Yesterday, a bomb was detonated in Damascus, Syria in the national security building killing three top official, placed there by rebels the day before to target that meeting. Among the dead were defense minister and former Army chief of staff Gen. Daoud Rajiha, his deputy Assef Shawkat (who was also the brother-in-law to President Bashar al-Assad) ( Read more... )

To say that tensions in Syria have been rough over the past 16 months is an understatement. Relations between Syria and Turkey have strained as well, since Turkey has declared itself on the side of the "Syrian people" rather than the Syrian government. 30,000 refugees have come into Turkey, including high ranking military officials defecting to ( Read more... )

Over a year ago, the citizens of Egypt stood up for themselves and their rights, took to the streets and managed to depose a regime that had been in place for decades. It was a tremendous feat for revolution and it gave full legitimacy to the notion of Arab Spring. It was, by all accounts, relatively bloodless and did not sink to the depths of ( Read more... )

Yet another in the reactions to the death of bin Laden series, but this time not from the Americas. What's most fascinating right now is the reaction from the Middle East. You can always tell good news from bad news by who is cheering about it all. Most notably, there have been no reports of mourners rending garments in the streets of Amman (Jordan ( Read more... )

As promised last night, another in the reaction series to the death of bin Laden. Last night focused on what a coup this was for American special forces. It was just the public and perfect operation they needed to really prove to average Americans who well they can work. The best way you can tell it went well? No one is complaining about wasted ( Read more... )

As everyone with any kind of media access knows, Usama bin Laden was killed by US Special Forces on May 1, 2011 in his hideout/fortress in Abbottabad, Pakistan, in the northeast region of that country. As all can imagine, this has effected a lot of reactions from a lot of different people in a lot of different realms in a lot of different ways. ( Read more... )

Almost two months ago, a fruit cart vendor in Tunisia set himself on fire and in so doing lit a spark of freedom across North Africa and the Middle East. Citizens of Tunisia actually managed to depose a long time dictator in Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali. After this was successful, several other countries in the region followed. Egypt, long under the ( Read more... )

This was touched on briefly before I went on sick call, and it's nice to have taken the time to see things develop so completely. Egypt is in the throws of almost full on revolution and that's not a word to be tossed around lightly. After eight days of protests, mild calamities and the government losing its mind, things are starting to change. ( Read more... )

Jasmine, as both the name of the flower and the woman's name, comes from Arabic (and the original Persian) mean "gift of God". In this case, it has been the name the media have come up with for the revolution in Tunisia. Since January 14th when President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali fled the country after some violent protests. He is still trying to ( Read more... )

Here we are loyal fans, and possibly new, the State of the Union. As keeping in with annual tradition, I'm gonna analyze every bit of this speech, god help me. It was over an hour long and there were fewer interruptions for applause than usual, so it's more words. Luckily, this was Barack Obama and the man knows how to give a speech. More ( Read more... )