Attention hog Seymour Hersh claims that the United States Department of Defense Joint Chiefs of Staff—the highest-ranking bureaucrats in the Pentagon—gave Bashar al-Assad intelligence to help him defeat jihadist terrorists. This isn’t even a good conspiracy theory. Hersh made it all up, as is clear by his claim that his source is a “former senior…
Arab League and Israeli plan for the Middle East goes forward
December 22, 2023
In June of this year, Saudi Arabia announced a seven-point plan for the Middle East. It’s incredibly risky and ambitious. The Saudis must always be taken seriously, so I knew that they’d thought this out. I couldn’t determine how in the world the Arab League would keep the region from going up in flames the…
Human rights organizations being ignored. Why would that be?
December 21, 2023
The real world isn’t like the movies. Leaders of western democracies don’t gleefully stuff their pockets with cash while bellowing with laughter as they watch schools and hospitals being bombed. Somewhere along the line, human rights organizations went insane. They internalized the Michael Moorean ideology that all war waged by developed nations is based on…
Paper tiger revealed in Syria, say Israelis. Guess who?
December 20, 2023
I always loved the phrase “paper tiger.” The communist Chinese invented it to describe the US. My mother was a great fan of folded paper doodads. This is the sort of thing she did. In July of this year, I became convinced that the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA)—the Iranian nuclear deal—was an international…
Deception: the smart kind and the really stupid kind
December 19, 2023
If the Arab League were enemies of the United States, we’d be sunk. There’s no question. I’m in the process of reverse engineering the Saudi-led intervention in Yemen, and I’m amazed at the brilliance of the military deception. It continues to this day. Fierce fighting and airstrikes by a Saudi-led coalition pounded northern Yemen on…
Adrift no longer. Without even knowing it, I arrived
December 17, 2023
I never knew what to do with my life. In very real ways, I never had a life. Some forms of trauma are impossible to “get over.” The closest I came to having a career was the ten years I spent as a music journalist in Los Angeles. It didn’t pay anything, but my parents…
Islamic anti-terrorism coalition deeply confuses the “experts”
December 16, 2023
What’s the best way to win a war? The answer: Make it impossible for your enemies to know what’s really happening. Yesterday Saudi Arabia announced the formation of an Islamic coalition to fight terrorism. Today some people are gloating that it’s “already collapsed.” Saudi Arabia’s coalition of Islamic countries against terrorism is starting to look like…
World, you’re very lucky that I have no power
December 15, 2023
There’s no question that those putting their lives on the line to fight Islamic terrorism are better people than me. They don’t retaliate when lied about and unfairly criticized. All I can say is that the world should be grateful that I’m just a blogger and not a president, prime minister, king, or high-ranking military…
Quiet professionals save us while we disgrace ourselves
December 14, 2023
The British have described the operation to kill Mohammed Emwazi, the Islamic State terrorist known as Jihadi John. This level of openness is unusual; special-operations units tend to be very quiet. The reason we’re hearing about this is twofold: psychological warfare, and also the Islamic State is under ferocious assault. It likely won’t be around…