Category Archives: Focus

20060829 World Watch Focus: Doing Something About Something

The headlines of recent months have been full of dire news and more dire predictions about a host if international issues, mostly swirling around Iraq, Iran, and North Korea, with a lesser focus on places like Afghanistan, Somalia, Pakistan, Indonesia, and the Philippines. These headlines and their associated articles, however, point to a real fact that even these articles, their authors, and their readers often miss, and that is the fact that all of these places are part of real problems that really need to be dealt with. Continue reading

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20060815 World Watch Focus: A Ceasefire with No Peace

On 14 August 2006, Israel implemented a UN brokered ceasefire with Hezbollah, effectively bringing an end to more than an month of continuous combat between that nation and its terrorist adversary. In doing so, Israel conceded defeat to Hezbollah and, perhaps more importantly, to its state sponsors Iran and Syria. This defeat marks a turning point in the ongoing conflict between the rest of the world and fundamentalist Islam as Iran, Syria, Hezbollah, and other fundamentalist Islamic actors now realize that localized asymmetric warfare can paralyze and politically defeat sovereign nations. Such a defeat represents the opening of the next chapter of the ongoing war between fundamentalist Islam and the rest of the world. Continue reading

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20060808 World Watch Focus: Ironic Conflict

The world watches right now with pained anticipation as the current conflict between Israel and Hezbollah escalates to ever greater heights of violence and intensity. On an almost hourly basis, this conflict crosses some new threshold, and the world wonders whether it has reached the point where its localized fire will explode into a wider conflagration. Continue reading

Posted in Entities, Focus, fundamentalist Islam, Groups, Hezbollah, Iran, Islam, Israel, Nations, News, Syria, War on Terror, West, the, World Watch | 1 Comment

World Watch Focus: What Exactly Are We Celebrating?

The Independence Day celebrations of 4 July 2006 represent 230 years since the Founding Fathers issued their famous edict separating the American colonies from their British rulers. Yet today, one must ask the question what exactly are Americans celebrating on this day their independence was declared. Continue reading

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World Watch Focus: Nuclear Menace

North Korea is marching steadily toward test firing the first variant of its Taepodong 2 ballistic missile, which missile will likely be capable of hitting targets throughout the Pacific, possibly even able to reach the West Coast of the US. This development is especially troubling considering that North Korea has nuclear warheads that can be mounted on top of such a missile. Continue reading

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