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May 22, 2013

John Thorne: They launched the 'Arab Spring' but now yearn for the good old days of a strongman

John Rosemond: 'Disciplinary math' adds up to parental successl

Warren Richey: Are prayers before public meetings OK? Supreme Court to decide
Rick Montgomery: Use of ADHD drugs as study aid raises concern on campuses

Brierley Wright, M.S., R.D.: 6 convincing reasons you should keep carbs in your diet

Eoin O'Carroll: Scientists examine nothing, find something

The Kosher Gourmet by Carole Kotkin: This soup is made from one of the great pleasures of spring: A wonderful pairing of rosy color and earthy tang

May 20, 2013

Richard A. Serrano: Is Meir Kahane's assassin now a changed man?

Hannan Adely: Town raises Palestinian flag at City Hall

Melissa Healy: Genetic copies of living people from embryos no longer science fiction
Morgan Housel: When smart investors do stupid things

Sharon Saloman, M.S., R.D.: Hunger games: Eat more, weigh less, without starving

Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom : Jews Inducted into Rock Hall of Fame; Anton Yelchin co-stars in New "Trek" film; Kutcher (but not Kunis) visits Israel; Jewish TV Star Praises Jewish Rap Star

The Kosher Gourmet by Cathy Pollak: WARNING: This WALNUT CAKE WITH PRALINE FROSTING, perfect for afternoon coffee, is addicting

May 13, 2013

Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo: Why the giving of the document that would permanently change the world could only be done in desolation

David G. Savage: Church-state, literally? Supreme Court weighing public school graduation in a church

Emily Alpert: Recession dragged down birth rates for less-educated women
Morgan Housel: The deep downside of home ownership

Peter Teffer: Will Dutch police soon be stalking cybercriminals on your computer?

Heidi McIndoo, M.S., R.D.: Meatless 'meat' can have its own set of problems

The Kosher Gourmet by Diane Rossen Worthington: Celebrate! This must-try appetizer is delicate yet has depth of flavor: Corn-Leek Cakes with Caviar, Smoked Salmon and Creme Fraiche

May 10, 2013

Rabbi Berel Wein: Be all that you should be

Caroline B. Glick: The dirty little secret about Israel's Arabs

Mona Charen: Hawking's Moral Calculus: The man and the movement he embraces
Morgan Housel: The biggest retirement myth ever told

Sandi Doughton: Eyes may provide new insight into brain problems

Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom : The Great Gatsby's Jewish Ties; Jews in the "Time 100 list" List; People's Most Beautiful Women

The Kosher Gourmet by Linda Gassenheimer: A sweet-hot meal: Pear salsa spices up salmon

May 8, 2013

Peter Ford: Why China is welcoming both Israel's Netanyahu and Palestinians' Abbas

Warren Richey: Obama administration quietly backs out of appeal over new contraceptive mandate

Fred Weir: At Kerry-Putin meeting, US-Russia relations thaw --- a tad
Amanda Paulson: Study reveals sad truths about community colleges

Harvard Health Letters: Evidence weak that zinc, echinacea are beneficial

The Kosher Gourmet by Leela Cyd Ross : Almost too pretty to eat, this colorful salad with Sicilian inspiration will tickle the taste buds and delight your visual sensibility

May 6, 2013

Edmund Sanders and Patrick J. McDonnell: Think Israel's objective in Syria is to weaken Assad or embolden the rebels? Think again

Brian Bennett: Israeli airstrikes may show weakness in Syrian defense

Michael Ollove: Millions of ex-felons, parolees and those on probation are about to be entitled to tax-payer paid health coverage
Karen Kaplan: Most men can skip PSA test for prostate cancer, urologists say

Kimberly Lankford: How to track down a lost life insurance policy

Dream of Mars exploration achievable, experts say

The Kosher Gourmet by Susan M. Selasky: EGGPLANT WRAPS are an easy, sumptuous and scrumptious meal

May 3, 2013

Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo: Human Courage and the Unavoidable, Disturbing Text

Steven Emerson: Attorney General Fights CAIR in Court, Lauds it in Public

Mediterranean diet helps beat dementia: study
Harvard Health Letters: When to be screened for a hearing problem

Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom : Iron Man's Jewish Connections; Marc Maron's New TV Show; Martin Landau Grows Up with Israel; Shalom, Allan Arbus

The Kosher Gourmet by Diane Rossen Worthington: A sweet surprise for Mother's Day dessert

May 1, 2013

Jonathan Rosenblum: An Improbable Journey to Orthodoxy

Jonathan Tobin: Blame Obama, Not Israel for Syria Push

Kids, kittens the Same? With employee perks at struggling Internet pioneer Yahoo! it's hard to tell
Halena M. Gazelka, M.D.: Mayo Clinic Medical Edge: What you need to know about implanted pain relief devices

Sandy Kleffman: Artificial kidney offers hope to patients tethered to a dialysis machine

Jessica Shugart: When it comes to math, MRIs may be better than IQs

The Kosher Gourmet by Mario Batali: The celebrated chef on how high-maintenance ASPARAGUS RISOTTO need not be

April 29, 2013

Roy Gutman: Poland's new Jewish museum celebrates life, doesn't revisit Holocaust

Mark Clayton: Terrorism in America: Is US missing a chance to learn from failed plots?

Kim Murphy: Boston Bomber's 'Svengali' Revealed
Morgan Housel: He's rich, smart and old: Listen to him

Thomas Salinas, D.D.S.: Mayo Clinic Medical Edge: The safety of amalgam fillings

Harvard Health Letters: Tomatoes and stroke protection

Pete Spotts: Tiny satellites + cellphones = cheaper 'eyes in the sky' for NASA

The Kosher Gourmet by Diane Rossen Worthington: Swing into spring with lemon cream pie

April 26, 2013

Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: The world is a mirror

Caroline B. Glick: Time to confront Obama

Clifford D. May: Defense in the Age of Jihadist Terrorism
Kimberly Lankford: New strategies ease pain of paying for long-term care insurance

Howard LeWine, M.D.: Ask the Harvard Experts: Too much ibuprofen?

Sharon Palmer, R.D.: How to feel your best -- with plenty of energy, a healthy weight and optimal mental and physical function -- without driving yourself batty

Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom: Jewish Major Leaguers, 2013; New Movies and Comedy Show; Shalom, 'Lumpy' (Leave it to Beaver)

The Kosher Gourmet by Emily Ho : A bright and cheerful salad to herald the warmer months ahead

April 24, 2013

Steven Emerson: Boston Bomber Exposes Islamist Secret

Morgan Housel Admit it: No one has any idea what's going on
Harvard Health Letters: Can you get headaches from headache medication?

Kerri-Ann Jennings, M.S., R.D.: How to easily get more Omega-3s in your diet

Melissa Healy: Pot in a pill: All the pain relief without the smoke

The Kosher Gourmet by Susan Russo: Chipotle Chili Butternut Squash Soup is bold, zesty, hot

April 22, 2013

Ken Dilanian: Counterterrorism's future is unclear

US man departing country arrested on terror charges
Barbara Williams: An unorthodox but growing treatment in a 9-year-old's battle against cancer

P.J. Skerrett, M.D.: How to recognize a good whole grain product

Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom: Teen actor Jonah Bobo in New Flick: Hunky James Wolk on Mad Men; Erich Segal's Daughter Writes Prize-Winning Jewish Novel


Jewish World Review Dec. 1, 2006 / 10 Kislev, 5767

Anyone in America Ever Heard of the Power of a Little Fear?Steve to W.

By Michael Ledeen

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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | Forget about the New York Times lead (“...a memorandum prepared for cabinet-level officials...”). It’s addressed to the president, not to a collective. Stephen Hadley says “you have asked General Casey...” and “send your personal representative to Baghdad...”

I rather think it was written to be leaked. I can’t believe that the president’s national-security adviser would write something so long, so rambling, and so mediocre to George W. Bush. I mean, I’d die of embarrassment before I let any such thing go into the Oval Office with my name on it.

I also think it’s a group effort, because with one exception — the sensible suggestion that, at long last, we expand the program that embeds U.S. military personnel in Iraqi military and police units — there’s hardly a serious thought in the whole document. Just look at the first sentence: “We returned from Iraq convinced we need to determine if Prime Minister Maliki is both willing and able to rise above the sectarian agendas...”

