Innocents Abroad
‘The Innocents Abroad, or The New Pilgrims’ Progress’: the title of Mark Twain’s famed travel book, written in 1867 following his voyage from America to the Middle East. Twain provided his American readership with one of their first glimpses of the Arab World. Our ‘Innocents Abroad’ blog brings you commentary on the ever-evolving relationship between the United States and the Middle East.
on :
Wednesday, 15 May, 2013
The Pentagon recently announced Washington’s approval of a new USD 10 billion arms sale that for the first time involves three of its Middle East allies: Israel, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
The arms deal came after “intensive defense shuttle diplomacy” over many months and “is one of the most significant and complex and comprehensive that we’ve seen,” senior Pentagon officials said at a media briefing, according to a transcript. Its price tag makes it second only t...
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on :
Tuesday, 7 May, 2013
While everything in the Middle East seems to be in flux—Syria is mired in civil war and other states that have experienced revolutions of one kind or another are facing their own economic and political crises—some facets of the American relationship with the Middle East remain unchanged.
Despite the American withdrawal from Iraq, President Obama’s reluctance to intervene in Syria, and the cautious response to the election of Mohamed Mursi, US policy in the Middle East has been very cons...
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Wednesday, 1 May, 2013
On April 25, the White House delivered a letter to Congress stating that the US “intelligence community does assess with varying degrees of confidence that the Syrian regime has ...
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Thursday, 25 Apr, 2013
The pain and trauma of the Boston bombings belong to the victims of the attacks and their families. I am not one of these people, and I was not in Boston during the attacks—but f...
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Thursday, 18 Apr, 2013
I was visiting the Boston area, where I grew up, when two explosions went off on Monday at the world-renowned Boston Marathon, killing at least three people, including an eight-yea...
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Wednesday, 3 Apr, 2013
If confirmed, recent reports about the use of chemical weapons in Syria, in Kahn Al-Asal last month and in Homs in December 2012, possibly signal that President Bashar Al-Assad is ...
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Tuesday, 26 Mar, 2013
Now that US President Barack Obama has returned to Washington and the dust is settling on his visit to the Holy Land, we can take stock of what actually transpired during his t...
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Wednesday, 20 Mar, 2013
Barack Obama lands in Israel today for his first official visit to the Jewish state as US president. According to conventional wisdom, he will not bring any new policy initiati...
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It has been more than two years since the people of Egypt rose up and tossed out the government of Hosni Mubarak. In the process, President Obama helped end the old regime by ins...
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on :
Monday, 25 Feb, 2013
Should the United States become more actively involved in Syria? It is a question that deeply divides Washington. And it was the question recently debated at a new member of th...
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