Middle East Strategy at Harvard

From Raymond Ibrahim
Will the recent killing in Pakistan of “senior” Al Qaeda leader, Abu Laith al-Libi, have any tangible effects on the “war on terror”? Considering the headline news coverage, one might assume so. In fact, whenever any major Al Qaeda operative or leader is slain, the media is abuzz with it, implying that we […]

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From a member
(A MESH member who prefers to remain anonymous submits the following comment on the film Charlie Wilson’s War.)
This is a movie made by a highly sophisticated political and artistic mind, someone—the director—who knows all the arguments and charges and nuances of what this important episode has come to mean to various interpreters. […]

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From Martin Kramer
An editorial in the Wall Street Journal on Friday, entitled “Target: Pakistan,” mourned Benazir Bhutto, whom it described as “the highest profile scalp the jihadists can claim since their assassination of Egypt’s Anwar Sadat in 1981.” The editorial then offered this analysis:
With the jihadists losing in Iraq and having a hard time hitting […]

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From Walter Laqueur
In a recent address, UCLA historian James Gelvin compares Al Qaeda with historical anarchism (1880-1920) and, like some other recent writers, finds great significance in their common features. Such exercises are seldom wholly in vain, but how helpful are they for a better understanding of at least one of the sides in the […]

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From Raymond Ibrahim
Full of the same old complaints, threats of retaliation, and victim status role that have become mainstays of al-Qaeda propaganda, Osama bin Laden’s latest release would seem to offer nothing new. It dwells on the many “crimes” the West insists on visiting upon the Muslim world, simply because “their only sin is that […]

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