Give me a break. The whole purpose of the trip was to determine that — wasn’t it? Now you’re telling me you needed to fly to Baghdad to find out...what you need to find out? It’s preposterous. And in fact it isn’t true. Hadley continues, describing Maliki as “a leader who wanted to be strong but was having difficulty figuring out how to do so.” In short, a dolt. Nobody who fits that description could possibly be “willing and able to rise above...” Or have I missed something here?

Not really. Hadley talks about Maliki’s “reassuring words.” What words? We just heard that the man can’t figure out much of anything. And indeed, he hasn’t done much of anything: Sunnis don’t get services, Shiites are protected, but crack military units are egged on against Sunni targets, etc. etc. In short, “consolidate Shia power in Baghdad.”

Now there’s a shocking conclusion for you. The Shiites are 60 percent of the population, they won a big electoral victory, and they’re trying to consolidate their power. Who could have imagined that? Good grief, you’d think they were Democrats or something.

Now for the action program: We want Maliki to “build an Iraq for all Iraqis and increase his capabilities.” Hadley has a little to-do list, starting with the easy ones (health services and bank services in Sunni neighborhoods) and leading up to the real toughies. The second easiest is to get Maliki to give up on a political strategy with Mokhtada, and “bring justice” to his violent followers (something I would have thought belonged in the “real toughies.” But hey, Hadley was just in Baghdad).

The real toughies? Expand the Iraqi army, and activate the embed program.

Things for us to do are quite interesting. They include “Continue to pressure Iran and Syria...in part by hitting back at Iranian proxies in Iraq and by Secretary Rice holding an Iraq-plus-neighbors meeting in the region in early December,” and “get Saudi Arabia...(to use) its influence to move Sunni populations in Iraq out of violence into politics, to cut off any (sic) public or private funding...to the insurgents or death squads...”

Sometimes I think Hadley missed his calling. He could have been a great standup comedian, because he delivers these gag lines with a totally straight face. One can well imagine Khamenei and Ahmadinejad groaning in agony from the pressure of sitting around a table with Condi. And one can easily foresee the devastating effect of Saudi calls to the Iraqi faithful to stop fighting. As for the “funding,” well, it’s apparently continued apace lo these many years, and not only to the death squads in Iraq, but to potential recruits, ahem, in these very United States.

Above all, the Hadley memo gets a failing grade because there is no suggestion whatsoever that we should be doing anything really mean to the Syrians, Iranians, and Saudis, all of whom are up to their necks in jihadism in Iraq. And the failure to address this — the ongoing failure of strategic vision that has plagued this administration’s thinking since well before the beginning of Operation Iraq Freedom — is of a piece with their failure to “understand” Maliki.

Here’s a guy in Baghdad who comes from the Shiite underground, a terrorist organization. He knows — in spades — the ability of Iranian intelligence agents to assassinate anyone deemed an enemy. He sees — in detail — that the Iranians are all over his country, killing his people, killing Americans and Brits. His very life depends on his ability to navigate the tricky waters of the vast Middle East war. He knows the Americans put him in office, and so he’s got to find a way to make them happy, but he also knows the Iranians can remove him from the world of the living. He’s got to make them happy too. They want an Islamic Republic, which is counter to the wishes of the Iraqi Shiite leaders, and probably to his own desires. What to do?

The question of what Maliki actually wants — his intentions, as Hadley puts it in his written-for-publication memo to the president — is utterly irrelevant to his policy decisions. Those are driven by survival instincts, not trivial matters like “an Iraq for all Iraqis.” If he thought we were going to win the Middle East war, he’d be our best friend in the region. But he has no reason to believe that. Quite the contrary, in fact. And the Hadley memo can only confirm that belief. There’s not one word, not the slightest clue, that we are even thinking about how to win that war. It’s all about little stratagems inside one battlefield, the one called Iraq.

Anyway, if you’re Maliki, things don’t look all that bad for the moment. Hadley even wants to “engage Sistani to reassure and seek his support for a new nonsectarian political movement.” Good luck with that one!

Machiavelli would be in tears.

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