Epstein Secrets

of the last U.S. troops from Iraq, we're finally going to get the answer to the core question about that country: Was Iraq the way Iraq was because Saddam was the way Saddam was, or was Saddam the way Saddam was because Iraq is the way Iraq is — a collection of sects and tribes unable to live togethe

s been a mounting campaign by the prime minister, a Shiite with close ties to Iran, against perceived Sunni enemies. Hundreds of former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath party have been arrested in recent weeks. EFTA_R1_01992712 EFTA02681497 14 Security forces controlled by Mr. Maliki have surrounded the c

ternal iron fist that held Iraq together (Saddam Hussein) and the external iron fist (the U.S. armed force

disarm, forge new strategic alliances or end its military struggle against Israel. In fact, in a rare public appearance this month, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah declared that his party will remain defiant, side with Assad's Syria and never relinquish its arms. If Hamas, an ally of Hezbollah, Syria and Iran

But Israel also has a short-term objective — and that is to play for time. Israel notes that its 1981 bombing of a nuclear reactor in Iraq set back Saddam Hussein's program — and did not result in some sort of massive retaliation. Something similar happened with the 2007 bombing of a Syrian installation. Neithe

e modest number of outside ground troops. They could be partly modeled on the protection we afforded Kurds in Iraq throughout the 1990s, even while Saddam was still in power. Alas, this task would be harder here. There is no natural geographic or demographic logic to any particular possible safe zone

ing of a nuclear reactor in Iraq set back Saddam Hussein's program — and did not result in some sort of ma

e costing the party its main support base: the Lebanese Shia community. Let's take a closer look. In his many redundant speeches, Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah has been adamant about supporting the Assad regime of Syria. A few years ago, when Nasrallah made a speech, almost everyone in Lebanon would leave

atement made on Aug. 27, Iranian Defense Minister Hussein Dehghan said, "A strike on Syria would threaten

Respond To a Western Strike on Syria? By: An Al-Monitor Correspondent in Beirut August 31. -- About three months ago, Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah decided to send his elite military units to Syria to support the military efforts of the regime of President Bashar al-Assad in facing opposition f

candidate focusing on Iranian policy toward post-Saddam Iraq at the University of London's School of Orie

cooperation as further evidence of Shia dominance of the country's political system and its security institutions. Hezbollah's Secretary General, Hassan Nasrallah, recently boasted during a leadership meeting, "We are ready to sacrifice martyrs in Iraq five times more than what we sacrificed in Syria..." Give

ope" that I have just described, were laid by Moshe Dayan and Shlomo Gazit, and of course by Menachem Begin and Anwar Sadat, Yitzhak Rabin and King Hussein of Jordan, and again Rabin and Shimon Peres. We must not allow the shortsighted populists that currently lead us to destroy this achievement, and

he Grand Inquisitor Tomas de Torquemada, Cossak Bohdan Khmelnytsky and Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, metamorphosed into the bodies of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, ISIS leader Abu Bakr al- Baghdadi or Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas. They get carried away into an ultra-national sentiment, identifying us, abo

onist Iran. One part of that barrier had already crumbled in 2003 when the U.S. HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_023462 --- PAGE BREAK --- invasion of Iraq toppled Saddam Hussein. Losing Mr. Mubarak means that the Saudis now see themselves as the last Sunni giant left in the region. The Saudis were further agitated when the p

462 --- PAGE BREAK --- invasion of Iraq toppled Saddam Hussein. Losing Mr. Mubarak means that the Saudis

- PAGE BREAK --- invasion of Iraq toppled Saddam Hussein. Losing Mr. Mubarak means that the Saudis now see

ors to that point. But to the Saudis, not to mention Bahrain's ruling family, even the occasional appearance of posters of Lebanese Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah amid crowds of Shiite protesters pumping their fists and chanting demands for regime change was too much. They saw how Iran's influence has grown in

It was a blighted and miserable land at a safe distance. But the American war, and the sense of righteous violation, soon hit the Arab world itself. Saddam Hussein may not have been the Arab idol he was a decade earlier, but he was still a favored son of that Arab nation, its self-appointed defender. The topplin

hteous violation, soon hit the Arab world itself. Saddam Hussein may not have been the Arab idol he was a

violation, soon hit the Arab world itself. Saddam Hussein may not have been the Arab idol he was a decade e

nd then avoided defeat in a subsequent round of fighting in 2006. In a poll of Arab public opinion taken in 2008, the three most popular leaders were Hassan Nasrallah, Bashar al-Assad and Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, in that order. But this sense of inexorable ascendancy in which the Iran-led bloc liked to cloak itself has