Middle East

In a brash demand from the Iraqi government, they have ordered the political parties and governing officials in Kirkuk to restructure all government posts based on ethnicity in one month’s time. The division of personnel would be a three-part split (32%) of Arabs, Turkmens and Kurds, with the remaining 4% left to Christian minorities. The […]

The “Noble Savage” character is an idea about a distant culture or group of people (often used in works of fiction) that are uncorrupted by the evils of society. It’s usually an oversimplification of an indigenous people who are in touch with nature, and, while misunderstood by the industrial powers at large, they are innately […]

Since the start of Iraq and its proxies occupation of Kirkuk, a city in southern Kurdistan or northern Iraq depending how you look at it, there has been an increasing number of falsified anti-Kurdish sentiments. It’s happening in the form of forged documents, false reports often based on rumors and sensationalism from local media outlets. […]

In June 2015, retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn took a little-noticed trip to Egypt and Israel, paid for by a U.S. company he was advising. The company hoped to build more than two dozen nuclear plants in the region in partnership with Russian interests. Flynn’s quiet involvement in that project — and his failure to […]

The 2017 Dubai Airshow runs from November 12th through the 16th and is a sight to see! Enjoy the spectacle! Russia’s Sukhoi Su-35 Displays Thrust Vectoring Aerobatics Airbus Flight Display   Featured image of the “Al Fursan” (The Knights), the United Arab Emirates Air Force aerobatic display team, flies in formation behind a U.S. Air Force F-15E Strike […]

A huge leak of financial documents revealed by a group of about 100 media organizations on Sunday provided deep insights into some of the mechanisms used by top politicians and celebrities to escape paying taxes. Offshore funds are often used to avoid paying high taxes, and their use is not necessarily illegal, though when they are being used by […]

Sons of the Turkish prime minister, a Jordanian dowager Queen and a Saudi prince who owns a superyacht longer than a football pitch, are just a few Middle Eastern figures whose offshore dealings have been laid bare by one of the largest ever data leaks. Published by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), the […]

On October 23, 2017, former White House Advisor on U.S. Middle East Policy under President George W. Bush, Elliott Abrams, spoke at Georgetown University about American foreign policy in the Middle East in the aftermath of the Arab Spring.  The speech centered around Abrams’ new book, “Realism and Democracy: American Foreign Policy after the Arab […]

President Trump’s assertive new strategy toward Iran is already colliding with the reality of Tehran’s vastly expanded influence in the Middle East as a result of the Islamic State war. The launch of the strategy signaled an important shift in U.S. Middle East policy away from an ­almost exclusive focus on fighting the Islamic State to an […]

American Secretary of Defense James Mattis spoke before the U.S. Army Exposition on Building Readiness in Washington, D.C. on Monday, taking the opportunity to address a number of concerns faced by America’s soldier and civilian populations alike. The storied former Marine general turned Defense Secretary began by emphasizing something that has been a common trend […]

Like rats fleeing a sinking ship, hundreds of foreign fighters for the Islamic State, seeing the writing on the wall, are massing in Syria’s Idlib province with plans to cross into nearby Turkey and find other ways to get back into the Middle East, Africa, and Europe. Several dozen former fighters have already made it […]

The U.S.-backed Lebanese army launched a long-awaited offensive on Saturday against Islamic State militants holed up in a remote stretch of northeastern Lebanon, just as a separate offensive by the Hezbollah militia and the Syrian army got underway right across the border in Syria. The offensive is the biggest military operation launched by the Lebanese […]