Can the US retool the World?
Sorry for being away from the laptop for so long… shit has happened and I am just getting back to work…. Enjoy… it is a start…
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A conflict within a confliction
It really is not a question of making a deal, it is exactly what was in the memorandum the two sides agreed – ‘an understanding.’ To understand the Shi’ism practiced in Iran – is to understand the Iranian state and how it is underpinned by factions, rivalries and arguments in how the Islamic regime identifies…
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It is Friday…. maybe there is hope for diplomacy….
It is Friday…. there is something lacking in the narrative in the Islamic side of the Iranian state that has been omnipresent throughout the fifty years of theocratic governance – and that is the guidance delivered by the supreme leader in a time of crisis. Like his father, Motjaba’s ascension to becoming the supreme leader- was and…
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Hagel or Marlowe….
John B Judis, writing in Persuasion went back to Hagel to explore Trumpian arguments by examining his scatterbrained approach to politics, economics and foreign affairs. Judis analysed the presidency through Hagel’s philosophical approach to history and underpinned his argument that Trump is an important figure by integrating Schilling’s “Stratergy of Conflict” into his argument, Judis…
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Operation Epic Fury… one month on.
There has to be an argument that encapsulates the ‘2026 Gulf War,’ whether it is an ideological approach or a continuation of the conflict in the Middle East that started in 1991, is a question that has vexed most analysts, historians and international lawyers trying to define the intellectual, political and legal parameters of Operation…
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State capture
The commentator asked Jeremy Bowen – “What the war was about….?” I answered to myself – “I don’t know” – then laughed. There were no wry smiles, but there was a pause and then Bowen answered, “I think….” But what did I know, or what did I predict, like everybody apart from Ayatollah Khamenei, I predicted…
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The revolution within a revolution….
In 2022 – it was five hundred – that was the number dead declared after the Mahsa Amini demonstrations. That number was significant, it was a number the Ayatollahs and Revolutionary Guard elite could settle on as a statement of power – a number that was not high enough for the outside world to be…
