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Arab Muslims born and raised in the United States are just as American as I am, but Arab Muslims born and raised in Belgium will never be Belgian. They may or may not be citizens of the state of Belgium, but they won't have a Belgian identity. A Belgian identity scarcely even exists. Most Belgians identify first and foremost as Dutch-speaking Flemish or French-speaking Walloons.
Michael Totten
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Russia is not Belgium, and it is not Canada. It was one of only two superpowers until the Soviet Union imploded under the weight of its own belligerent imbecility, and it has been wallowing in a post-imperial funk, 'malaise' in Jimmy Carter's lexicon, ever since. It could theoretically regain some of its lost power as the West's partner, but being one of many is not how Russia rolls. Whenever Washington makes a friendly overture to Moscow, Russians interpret it the way Luke Skywalker heard Darth Vader say, between bouts of heavy mechanical breathing, 'Join me, and together we can rule the galaxy as father and son'.
Michael Totten
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The Iranian government has been a malignant force since the day it seized power in 1979. It has taken diplomats hostage, destabilized one neighboring state after another—beginning with Lebanon, then moving to Iraq, Syria, Bahrain and Yemen—and created terrorist armies that have killed Americans, Israelis, Iraqis, Lebanese, Syrians and—yes—even Argentines. The Iranian government has done all this without nuclear weapons. The only reason it wasn't able to wreak even more havoc is because it was crippled by sanctions. That's over now.
Michael Totten
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Russia is justifying its invasion of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula by saying the ethnic Russians who live there are threatened by a nascent fascist regime in Kiev. The habits of Soviet propagandists die hard. What's really going on here is simple. Vladimir Putin, like most Russian leaders before him, feels he must shove his weight around the near abroad to maximize his power and influence in the thin buffer between him and the West. Now that he's without his vassal—mini-Putin, Viktor Yanukovych, is on the run—Moscow has to do the grunt work itself.
Michael Totten
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Iran has been funding terrorism for decades. Iran hasn't stopped funding terrorism for even five seconds since the day it started. We can safely assume that since Iran funded terrorism yesterday, and that since the sun came up this morning, Iran is still funding terrorism today. And unless the government is overthrown before midnight tonight, it's safe to assume that Iran will continue funding terrorism tomorrow. Iran's rulers haven't even pretended to stop, so let's just cut through the B. S.
Michael Totten
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A few years ago, the government stopped physically blocking Cubans from hotels and restaurants, partly because Raúl is a little more relaxed about these things than Fidel but also because most Cubans can't afford to go to these places, anyway.
Michael Totten
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I've been unhappy with the Democrats for various reasons for almost ten years now. As time passes I have fewer and fewer reasons to stick with them... Democrats seem to think it's 1968 or 1972 all over again. And it isn't. They are decades out of date, and they're almost certain to lose.
Michael Totten
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No more do I want to hear that Europeans are more sophisticated than Americans.
Michael Totten
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I visited Iraq seven times during the war... Baghdad, while ugly and dangerous, is vastly freer and more prosperous these days than Havana. Anyway, Iraq is precisely the kind of country with which Castro wants you to compare Cuba. It's the wrong comparison. So are impoverished Third World countries like Guatemala and Haiti. Cuba isn't a developing country; it's a once-developed country destroyed by its own government. Havana was a magnificent Western city once. It should be compared not with Baghdad, Kabul, Guatemala City, or Port-au-Prince but with formerly Communist Budapest, Prague, or Berlin. Havana's history mirrors theirs, after all.
Michael Totten
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Donald Trump, along with Bernie Sanders and Gary Johnson and so many others, talks about Iraq as if the Middle East would be fine if the Baath Party were left in place in Baghdad. It's a frankly ludicrous proposition. The Baath Party is still in place next-door in Syria, and how's that working out? These kinds of governments can only keep a lid on things until they can't.
Michael Totten
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Northern Ireland is not homogeneous, and it is not pacifist. Belfast is the most car-bombed city in the history of Europe. There is no 'Northern Irish' identity that binds everybody together. The Catholic half of the population identifies with the Republic of Ireland while the Protestant half identifies with the United Kingdom.
Michael Totten
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In 2005, Beirut looked and felt like a Middle Eastern version of Berlin in 1989... It turned out, Beirut was really more like Budapest in 1956.
Michael Totten
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Almost everybody hates the Washington swamp, including lots of people who live there. Of all American institutions, Congress has the lowest approval rating, less than 10 percent, and the military has the highest at 73 percent. In the Middle East and Latin America, numbers like these would portend a military coup. But we don't live in the Middle East or Latin America. We live here. So instead of a military coup, we got Donald Trump.
