Josh Rogin, Bloomberg View
Some officials in Europe see Russia's hand in the rising migration crisis, accusing the Kremlin of exacerbating anti-Muslim sentiment to benefit right-wing parties at a fragile moment for the European Union.
Giles Fraser, The Guardian
Christians are being butchered by Isis, yet the church’s leaders are encouraging congregations to stay. But is preserving Christian history in the Middle East more important than personal safety?
Stephen Walt, Foreign Policy
Responding to the attacks in Brussels by raising threat levels, issuing travel advisories, and airing melodramatic news coverage makes the Islamic State far more dangerous than it really is.
John McCain, New York Times
Not all the Americans who fought in the Lincoln Brigade were Communists. Many were, including Delmer Berg. Others, though, had just come to fight fascists and defend a democracy. Even many of the Communists, like Mr. Berg, believed they were freedom fighters first, sacrificing life and limb in a country they knew little about, for a people they had never met.
Ben Caspit, Al-Monitor
Israeli security experts claim that the high number of intelligence agencies and lack of cooperation in Europe hinders an efficient response to the battle against the Islamic State, which Israel's defense minister calls a "Third World War."
Jon Alpeyrie, Narratively
In an age of globalized agriculture, suicides have spiked among small farmers who are drowning in debt. Survivors speak out about what’s pushing so many to the brink.
Frank Newport, Gallup
Any contemplated move of the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem is part of a complex process. The Jerusalem Embassy Act, a bill mandating moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, was signed into law in 1995. However, each president since then has delayed this action primarily because of the implications it would have for Middle East peace. No countries today have their embassies in Jerusalem.
C. Mortera-Martinez, CER
The EU continues to muddle through the refugee crisis, improvising new solutions as it goes along. The latest may prove to be the most controversial, and the least workable, of all the measures tried so far.
Armin Rosen, Tablet
Tactical nuclear weapons might be worryingly flexible, but they’re useless in one of the few scenarios that would plausibly endanger the U.S.’s very existence: strategic nuclear warfare with a rival state. Battlefield nukes don’t fulfill Bleich and Jacobovitz’s moral or strategic criteria. And interestingly, a 2014 study in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists found that the Israeli nuclear arsenal likely consists entirely of city-busting strategic weapons, suggesting that... Читать дальше...
Sinan Salaheddin, Associated Press
BAGHDAD (AP) -- The Iraqi military backed by U.S.-led coalition aircraft on Thursday launched a long-awaited operation to recapture the northern city of Mosul from Islamic State militants, a military spokesman said.
G. Chang, World Affairs Journal
The biggest surprise to emerge from the highly scripted National People’s Congress annual meeting, which concluded last week in Beijing, was the announcement that the country’s military budget would increase a mere 7.6 percent this year. The figure is well below last year’s announced 10.1 percent jump and is the first single-digit rise since 2010, when the generals and admirals had to live with 7.5 percent.
Fraser Nelson, Telegraph
Had the referendum gone the other way, Salmond would be preparing his first Budget by now. In all likelihood he would be in a state of blind panic. His White Paper on independence envisaged Scotland enjoying almost 8 billion a year in oil revenue by this stage. But that was before the crash. The forecast today is just 100 million, some 99 per cent less than the SNP imagined. So the first question a newly-independent Scotland would have to answer is how on earth to fill... Читать дальше...
CNN
CNN's Clarissa Ward took 'Death Road' -- the only remaining rebel-held route -- into the the heart of opposition-controlled Aleppo, Syria.
PBS Newshour
But, yes, there is nervousness that because they do have these suspects in detention, that these suspects and particularly Abdeslam have knowledge about the cells that are operating in Europe, that some of these other cells will come out and act now, for fear of being turned up and arrested in the days to come.
Lauren Goodrich, Stratfor
When the first Russian pilots returned to Voronezh air base as part of the recently announced military drawdown from Syria, they were greeted with a hero's welcome. Russian women in folk costumes offered loaves of bread with salt. Robed Orthodox priests gave the pilots icons to kiss. Crowds carrying balloons, flowers and Russian flags hoisted the pilots onto their shoulders and tossed them into the air. It was a picture of patriotism, broadcast live across the nation.
Karen Greenberg, Reuters
The death count from Tuesday’s separate bombing attacks in Brussels continued to climb Wednesday, with Belgium police reporting at least 31 dead and nearly 270 injuried. The atrocities are tragic and unacceptable. But the West should understand that this is what winning may look like in the battle against Islamic State. The attackers’ coordinated strikes could well stem more from a sense of weakness, than strength.
Simon Jenkins, Guardian
hink like the enemy. Let’s suppose I am an Islamic State terrorist. I don’t do bombs or bullets. I leave the dirty work to the crazies in the basement. My job is what happens next. It is to turn carnage into consequences, body parts into politics. I am a consultant terrorist. I wear a suit, not explosives. A blood-stained concourse is a means to an end. The end is power.
Fred Kaplan, Slate
What distinguishes Brussels, as a target and a base for terrorists, has more to do with the limits of Belgium as a functioning state, a problem exacerbated by the limits of the EU as a cohesive political body.
Mike Gonzalez, Federalist
Addressing himself directly to Castro, Obama added: “I am also confident that you need not fear the different voices of the Cuban people — and their capacity to speak, and assemble, and vote for their leaders.” As difficult as it may be for some to believe, these are words most Cubans, 77 percent of whom have known nothing but communism, have never heard.
Truong-Minh Vu & Nhung Bui, TNI
Hanoi's Communist leaders still recognize the threat from Beijing.
Clinton Watts, Foreign Policy
Losing ground in Syria and Iraq, the terrorist network is shifting strategy abroad to prove it’s still capable of winning.
Jochen Bittner, New York Times
Everyone has his own solution, none of them good. Eastern European leaders have come up with an easy equation: No Muslim immigration equals no terrorist attacks. On Wednesday, Poland said it was shutting its doors. Why, these countries ask, should we be forced to repeat Western Europe’s mistake: preach religious tolerance, embrace multiculturalism and end up with hate-breeding parallel societies?
Eli Lake, Bloom. View
What I have just described is not a Republican sound bite. Rather, it is the current counterterrorism posture of France. Since the attacks in Paris last November, the socialist government of President Francois Hollande has placed his country under a state of emergency. France's national guard has been deployed to protect sensitive religious sites and other "soft targets." The country of Voltaire, Diderot and Camus is in 2016 the police state that critics warn Cruz or Trump would bring about if given the chance.
B. Latza Nadeau, DB
Italian anti-mafia police have made three major arrests in the last 12 months, during which they have confiscated major weapons arsenals that included Kalashnikov rifles, sub-machine guns, body armor and hundreds of rounds of ammunition that were ready to be sold to terrorist connections. They even found a price list for a wide variety of weapons available for prices ranging from €250 to €3,000 that was printed in Arabic, French and Italian.
J. Fenoglio, Le Monde/Worldcrunch
PARIS - This time, it's Brussels, the heart of Europe, that was hit by Islamist terrorists. They targeted this free city, where humor, impertinence, a Belgian way of not taking yourself too seriously, is the opposite of what these barbarians have in mind: cheap certainties, hatred towards others, the violence of the "pure." The deadly jumble of ideas driving these European-born jihadists is the polar opposite of what cosmopolitan Brussels, the capital city of... Читать дальше...
