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In Threatening Baghdad, Militants Seek to Undo 800 Years of History

    DeAgostini/Getty Justin M   IS leader al-Baghdadi has established a caliphate and seeks to undo the 13th-century destruction of Islam’s premier city, but they’ve got it completely backward. Baghdadis have long memories. Talk to them about the extraordinarily turbulent history of the Iraqi capital as they contemplate their city falling to Islamic State…

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Barack Obama does not buy the notion of God’s chosen people.

Obama’s Israel Ambivalence The right says President Obama hates Israel, but in reality he’s just aloof and smug. Conservatives have for several years wondered aloud about Barack Obama and his seemingly less-than-warm approach to Israel. Could it be, they asked themselves, that he’s an anti-Semite? They should ask themselves instead how anyone as bored and…

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Licensed To Kill: Powerful and Secretive forces emerge from the U.S. military-industrial complex

  WASHINGTON — Just weeks before Blackwater guards fatally shot 17 civilians at Baghdad’s Nisour Square in 2007, the State Department began investigating the security contractor’s operations in Iraq. But the inquiry was abandoned after Blackwater’s top manager there issued a threat: “that he could kill” the government’s chief investigator and “no one could or…

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What To Know About Boko Haram’s Ruthless Leader

Abubakar Shekau: The Man Behind Nigeria’s Boko Haram The Huffington Post  | by  Nick Robins Posted: 05/07/2014  The name Abubakar Shekau may sound unfamiliar to those who are new to Nigerian politics, but the head of Boko Haram has been a terrifying fixture in West Africa for nearly half a decade. A shadowy figure, Shekau has a reputation for…

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The Weakened West: What will America Fight For ?

  A nagging doubt is eating away at the world order—and the superpower is largely ignoring it “WHY is it that everybody is so eager to use military force?” America’s cerebral president betrayed a rare flash of frustration on April 28th when dealing with a question in Asia about his country’s “weakness”. Barack Obama said…