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Showing posts from March 24, 2011

The US should stay neutral in the Sunni-Shiite conflict

http://dailycaller.com/2011/03/24/the-u-s-should-stay-neutral-in-the-sunni-shiite-conflict/ PRINT PAGE The U.S. should stay neutral in the Sunni-Shiite conflict By Leon Hadar 5:32 PM 03/24/2011 ADVERTISEMENT Riyadh signaled its intention to maintain stability in the Persian Gulf with the deployment of more than 1,000 Saudi Arabian and 500 United Arab Emirates (UAE) troops to neighboring Bahrain on March 14, under the auspices of the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC). This intervention is comparable to the numerous deployments of U.S. troops under the auspices of the Organization of American States (OAS) — Grenada (1983), Panama (1989) and Haiti (1994). Moreover, protecting Bahrain, which provides the U.S. Fifth Fleet with a base and has the freest economy in the Middle East (according to the 2011 Index of Economic Freedom), seems to be compatible with U.S. interests. Some Americans, who view the uprising in Bahrain as a conflict between the majority Shiite population and the ruling Sun

Neither unilateralist nor multilateralist

Business Times - 25 Mar 2011 Neither unilateralist nor multilateralist Mr Obama's policy on Libya is confusing and self-defeating, and will satisfy no one By LEON HADAR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT US PRESIDENT Barack Obama and his foreign policy aides have been insisting that, unlike president George W Bush who had launched a unilateral attack against Iraq, the current military operation in Libya is being conducted under a multilateral setting. And, indeed, while the Bush administration failed to win the support of the majority of the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council for his plan to invade Iraq and depose its leader Saddam Hussein, the more limited goal of the enforcing a No-Fly Zone (NFZ) in Libya has been backed by the Security Council. Moreover, the military action against the regime of Muammar Gaddafi is not only supported by two leading allies of the US - France and Britain - but has also been given the green light by the Arab League. And, in fact, demonst