International affairs

“I plead with you, I beg of you”
Article Author :Imad Moustapha
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Question: Why don’t the neocons cause me any in-digestion? Answer: Because I take them with a pinch of salt and a sense of humor. I know this is cruel and un-fair. These individuals and their twisted ideology have caused terrible suffering and great pain to our people in Palestine, Lebanon and Iraq, besides costing many young American soldiers their lives, lighting for the wrong reason at the wrong place at the wrong time. Therefore, simply dismissing neocons as a joke might seem irresponsible. Yet, I cannot resist laughing loudly when I hear their arguments and listen to their logic. Here is an example, and I leave the rest to your imagination. 







  
  Needed, a clear US policy towards Syria
    
Article Author :Farrah Hassen
    
     

       
    

      
            
          

    
       

 

 

Without this, how will
the Bush administration even begin to formulate a rational Middle East policy,
much less think about getting out of Iraq? 




U.S. House Speaker
Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has finally answered the inane but prevailing question in Washington: “To visit Damascus or not visit?” On April 4, 2007, she
met and talked at length with President Bashar al-Assad. 

 

  

  
 

    






  
  The U.S. demand for Mid-East Democracy
    
Article Author :David Shagoury
    
     

       
    

      
            
          

    
       
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 US administration officials seem to be
averse to acknowledge many important steps toward progress in Syria today. There
were no mitigating references to renewed efforts of economic liberalization in Syria; a
process that now includes an acceptance of foreign investment and ownership of
assets that is being pursued with purpose despite the difficulties imposed by
our policy of isolation. There is no mention of the protection of minority
rights and equality under Syrian law, which by and large has been effectuated
by the government. There seems inveterate in general policy to be an absence of
recognition or care that in Syria Christianity is not only tolerated, but is
honored and respected to the point where Christmas and Easter are national
holidays, whereas in ally Egypt, Christians are intermittently fleeing for
their lives. That policy combined with the positive fact that Syrian citizens
are not categorized nor stigmatized by religious sect is truly unique in the Middle East. Addition-ally, there is no tacit
acknowledgement of the innate, unofficial democratization that is occurring via
the expansion of non - state media sources utilized by the Syrian people. This
expansion of news sources is courtesy of the government’s benign neglect,
coupled with a certain resignation about the popular demand for information. Politically
critical expression certainly exists, although with restrictions that ebb and
flow.