Brian M Downing and the world at war. Timely, thoughtful, and nonpartisan analysis of military matters. @BrianMDowning1.
Violence in Israel and the West Bank has picked up since late last summer. In recent weeks, casualties have gone up markedly, and ominously. Most troubling is the turmoil centering at the Temple Mount, or Noble Sanctuary as it’s known in Islam. A Third Intifada may be in the offing. The region is Read More …
Close on the heels of last April’s China-Pakistan agreement to build a communication corridor connecting the two countries, comes word of a similar arrangement. India, Iran, and Afghanistan have agreed to build a corridor running from northwestern Afghanistan to the Iranian port of Chabahar. The deal comes shortly after the P5+1 nuclear Read More …
Not long ago, American power and beliefs appeared unchallenged in the world. The Soviet Union was gone, generals in developing nations were heading back to the barracks, and democracy was everywhere on the rise. We had, in the famous words, reached the end of history. Open economic and political systems Read More …
Israel mobilized its considerable resources in an effort to block the nuclear deal with Iran in congress. Think tanks, lobbies, and the Religious Right denounced the agreement, repeatedly and vociferously, on television and talk shows and most importantly in the senate. Saudi Arabia made the same effort. Nonetheless, the Obama administration thwarted Read More …
The 2016 election is a year and a quarter away. The issues are immigration, income inequality, shrinking opportunity, email accounts, and thoughtless comments. The Iraq War surfaced several weeks ago in an interview with then-front runner Jeb Bush in which he said that knowing what he knows now, he still thinks the war Read More …
The nuclear pact inked by the P5+1 and Iran, though not yet ratified, offers the opportunity for Iran to shed its parish-state label and reenter the world of nations. It has been largely excluded since the 1979 Revolution but especially so after opposition grew to its nuclear program in recent Read More …
Two months ago, after a string of defeats in both Syria and Iraq, ISIL seized control of Ramadi, the capital of Iraq’s Sunni-dominated Anbar province. The fall of Ramadi once again underscores the power of ISIL and the weakness of the Iraqi army. The expected counterattack, to the surprise Read More …
The recent nuclear deal between Iran and the P5+1 brings hope for political reform in Iran. This is especially so among the middle classes of Tehran and other urban areas. The impending end to sanctions by much of the world, they believe, will bring greater prosperity and an easing of Read More …
Brian M Downing The dialog between the US and Iran has moved ahead. Opposition comes from important groups in both Tehran and Washington – as well as in a few Middle Eastern capitals. In Washington, the issue is decried as a sign of the administration’s naivety regarding world affairs Read More …
While many parts of the world have called the Iranian nuclear deal a triumph of diplomacy, Israel prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has branded it an “historic mistake, even though international inspection teams will monitor the number of centrifuges and see that Iran’s uranium is well below weapons grade. The Read More …