WORLD
July 18, 2013 | By Kathleen Hennessey
WASHINGTON -- The debate over U.S. intervention in Syria threatened to derail the confirmation of America's top military officer Thursday when a senior Republican senator vowed to block Army Gen. Martin Dempsey's second-term appointment as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) will hold up the nomination “until he gets answers to the legitimate questions he asked of Gen. Dempsey on Syria,” McCain spokesman Brian Rogers said after McCain and Dempsey clashed during a confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee.
WORLD
January 11, 2013 | By Alex Rodriguez, Los Angeles Times
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - The "Arab Spring" seems a long way from Pakistan's winter of discontent. Still, when religious scholar Tahirul Qadri talks about his hopes for the massive rally he is planning in Islamabad on Monday, one that he hopes will lure more than a million people into the streets of the quiet capital, the image he uses is that of Cairo's Tahrir Square. Government leaders have tried to warn the gray-bearded mullah, respected by many for his denunciations of the Taliban and his espousal of tolerance, that a gathering on the scale he is planning would give militants the opportunity to carry out a major terrorist act. Pakistanis haven't forgotten that it was at a large rally in Islamabad's twin city, Rawalpindi, that former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated by a suicide bomber in 2007.
OPINION
October 10, 2012 | By Robert A. Pastor
The conflict in Syria was "extremely bad and getting worse. " That's what Lakhdar Brahimi, special envoy to Syria for the United Nations and the Arab League and one of the world's most skillful diplomats, told the Security Council in late September. The major powers listened but offered no new ideas on how to end the crisis. We need to change direction. Up to now, two strategies have been pursued. Kofi Annan, the former U.N. secretary-general and Brahimi's predecessor as special envoy, tried to negotiate a cease-fire and forge a consensus among the great and middle powers.
OPINION
August 8, 2012 | By Dalia Dassa Kaye and David Kaye
As diplomatic options for ending the conflict in Syria have failed, calls to arm and provide air support for Syrian rebels are becoming more widespread - with several senators, a former Bush administration senior official and a former Obama State Department official leading the charge. Although we share their commitment to a humanitarian end to the brutality of the Assad regime, arguments to support the rebels militarily are based on three common assumptions that do not withstand scrutiny: Military support will make the war shorter and enable the rebels to win . Analysis by close observers, such as the widely respected and nonpartisan International Crisis Group, suggests that a protracted civil war based on sectarian divides would probably continue even after President Bashar Assad falls.
NEWS
March 18, 2012 | By Paul Richter
Afghanistan's ambassador to the United States defended his president's harsh comments about America, saying that Hamid Karzai was only reflecting the sentiments of his public, "as any legitimate president would do. " (see video below) Eklil Hakimi, appearing on CNN on Sunday, was reacting to Karzai's comments that Americans "are demons," and that the alleged killing of 16 unarmed Afghans by a U.S. soldier was "not the first incident, it was the 100th, the 200th and 500th incident.
NATIONAL
July 8, 2011 | By Kim Geiger, Los Angeles Times
The House of Representatives sent a mixed message Thursday on U.S. involvement in Libya, voting to block direct American support for rebel forces but refusing to cut off funding to the NATO mission. It was the second instance in recent weeks in which the Republican-dominated House voiced disapproval of President Obama's policies in Libya but stopped short of voting to withdraw all funds. Lawmakers refused last month to authorize U.S. military involvement in the conflict, but rejected a bill aimed at cutting off money for drone strikes in Libya.