CNN (Continuación)

As U.S. President Barack Obama decides on the best strategy to deal with the threat posed by ISIS in Iraq, Syria and beyond, his final plan of action will undoubtedly include the participation of like-minded allied countries and regional partners.

One such partner are the Kurds of northern Iraq who regard ISIS as the biggest threat since the fall of the Saddam Hussein regime in 2003. The Kurds, however, are hoping for a more robust and lasting U.S. commitment as part of rekindled Kurdish-American cooperation.

Meanwhile, it might be timely for Washington to reassess its previous refusal to directly engage with Kurdish armed forces.…  Seguir leyendo »

Many of us are tempted to look backward and replay the myriad mistakes President Barack Obama has made in managing the now extraordinarily obvious crisis in the Middle East. I've done it, plenty of my fellow analysts do it, and now Obama's own Democratic Party members are doing it too. But sunk costs are irrelevant; the president's mistakes are made. The better question is, what does he plan to do now?

The President will take to the airwaves on Wednesday to announce to the nation his strategy to confront the growing threat of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, variously known as IS, ISIS and ISIL.…  Seguir leyendo »

As Western leaders gather in Newport, Wales, for this week's NATO summit, the Ukrainian army is taking a pounding from Russia-supported rebel fighters in the country's east and south. The central question now confronting President Barack Obama and colleagues is whether to supply Kiev with heavy arms.

So far, Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the two key decision makers, have been reluctant. But with Ukrainian forces reeling before what many are calling an overt Russian invasion, pressure is growing on them to reconsider.

Already NATO has announced plans to strengthen the defense of its frontline members in the Baltics and Eastern Europe.…  Seguir leyendo »

President Obama's favorite television shows include "House of Cards" and "Mad Men." One can imagine that when his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin wants to kick back and relax, all he will need to do is turn on the nightly news and watch the latest reports from the NATO Summit in Wales.

Putin can listen as NATO leaders roll out the latest iteration of their bold responses to his annexation of Crimea and his invasion of Ukraine. Imagine how he'll be tickled as NATO leaders fall all over themselves trying to find ways to refer to his sending Russian troops into a neighboring country without actually calling it an invasion.…  Seguir leyendo »

As Moscow escalates its invasion of eastern Ukraine and NATO convenes this week in Wales, the United States, NATO, and free nations around the world confront a pivotal moment of truth.

If the international community, led by the United States, fails to respond in a strong and unified manner to Moscow's blatant aggression in Ukraine, the ramifications will be both serious and far-reaching.

By now, it should be clear to all objective observers that Russian President Vladimir Putin is not impressed by starkly worded statements and declarations, and if that is the only outcome in Wales, it could represent a historic failure of the alliance at a time when NATO's foundational purpose has renewed relevance.…  Seguir leyendo »

On Wednesday, a propaganda video appeared on the Internet featuring Moner Abu-Salha, the U.S. citizen from Florida who died conducting a suicide bomb attack in Syria for al Qaeda in May.

The video -- the third in a series of al Qaeda videos about Abu-Salha--underlines the importance of militant networks in Turkey that have enabled many hundreds of fighters from the U.S. and other Western nations to travel to fight with jihadist groups in the civil wars that are tearing apart Syria and Iraq.

Abu-Salha says he travelled from the States to Turkey where he eventually connected with representatives of the Nusra Front, al Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, explaining, "From tons of research I knew that mujahideen [holy warriors] come from all around the world, they come to Istanbul.…  Seguir leyendo »

A New York Times article has reported that the United Arab Emirates and Egypt have launched airstrikes in Libya against militias, without coordinating with their ally, the United States of America.

Both Egypt and the United Arab Emirates continue to deny that they were responsible for the strikes, while American officials insist otherwise.

Yet, political cover could have been fairly easily provided if Egypt and the UAE had wanted to strike with less fallout. Allegations they carried out the strikes come against backdrop of international concern over radical Islamism in Iraq and Syria, which have led to U.S. airstrikes already, in co-ordination with the Iraqi government.…  Seguir leyendo »

When France's Economy Minister Arnaud Montebourg was quoted in French daily newspaper Le Monde over the weekend attacking the economic policies of his very own government, he knew what he was doing: Pulling the pin out of a grenade. And he certainly seemed to have no regrets.

