Obama May Rue the Day He Abandon Mubarak
Con Coughlin
Political revolts have an uncanny knack of catching even the best-prepared administrations off guard, as Barack Obama is discovering in the wake of the sudden eruption of unrest in Egypt. The US employs a small army of officials and experts whose sole purpose is to predict and plan for such eventualities. And while they often succeed in preventing conflict – the recent establishment of Kosovo's independence is a case in point – there have been some notable failures. Few policy-makers in Washington – or London, for that matter – foresaw either the Shah's overthrow in Iran or the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, while all the Western powers were completely wrong-footed by the speed with which the Iron Curtain collapsed a decade later. In Egypt over the past week, the White House has been desperately playing catch up with a pro-democracy movement whose rapid development seems to have taken it by surprise.

Driftwood Diplomacy
Steve McCann
The demonstrations and the genuine possibility of a radical Islamic state eventuating in Egypt are in part the result of President Obama's foreign policy being reactive and not proactive. The United States has placed itself in an era of driftwood diplomacy. It is often said that when a person has no core and in its place exists a muddled and uncertain belief system, he tends to float along from one crisis in life to another. It is far easier to simply drift along with the current and allow it to take you wherever it may go. These people will ultimately fail in any endeavor. When the leadership of a great country exhibits these traits, the consequences can be catastrophic.

What Should Be Done to Fix Things in the US?
Dr. Laurie Roth
Let’s cut to the bottom line and visualize, together, getting stuff done. The first thing I would do; kill the Obamacare Bill and start over with a plan that isn’t Socialist in nature, doesn’t tax the people, doesn’t ration care, doesn’t limit competition and doesn’t pay for abortions. We must repeal the entire "healthcare" bill, as it now stands. It has already been ruled unconstitutional by two federal judges. And there will be more, as the 26 lawsuits brought by as many states are addressed. Then we must explore true health insurance reform, such as portability, torte reform, increasing affordability by increasing competition and common sense.

For-Profit Colleges on the Brink: Part 2
Peter Wood
For several years prior to 2010, it was boom times for for-profit colleges and universities. Their enrollments soared, their profitability went through the roof, and investors rushed to get in on a good thing. The market capitalization of the for-profit sector of higher education shot up to dizzying heights. Much of the growth was due to the efficient way in which for-profit colleges and universities signed up students for federally guaranteed student loans. As a whole, the sector didn’t much concern itself with the academic preparation of its prospective students. Federal loan eligibility was the key to admission.

Inside the Mind of the Muslim Brotherhood
Walid Shoebat
Prepare, [Wa-a-iddou] is a single Arabic word which appears on the Egyptian based Muslim Brotherhood's logo written under the sign of the two swords, the symbol of Islamic Jihad. "Prepare" actually comes from the Quranic verse: "Prepare against them as you are able of force and cavalry to terrorize Allah's enemy and yours..." (Al-Anfal:60) Warfare and terror is their motto. It started when many Egyptians were angered at Arabia's collaboration with the West in the dismantling of the Ottoman Empire, especially since the Caliphate fell with it. That dismantling was the primary reason the Muslim Brotherhood was created four years later in 1928; its sole purpose was the resurrection of the Caliphate. They made inroads, especially after the failure of Arab Nationalism; the Brotherhood gave birth to the slogan "Al-Islam-Huwa-Alhal" [Islam is The Solution] which became their main slogan.

Islam on a Collision Course
Amil Imani
The cruel successful subjugation of the Persian people by the Arab invaders whetted their appetite for further conquests. They ventured into the civilized world—to Egypt, Syria, the Levant, Spain, and eventually to the gates of Vienna. Cruelty and terror were their instruments of policy. Out of all the peoples conquered by the Arab invasion in the seventh century, the Persians are the only ones who can boast of a major literature in the indigenous language that they were using before the conquest. The Persian language, culture and traditions have been Iranians' shields against the Muslim hordes and their barbaric Islamic ideology for the past 1400 years.

'They the People' of the Middle East
Ercille I. Christmas
On Friday, January 28, 2010, a friend asked me if I would be writing about the situation in Egypt. She was looking forward to my analysis. I will not lay any claim to be in the "analyst," or "pundit" realm, but I can give the perspective of an ordinary woman, who is just as perplexed as my fellow ordinary American citizens. I am not the "conspiracy theorist" type, but the first thought that came to mind, is that two plus two may very well not be four, but could instead be twenty two. That is my convoluted way of saying that the unrest in the Middle East "does not add up."  I am seeing what appears to me to be "instigated spontaneity." Would the Middle East have been spontaneously burning up, say about two and a half years ago, or to go back even further, around September 12, 2001? I am seeing the outline of a puppeteer's or puppeteers' hands.  I have questions.

