The complaint that the Obama administration believes in “leading from behind” received new strength yesterday, when Secretary Clinton made an astonishing comment about the Syrian opposition. It came in the context of the Assad regime’s continuing massacres, an accusation from the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights that crimes against humanity are being committed, and the gathering today of 70 nations in Tunis to discuss the Syrian situation. Read more »

The “peaceful nature” of Iran’s nuclear program has taken a curious blow. The wife of Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan Behdast, an Iranian nuclear scientist killed in Tehran in January, has told the press that “Mostafa’s ultimate goal was the annihilation of Israel.” Read more »

The Baha’i have long been under attack in Iran, as I have discussed on this blog. They have also faced a history of persecution in Egypt, under the Nasser, Sadat, and Mubarak regimes. The Muslim Brotherhood as well has long viewed the Baha’i as heretics who should not receive legal protections. Read more »

The February 16 testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee by the Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, and the Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, General Ron Burgess, looks like an effort to play down the threat from Iran. I analyze their testimony in a short article in the Weekly Standard. Read more »

February 14 will be the anniversary of the date when demonstrations began in Bahrain last year. More demonstrations will mark the date, and violence is feared.

No events connected to the so-called “Arab Spring” have been as depressing as those in Bahrain. The tiny country (only slightly larger than the city of New York) was long viewed as a peaceful and enlightened place, but by the actual Spring of 2011 Bahrain was mired in sectarian divisions, security force violence, and errors and excesses by the government and the opposition, all worsened by the presence of foreign troops from other Gulf Cooperation Council nations. In the end, dozens were killed and communications between the Sunni government and royal family and the Shia majority had broken down. On February 11, this past Saturday, there were more demonstrations and police used tear gas to break some of them up. Read more »

Two keen insights into the nature of Iran’s regime have appeared recently.

The first is an account by a German journalist who was imprisoned in Iran in October 2010 “after interviewing the son of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, an Iranian woman sentenced to death by stoning for adultery.” The journalist, Marcus Hellwig, was freed a year ago and has only now told his story. Hellwig told the German press that
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In this week’s issue of The Weekly Standard, I propose that there really is an “Obama Doctrine” that rivals in its way the  “Nixon Doctrine” and “Carter Doctrine.” Read more »