France's Prime Minister Manuel Valls, appointed 147 days ago after President François Hollande's Socialist Party took a severe beating in local elections, was not going to take such overt rebellion kindly. "It's me or him", he is reported to have told Hollande. On Monday morning, the whole French government presented its resignation and Valls was immediately asked to form a new cabinet.…  Seguir leyendo »

In a video uploaded to YouTube on Saturday purportedly by the terrorist group ISIS, various scenes of jihadist propaganda flash across the screen: militants reading verses from the Quran and examining a map of northern Syria, clips of violent clashes and explosions.

But this video had something else in it that previous videos released by ISIS have not: Surveillance footage apparently shot by a drone.

The almost 14-minute video shows aerial views of Syrian Army Military Base 93 near Raqqa province in northern Syria.

ISIS militants attacked the base on August 7, deploying suicide bombers driving truck bombs to soften up resistance in scenes that are also shown in the videotape that was released Saturday.…  Seguir leyendo »

Martha Nyarueni carries one of her children outside her home near the town of Leer, South Sudan, on July 5, 2014.

The U.N. Security Council delegation visiting South Sudan last week came face-to-face with a troubling reality: The country has been seized by an eight-month civil war between parties that have committed violence against civilians on a devastating scale.

The result is an unprecedented challenge for the organization, which now finds itself protecting almost 100,000 people seeking refuge from the conflict in peacekeeping bases across South Sudan. Yet despite the high cost and risk, the U.N. should be prepared to host and protect them for months, if not years, to come.

This crisis ignited on December 15, when fighting broke out between the President of South Sudan Salva Kiir and his former Vice President Riek Machar along with other opposition leaders.…  Seguir leyendo »

ISIS demanded 100 million euros ($132.5 million) in ransom for the release of James Foley, the American journalist kidnapped and killed by the terrorist group in Syria, according to a spokesman for GlobalPost, the news website for which Foley freelanced.

It was never a serious demand, far exceeding the amounts of money paid for hostages held by jihadist militant groups in the past, which typically ranged up to several million dollars.

But the demand does shine a light on two uncomfortable facts about "Kidnap & Ransom," or K&R, the dark netherworld of professionals who work to negotiate between murderous groups like ISIS and the terrified families whose loved ones have been kidnapped.…  Seguir leyendo »

Labeled as a "Message to America," the video of U.S. journalist James Foley's execution has caused shockwaves in the West.

The recent video depicting the final words and beheading of U.S. journalist James Wright Foley by someone that seems to be a British foreign fighter has sent shockwaves across the West.

The video has already been blocked multiple times from various video-sharing platforms, only to reappear as many times, something that once again emphasizes that the new frontline for counter-terrorist practitioners is online extremism.

Labeled as a "Message to America," the video adds another line of fodder to ISIS' tech-savvy and social media-driven propaganda and messaging. The scene is filmed on a high quality device with seamless editing of President Obama's speech authorizing military action against ISIS positions, something which it argues led directly to this, ISIS' brutal response.…  Seguir leyendo »

Humans have driven to extinction four marine mammal species in modern times: Steller´s sea cow in 1768, the Caribbean monk seal in 1952, the Japanese sea lion in 1970, and the baiji or Chinese river dolphin in 2006. As you read this, we are on the brink of losing the fifth.

The vaquita (Spanish for "little cow"), a small porpoise that lives only in the uppermost Gulf of California, Mexico, is the most endangered of the 128 marine mammals alive today. The vaquita, which some say looks endearing with its unique facial markings, is the smallest of all whales, dolphins and porpoises.…  Seguir leyendo »

Almost a century ago Eglantyne Jebb, the founder of Save the Children, said that the only international language the whole world understands is the cry of a child.