Ignoble Tradition: Egyptian Youth Indoctrinated in Jihad Hatred
Andrew Bostom
What forces might be fully unleashed beyond Egypt’s borders if the Mubarak government is replaced by one far less inclined toward restraining its denizens? A recent detailed study of Egyptian children’s textbooks, revealed their explicit inculcation of anti-infidel jihad hatred. For example, explicit sanctioning for jihad-related beheadings is provided in a seemingly pedestrian manner. Although chilling to our modern sensibilities, particularly when being taught to children, these are merely classical interpretations of the rules for jihad war, based on over a millennium of Muslim theology and jurisprudence.

Turmoil in Egypt
Daniel Pipes
Now that Egypt’s much-anticipated moment of crisis has arrived and popular rebellions have shaken governments across the Middle East, Iran stands as never before at the center of the region. Its Islamist rulers are within sight of dominating the region. But revolutions are hard to pull off and I predict that Islamists will not achieve a Middle East-wide breakthrough and Tehran will not emerge as the key power broker. On reaching power in 1979, Ayatollah Khomeini sought to spread Islamist insurrection to other countries but failed almost everywhere. Three decades had to go by before the self-immolation of a vendor in an obscure Tunisian town could light the conflagration that Khomeini aspired to and Iranian authorities still seek.

Obama's Chickens Are Coming Home to Roost
Col. Bob Pappas, USMC (ret.)
With so much acrid leftist politics and dissonant cacophony in the news, such as Tunisia, Jordan, Egypt, job killing "Obamacare," attacks on 2nd Amendment rights, Administration imposition of regulations that bypass the Congress and the will of a vast majority of the American people, open borders, illegal immigrants that political and business criminals on the left and right like to portray as "undocumented workers," this whirling dervish of an Administration makes it increasingly difficult to focus; and no doubt it is intentional.

So Many Failures, So Little Time
Dr. Laurie Roth
National and international issues are in our face. Egypt is vulnerable and falling apart, and the fight is on against Obamacare. We already saw the House vote for repeal of the health insurance bill and now it has landed in the Senate where it is being tossed around like a red hot football. Harry Reid is trying to create a dictatorship by trying to stop the filibusters by the minority GOP. Reid would have anything but a public vote, where people in all 50 states can see who voted for what, with elections coming up for Senators in 2012. Let's all hide in our corners like little rats.

For-Profit Colleges on the Brink
Peter Wood
The for-profit sector of higher education is in the political spotlight these days. Last year an Obama administration official launched an attack on the legitimacy of for-profit colleges and universities. Although that official subsequently resigned his position in the Department of Education, the measures he promoted took on a life of their own. Now the for-profits are faced with what could be an existential crisis. The legal challenges have driven down the stock prices of the publicly-traded institutions and a daunting new regulation is about to take effect.

Spilled Milk
Thomas Sowell
Despite the old saying, "Don't cry over spilled milk," the Environmental Protection Agency is doing just that. We all understand why the Environmental Protection Agency was given the power to issue regulations to guard against oil spills, such as that of the Exxon Valdez in Alaska or the more recent BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. But not everyone understands that any power given to any bureaucracy for any purpose can be stretched far beyond that purpose. In a classic example of this process, the EPA has decided that, since milk contains oil, it has the authority to force farmers to comply with new regulations to file "emergency management" plans to show how they will cope with spilled milk...

Black Education
Walter E. Williams
In my "Black Education Disaster" column (12/22/10), I presented National Assessment of Educational Progress test data that demonstrated that an average black high school graduate had a level of reading, writing and math proficiency of a white seventh- or eighth-grader. The public education establishment bears part of the responsibility for this disaster, but a greater portion is borne by black students and their parents, many of whom who are alien and hostile to the education process. Let's look at the education environment in many schools and ask how conducive it is to the education process.

The New Middle East
Ari Bussel
If what we currently see is the face of "Democracy" in the Middle East, most would prefer dictatorships. Stability in this area of the world is not derived from freedoms, rather from very strict controls. There is only one exception to this observation, and that is Israel. Yet, even there, in the cradle of sanity, things can become quite insane. The United States of America, supposedly surprised by the developing events from Tunisia via Egypt eastward, is not losing any sleep. President Obama is dispensing advice, the wrong kind. During the first two years of his presidency, Obama was determined to force an end game to an 18-year long peace process on Israel. He learned the hard way that his will has little effect in the Middle East, Israel is too weak and the Palestinians are not interested in "peace." President Obama's utter failure left him undeterred to once again force his will and vision, this time on Egypt.