November 14, 2005
Persia Unveiled
Michael Rubin, the Farsi-speaking scholar and former Defense Department
official, has written a fascinating overview of Iranian politics. If you want to understand the deep currents of Iranian politics—and therefore the roots of the emerging atomic crisis—you should read it.
Posted by Richard Miniter at 01:07 AM
October 08, 2005
Iran is "playing chicken"
Amir Taheri, writing in Arab News, has a interesting reporting from inside Iran. He does not say it outright, but a fair surmise would be the anti-war protests have emboldened the mullahs of Iran. Worth reading.
Posted by Richard Miniter at 10:09 PM
June 13, 2005
Foucault and Khomeini
Anyone who studied philosophy in the 1980s or afterwards had to endure at least some of the writings of French thinker Michel Foucault. Most of it is rubbish designed to confuse the unwary.
But, as this article in the Boston Globe makes clear, the French S&M philosopher might be useful after all. He appears to be one of the very first left-liberals to be seduced by Islamic radicalism—even praising Ayatollah Khomeini for a time—before beating an unapologetic retreat when events revealed the depth of his misplaced hopes. Foucault's writings on Iran have just been translated into English (from French and Italian) and I think they will serve as an important milestone for understanding the strangest intellectual trajectory of our time: anti-religious progressives in the West rhetorically supporting the hyper-religious reactionaries of Islamism. Worth reading.
Posted by Richard Miniter at 06:09 PM
June 04, 2005
Iran and al Qaeda
This is a big story. While Gary Metz over at Regime Change Iran, Michael Leeden at the American Enterprise Institute and I have been trying to get the media's attention about the growing links between Iran and al Qaeda, the issue has mostly drawn yawns from the MSM. Maybe this Associated Press dispatch signals a coming change. Worth reading.
Posted by Richard Miniter at 10:00 PM
April 06, 2005
No Deal, Chirac
An Iranian opposition group has announced that all contracts with the government of Iran, signed after the June 16 presidential elections, will be "null and void" in a free Iran. Hat tip: Gary Metz at Regime Change Iran. Apparently the Iranian democratic opposition has learned something from Iraq's experience; that young democracy is saddled with Saddam's debts while the contracts helped fuel support for his tyranny. The Iranian opposition has learned a lot from Iraq. Has Chirac or Shroeder?
Posted by Richard Miniter at 10:45 PM
March 26, 2005
An Exception to the Bush Doctrine?
Caroline Glick, my favorite columnist at the Jerusalem Post, raises an important point in this week's column: Why does Bush's roadmap to peace in the Middle East require all of the concessions and surrenders to terrorists that Bush criticizes with respect to al Qaeda, North Korea, Iran et cetera?
Posted by Richard Miniter at 06:56 PM