A few words of concern --- with a request for knowledge and understanding, rather than caricature and polemic --- to British Prime Minister David Cameron about his declaration of "generational struggle" against "terrorists", "jihadists", Al Qa'eda, and anyone else with a "poisonous ideology":
Last week the Obama Administration said that rules for drone attacks had been drawn up this autumn. The reason? Because of the prospect that Mitt Romney, not Barack Obama, would be President from January 2013.
So a question to President Obama: "If you didn't trust Mitt with drones, why should anyone trust you?"
Thursday, November 29, 2012 at 6:58 | Scott Lucas in EA Middle East and Turkey, Middle East and Iran "President Morsi's claim for taking powers is that he is fulfilling the Revolution by fulfilling justice."
1. What caused the current crisis?
2. What are the wider political and legal issues and context?
3. Is Morsi saving the Revolution or killing it by creating another dictatorship?
4. What happens next?
EA Video Editor Richard Langley takes a look at the Israel Defense Forces' YouTube campaign during the recent Gaza War:
To date this video [of the assassination of Hamas military commander Ahmed al-Jabari] has received in excess of 4 1/2 million views. For YouTube, this is a number usually reserved for cat videos and viral high jinks. But what we're watching here is the death of two people. For all intents and purposes, this is a snuff video.
This video set the tone for the rest of the IDF's campaign.
Ahmed Al-Jabari, EA Video Analysis, Gaza, Hamas, Israel, Palestine, Youtube For weeks, we have reporting on insurgent advances across Syria. Reviewing that coverage, we ask, "Are we at the point where President Assad's military is crumbling?"
Answer: "We are not ready to declare that, but we are now past the point where the regime has any prospect of a successful counter-attack to regain control. Assad and his forces now have to rely on holding on to major cities."
Forget the sex scandal that brought him down. This is the reason why we should remember General David Petraeus --- a man whose ambition and supporters led to the exaggeration of military "success" and the corruption of US foreign policy.
A seven-minute commentary on how and why the US-based discussion of sanctions on Iran --- and indeed the sanctions themselves --- miss the most important point about life inside the Islamic Republic:
Four points and 9 1/2 minutes to understand not only President Obama's re-election, but the lessons and challenges for both the Democrats and the Republicans....
1. Why Obama Won: "It's the Centre, Stupid"
2. The Social Front: "Charlie Brown, Are We Still Living in Traditional White America?"
3. The Short-Term Challenge for Obama and....
4. The Bigger Challenge for the Republican Party
Over the last two weeks we have reported on a series of secret talks between the US and Iran over the Islamic Republic's nuclear programme. Contacts in Turkey between Washington's and Tehran's representatives were taken a step farther in early October when the Supreme Leader's top aide on foreign policy, former Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Velayati, met unnamed US envoys.
So how significant are these "back-channel" talks in a possible path to diplomatic settlement, rather than war? We explain in five minutes:
See also EA Video Analysis: How to Become An Expert on the Iranian Nuclear Programme
In our latest Experts' Guide to Iran, we explain how a dramatic New York Times story of "secret US-Iran nuclear talks" missed the essential context --- namely, that Tehran has not stopped pushing for renewed high-level negotiations, trading a suspension of 20% enriched uranium for an easing of Western sanctions, since the stalemate of the last formal encounter in Moscow in June.
Then we get to a bigger muddle, stirred by the Times' vague references to its sources --- who revealed the US-Iran contacts, with supposed hopes for public negotiations after an Obama re-election in November, and why?
