Author Archives: Linda S. Heard

Iraq’s Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki was taken by surprise, even though he was warned time-and-time again about the perils of neglecting the Sunni community and shutting Sunnis out of government—or was he? How on earth was a ragtag bunch of 800–1,000 terrorists capable of taking over Iraq’s second largest city, Mosul, home to almost two million people, with such swiftness and ease? Why did government troops and police simply remove their uniforms and walk off into the sunset without putting up a fight? And why wouldn’t parliamentarians form a quorum to impose emergency laws when this situation is the biggest emergency since 2003? Curiously, a senior commander in Saddam Hussain’s military was released from jail to supervise the fightback. Continue reading →

This was the day eagerly awaited by tens of millions of Egyptians. Last Sunday, former military chief Abdel-Fatah El-Sissi was sworn-in as president of the Arab Republic of Egypt after winning a landslide election victory. The architectural splendor of the imposing Supreme Constitutional Court in the Cairo district of Maadi was bathed in sunlight as politicians, dignitaries and judges entered to take their seats, shimmering like the nation’s lifeblood, the River Nile, flowing along regardless. Continue reading →

So-called freedom activists are beating their chests over the landslide victory of Field Marshall Abdel-Fatah El-Sissi, set to be inaugurated as Egypt’s new president next week. And they perceive the Libyan people’s backing of Gen. Khalifa Hiftar’s anti-militia onslaught as a step back from their revolutionary goals. The idea of strongmen prioritizing stability over individual freedoms is anathema to many, but the stark truth is that Western-style democracy cannot flourish amid a climate of violence. Continue reading →

The principle of government ‘of the people, by the people, for the people’ is an admirable aspiration, but that’s as far as it goes. Not all ‘the people,’ even in the most developed nations, are politically aware and in many countries around the world there exists poverty and illiteracy. Secondly, democracy disintegrates when ‘the people’ turn to violence. Thirdly, the imposition of democracy on countries that are, in essence, tribal or sectarian, is akin to planting roses on stone. Continue reading →

When things are his way, the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan expounds democratic values and there’s no denying that on his watch his country has largely enjoyed economic stability and global respect. However, when problems arise, his usually poised veneer is seen to crack in a very unpleasant fashion raising the question: Is he a wolf in benign democratic clothing? Continue reading →

It wasn’t so long ago that Washington and Tel Aviv had each other’s back unconditionally. While it’s true that there’s always been behind-closed-doors disagreements, but spats were rarely publicized. At one time the relationship was considered almost sacrosanct. Israel was, arguably, America’s proxy in the Middle East creating a balance of power in the oil-rich region, while Israel was dependent on US aid (direct aid estimated at over $130 billion since 1949), loans, subsidies, weapons and diplomatic clout at the United Nations. That tied-at-the-hip partnership is now being questioned. Continue reading →

I’m in Beirut for the first time in 14 years and can only say that the Lebanese are experts at carrying on regardless. I don’t need a flak jacket after all. Continue reading →

There is no such thing as a free lunch as states that are recipients of Western aid understand only too well. The naive may believe that foreign aid is a tool to help developing countries; sceptics are convinced it’s a quid pro quo enabling wealthy powers to exercise geopolitical policy objectives. Continue reading →

Is the Muslim Brotherhood a benign political/social organisation or something far more sinister is the question the British Prime Minister David Cameron wants answered. And to that effect, he has tasked Whitehall officials to liaise with MI5 and MI6 in order to probe the Brotherhood’s ideology, activities and possible links to terrorist groups in response to reports by intelligence agencies that the Brotherhood was behind the bombing of an Egyptian tourist bus in February. The prime minister has also received intelligence that the Brotherhood is plotting against other countries from British soil. Continue reading →

The pro-Europe protesters in Kiev succeeded in dislodging a president for which they’ve paid an unexpected price. The Crimean Peninsula is lost to them, perhaps forever; the majority of their military personnel based there have defected to Russia—and there may be a lot worse to come. It’s an uncomfortable truth that people’s power, however well intentioned, is more often than not destructive. It’s primarily driven by the emotions of people unable to grasp the big picture. The Kiev crowds may have initially got what they wanted, but will they want what they get? Continue reading →

Prior to the US president’s meeting with Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz last week, Amnesty International urged Barack Obama to tackle the kingdom’s human rights record, suggesting that he use a female driver during his visit. That call was supported by 52 bipartisan US lawmakers and the US-based NGO Freedom House. My visceral reaction to that news was “Who the heck do they think they are!” Haven’t they heard the expression ‘People in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones?’ Continue reading →

Seamless decision-making is a rare commodity during Arab summits because the League’s 21 member states hold differing regional views. There have been notable exceptions, such as the 2002 Beirut Summit that floated the Arab Peace Initiative and the emergency summit held last year, endorsing Geneva II talks to end the Syrian civil war. The fact that Arab leaders can agree on common goals negates accusations that the Arab League is little more than “a glorified debating society.” Continue reading →

The West was impotent to prevent Moscow’s annexation of Crimea, which, in its book, is no re-marriage made in heaven. With a military option off the table, its leaders have ganged up to punish Russia diplomatically and economically, though the US and European Union (EU) sanctions lack bite. They target individuals with travel bans and asset freezes as well as the Rossiya Bank whose clients’ MasterCard and Visa transactions have been blocked. Continue reading →

