Epstein Secrets

o take a tough line against the U.S. over Iran. This comes at a time when U.S. relations with China have been tense. Indeed, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta used a recent visit to Vietnam to underscore how the United States intends to back its allies in the Asia-Pacific region and help them enforce thei

o allow intervention in Syria? Assad would still be one of Moscow's principal allies in the Middle East. Russia would still have port facilities at Tartus. It would still want to protect the principle that a government can suppress popular demonstrations by any means it chooses, including the kinds of

President Obama said "I don't think that Israel has made a decision on what they need to do." That didn't square with the view of Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, who's been reported as saying he expects an Israeli attack this spring. Nor does it square with public warnings from Israeli Defense EFTA00687006

he United States lacks after letting the Mubarak regime go down quickly. The real question is whether Russia will keep the Soviet-era naval base in Tartus on Syria's Mediterranean coast. While the disagreement on Libya led to Russia's abstention in the Security Council and was soon forgotten, the spa

g India, U.S. President Barack Obama said, "India is not just a rising power; India has already risen." And just a few weeks ago, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta called India a "linchpin" in the U.S. "pivot" to Asia, while Secretary of State Hillary Clinton described the U.S.-India tie as a "critical bilater

ent in 2009 by killing hundreds, not thousands.) The Russians require stability in Damascus only partly for the sake of naval rights in the port of Tartus. Syria and Iran are the two remaining levers the Kremlin has in the Middle East. Moreover, the collapse of a pro-Moscow dictatorship in the Middle