Epstein Secrets

ating its commitment to Saudi Arabia's security in 1990 deployed 500,000 US troops to the kingdom to expel Saddam Hussein's forces from neighboring Kuwait. In the eyes of Saudis, that war not only proved unrivaled primacy of the United States on the international stage, it also demonstrated loyalty to

er or later, honest liberals will have to admit that Obama's Iraq policy has been a disaster. Since the president took office, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has grown ever more tyrannical and ever more sectarian, driving his country's Sunnis toward revolt. Since Obama took office, Iraq watchers—includin

t of a storm of his own making, fell back on lawyerly dist=nctions. A Greater Middle East, an Islam=c world, used to American campaigns of rescue — Kuwait in 1991, Bosnia i= 1995, Kosovo in 1999, Afghanistan in 2001, Iraq in 2003, Libya in 2011 — is now witnessing the ebb of American power and respons

l against an Alawite minority, has been a boon t= the Sunnis of Iraq. The Sunnis have bottomless grievances against the gov=rnment of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. To them, Maliki, who spent a qua=ter-century exiled in Syria and Iran, is an agent of the Iranian theocracy. So even though the regime in S=ria di

a and its affiliated organizations have killed untold thou=ands of Shiites in the past 11 years—in particular, in Iraq. In fact, in=2007, groups in Kuwait that pledged allegiance to Al-Qaeda issued a fatwa=97a legal pronouncement by a religious scholar—against the Shiite government in Iran. From the b

http://topics.wsj.com/person/O/Obama/4328> administration. The U.S. is weighing more direct military assis=ance to the government of Iraqi President Nouri al-Maliki, the White House said Thursday, and officials hinted that =id might include airstrikes on militants who have edged to within a half-h=ur's drive of

nes of 50 percent or more. The sharpest drops were in Iran, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Algeria, Bangladesh, Tunisia, Libya, Albania, Qatar and Kuwait, which all recorded declines of 60 percent or more over three decades. EFTA00683491 Fertility in Iran declined an astonishing 70 percent over the

e flow of oil to the global market. While tensions have risen over the past two years, the triggers for recent eruptions are clear. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite, had the bodyguards of Finance Minister Rafie al-Issawi, who is Sunni, arrested for alleged terrorist activities on Dec. 20 — almost ex