President Putin has shrugged off US/EU threats to isolate Moscow economically and has vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution invalidating the results of Sunday’s referendum in Crimea. He’s hardly flavor of the month with Western leaderships but his popularity is soaring at home; his approval rating stands at more than 71 percent, the highest since he reassumed the presidential mantel in 2012. And he’s fast attaining iconic status not only in Crimea but also in cities like Kharkov and Donetsk where massive pro-Russian demonstrations have turned bloody. Continue reading →

Saudi Arabia’s decision to call a spade a spade by branding the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) “terrorist” along with other groups bent on destabilizing the Arab world was wise. It is not the moderate organization that it deceitfully portrays itself. It’s rather a shape-shifter molding its statements for public consumption according to the prevailing political ambience. Its militant wings are cloaked in different guises. The MB has schemed toward its endgame of ruling the region according to its distorted interpretation of Islam since its inception in 1928. Continue reading →

President Viktor Yanukovych has fled the scene but who can blame him? Even after he announced a truce so-called peaceful protesters attacked retreating police with volleys of petrol bombs. And when he caved-in to an EU-brokered deal to fulfill their demands, the crowd in Kiev’s Independence Square was baying for his blood and referring to opposition leaders as “traitors” for signing-up to it. Continue reading →

While EU envoys to Kiev were patting themselves on the back for twisting the arm of Ukraine’s beleaguered leader, President Viktor Yanukovych had made a hasty exit. ‘Peaceful’ demonstrators in Independence Square were still baying for his blood even after he signed an agreement to early elections, a reversion to the 2004 constitution clawing back presidential powers—as well as the formation of a unity government! Continue reading →

Cairo’s decision to cement close economic, diplomatic and military ties with Moscow was not one that the interim government took lightly. Egypt was pushed to forge new alliances by its longtime ally—the US, which chose to side with the Muslim Brotherhood, following president Mohammad Mursi’s ousting on July 3, 2013, rather than accept the majority’s will. Continue reading →

If Ukraine’s President Viktor Yanukovych feels as though the world’s on his shoulders, who can blame him when his country is caught in a tug of war between the US and Europe on the one side and Russia on the other. Captured in the middle are the Ukrainian people, themselves divided on which way to jump. Continue reading →

Egypt’s interim government is doing all in its power to take the country forward despite gnats within and without biting its heels to drag the nation backwards. Continue reading →

If the international community was caught by surprise when Egypt’s government took the bold step of branding the Muslim Brotherhood, its affiliates and supporters “terrorist,” most Egyptians were anything but. In fact, many regretted that the decision had not been taken much earlier. The authorities folded under public pressure when a car bomb rocked the security headquarters in Mansoura on December 24, killing 15 and injuring 134. Enraged locals gathered at the smouldering site, demanding death penalty for the likely suspects—the Brothers—and resolved to drive them out of the area. Continue reading →

Lebanon, a country of little more than 10,000 square kilometers, squeezed between Israel and Syria, has been showered with nature’s gifts. Its people are educated, entrepreneurial, talented and family-oriented with an inherent joie de vie. Every Lebanese I’ve ever met said with pride that theirs is the finest country on earth and those in the Diaspora, including some of the nation’s finest minds forced to flee from violence, often have damp eyes when listening to the patriotic songs of Fairouz, remembering what could have been. Continue reading →

When snow blanketed the eastern suburbs of Cairo last weekend for the first time in over a century, due to snowstorm Alexa, Egyptian children squealed with delight. This was their chance to make snowmen and engage in snowball fights, activities most of their parents had only witnessed on TV or in movies. Those kids were lucky; they had hot meals and warm beds waiting at home. Social media was ablaze with photographs of scenes that wouldn’t look amiss on the covers of seasonal greetings cards. One showed a statue of former Egyptian Prime Minister Saad Zaghloul Pasha in a swirl of white flakes with the poignant caption “Cover me!” But stone doesn’t risk frostbite, hypothermia or death when temperatures plummet. Continue reading →

Liberal activists and academics are bent on worsening their nation’s woes. They claim to be guardians of the January 2011 revolution’s principles that had atop its list “freedom.” Continue reading →

Rule by the people participating on an equal footing via their elected representatives is a worthy concept but, in practice, it is severely flawed—even within so-called democratic nations whose people have been indoctrinated to believe it is the gold standard in governance. Continue reading →

It may be that the battered Muslim Brotherhood (MB) has finally concluded, “If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em,” but is it too late? The day before the ousted President Muhammad Mursi appeared on the front page of the Egyptian Arabic daily Al-Masry Al-Youm in a white prison jumpsuit grinning fatuously, the MB-led Pro-Mursi Alliance has proposed “serious dialogue” toward ending the crisis based on these core premises: An end to the military takeover, constitutional legitimacy, retribution for those who’ve lost their lives, the return to air of Brotherhood satellite channels—and the right to peaceful protest. Continue reading →

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat had his faults but they do not detract from the fact that he was a perfect patriot, a man who devoted every waking hour to solving his people’s plight. He put his very life on the line, escaped various assassination attempts and courageously stood up to the US and Israeli pressure to sell the dreams of millions of Palestinians for a viable, contiguous, independent homeland with Jerusalem as its capital. Continue reading →