Now, as we start the 500-day countdown to the deadline for the Millenium Development Goals and prepare to mark World Humanitarian Day on Tuesday, I am not so sure. Having done far too little to stop children and their schools from becoming instruments of war in Gaza, we have also been slow to respond to the plight of the Yazidi children of Iraq, utterly incapable of providing basic health and education for a million child refugees exiled from Syria and appear powerless to rescue the Nigerian schoolgirls abducted by the Boko Haram terrorist group whose aim is to stop girls going to school.…  Seguir leyendo »

Having had to request and frequently justify force requirements for combat and noncombat missions, I know that terms like "mission creep" and "boots on the ground" in connection with America's intervention in Iraq are frustratingly ill-defined and usually improperly used by those who have likely never had to plan or execute a military operation.

As neither of these terms come from military doctrine, as a former commander I'd like to try to clarify what I think they mean ... and what they don't mean.

Commanders are given missions. In the most recent situation in Iraq, a team of 300-plus military members -- of all ranks, and likely of many specialties -- were sent to Baghdad and Irbil to "assess" the situation facing the Iraqi Security Forces' ability to blunt ISIS.…  Seguir leyendo »

The offensive by ISIS militants against civilians and religious minorities in the northern Iraqi governorate of Nineveh has created a catastrophe.

At least 300,000 Yazidis and 100,000 Christians were displaced literally overnight, according to figures provided by the Kurdistan regional government. Many of the Yazidis fled to the mountains on August 3 after Kurdish fighting forces known as Peshmerga, who were protecting them, precipitously withdrew. For the Christians in villages north of Irbil, the moment came in the wee hours of August 7, when the Peshmerga silently pulled out.

The thousands of Yazidis who had remained stranded on a mountain seem to be getting out for now after U.S.…  Seguir leyendo »

Over the past few days, politicians and experts have been debating the merits of the Obama administration's strategy in Iraq -- or whether there is in fact a strategy.

The debate generally ignores a key underlying fact: The United States no longer has the ability or the will to shape the outcome in Iraq to the degree that American policy makers would like.

At the same time, politicians on both sides of the aisle appear constrained in their ability to talk candidly about U.S. foreign policy objectives and strategy because of concerns about domestic public opinion and so they often default to partisan sound bites.…  Seguir leyendo »

Suicide should NEVER be presented by media as a means to resolve or escape one's problems (contrary to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' twitter post, the genie is not free, the genie's pain has now been dispersed to a very large audience).

While I do not know, and no one knows, if Robin Williams is "free," he is dead, and his loss has devastated us all.

Suicide needs to be talked about as a fatal outcome that is, in the majority of cases, preventable and caused by severe illness and/or extreme psychological anguish.

When I learned about Williams' suicide on Monday, it knocked the wind out of me.…  Seguir leyendo »

President Obama's decision to target militants from ISIS -- which is now calling itself the "Islamic State" or "IS" -- operating in Iraq comes as a huge relief to the Iranians. Officials in Tehran have been panic stricken since ISIS forces overran the northern Iraqi city of Mosul on June 10.

All political factions in Tehran would like to see ISIS suffer and its latest advances rolled back. At the same time, contradictory statements made in Tehran make it clear that the Iranian authorities are divided about the implications of the American military's return to Iraq.

The moderates, the group of people associated with President Hassan Rouhani's presidential administration, are nudging toward an open admission that American military operations in Iraq compliment Tehran's policy goals.…  Seguir leyendo »

Most of the shock that resounds after hearing that Robin Williams died Monday comes from its utter implausibility. How could Robin Williams, of all people, just stop breathing, moving and, most of all, talking?

It's as though we've been told the moon spun out of orbit or that water no longer boiled, or froze, at the proper temperature. If Robin Williams is dead, then light no longer refracts, atoms no longer bond and gravity has gone out of business.

Yes. It's that implausible.

For many of us over the last 40 years or so, Robin Williams was an irresistible force of nature that nothing, not even the demons in his head or the sometimes regrettable consequences of their actions, could stop.…  Seguir leyendo »