Michael Totten
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Of course sanctions have a negative effect on the economy, but the main cause of Cuban poverty is communist economics. Every communist country in the history of the world has been impoverished. It's a bankrupt system that has never worked and never can work. Here's just one reason why. The United States has a minimum wage while Cuba has a maximum wage. And that maximum wage is a paltry 20 dollars a month. No one can get ahead. It's impossible. It's illegal. When prosperity is a crime, there can be no prosperity, and that's entirely the fault of Cuba's communist party.
Michael Totten
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I could only imagine how a Cuban would feel if he found himself whisked here from Havana with a ration card in his pocket and his state-imposed maximum wage of twenty dollars a month in his wallet. The only 'mall' I saw anywhere in Cuba was a dismal space, located inside a concrete box that looked like a parking garage and offering only the most meager selection of wares. I've been to better malls in Iraq.
Michael Totten
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We can only imagine the violent convulsions that will wrack the continent if something on the scale of 9/11 ever happens on that side of the ocean. And it's more likely to happen over there in the short and medium term than it is over here. Europe is already under much greater attack than the United States, and it has a far larger problem with Islamic radicalization.
Michael Totten
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Iraq has never been a coherent nation-state; arguably, it wouldn't exist if the British Empire hadn't installed the Kingdom of Iraq in 1932. Its three biggest communities—Sunni Arabs, Shi'a Arabs and Kurds¬—have proven themselves incapable of living together in peace. The country will probably never be both democratic and stable within its current borders. Splitting Iraq into its three constituent parts would be better for the people who live there. It would be better for us, too, insofar as this separation would prevent the kind of unstable anarchy that breeds both Sunni and Shia militias, including ISIS.
Michael Totten
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Nothing has actually changed except the American mood. Using ground troops in Syria and Iraq is no better or worse an idea after San Bernardino that it was before. The downsides are the same and at this point should be obvious. Lives will be lost, and some of them will be ours. American soldiers can't fix what ails the Middle East. Sure, they can overthrow dictators. They can kill terrorists and push them out of territory. But eliminating the appeal of a fascistic ideology is something else entirely. Replacing a totalitarian regime with some kind of functioning democracy in lands riven by ancient sectarian hatreds and hobbled by political and religious extremism is something else entirely.
Michael Totten
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Beijing wants to impose its rule on Taiwan like it has in Hong Kong, Tibet and East Turkestan. If any half-way moral and sensible person had their way, the reverse would happen and Taiwan would export its democratic Chinese model to its 900-pound cousin. That's probably what will eventually happen anyway, even if China militarily conquers Taiwan in the meantime.
Michael Totten
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Lebanon and Iraq are the two most sectarian countries in the Arab world.
Michael Totten
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And at least the U.S. got something out of the deal. At least our people are still among the living when they come home... Iran committed three criminal acts against American citizens and paid no price. We put kidnappers in prison for a very long time in this country, but the Iranian government was rewarded. What's to stop that government from doing it again? Nothing. Why should the Iranian government stop? Kidnapping and ransoming hostages works. And the regime is already gearing up to do it again.
Michael Totten
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It's astonishing. It's probably the most pro-American place in the world. Certainly the most pro-American place I've ever been.
Michael Totten
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A black man named Tim Scott was just elected senator in a state-wide race in South Carolina, and he's a Republican.
Michael Totten
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Extra work for no pay in Cuba? Cubans are hardly paid anyway. Most of them work for the state and earn a maximum wage of twenty dollars a month. Cuba's maximum wage is less than one percent of America's minimum wage. So they're already working for free. What difference does a couple more hours make?
Michael Totten
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Ban guns in stores and at gun shows all you want—it will affect law-abiding citizens, not terrorists. Anything and everything banned by governments just moves to the black market, from guns and drugs to prostitution. According to the National Observatory for Delinquency, the number of illegal weapons in France has been increasing by double-digit percentages for years. Criminals and terrorists don't need to pass background checks, nor do they need Wal-mart. They buy their guns on the street.
Michael Totten
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Quote of the day
Be a sinner and sin strongly, but more strongly have faith and rejoice in Christ.
Martin Luther
Michael Totten
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Bio:
Michael J. Totten is an American journalist and author who has reported from the Middle East, the Balkans, Cuba, Vietnam, and the Caucasus. His work appears in various publications, Web sites, and on his blog.
Known for:
Resurrection: A Zombie Novel
In the Wake of the Surge
Taken
Road to Fatima Gate
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