NEW YORK — Finally some good global news! The World Cup in Brazil continues to captivate international audiences with a mix of amazing soccer and increasingly surprising results. Paradoxically, early in the tournament the powerhouse teams were nearly all knocked out of the running; Spain, Italy, England and Portugal. Others like the USA, Costa Rica, […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com WASHINGTON — U.S. foreign policy these days is so confusing and conflicting that it’s impossible to figure out where the U.S. is going, whether in the Middle East, Eastern Europe or Northeast Asia. The U.S., which has suffered a catastrophe in Iraq of spectacular proportions, may be headed […]
UNITED NATIONS — Set to the tempo of escalating violence, widespread human rights violations, and spreading regional conflict, Syria’s civil war continues into its fourth year. Beyond the increasingly grisly statistics, a UN panel has concluded the crisis has reached a “tipping point” threatening the entire region. Tellingly, both sides to the conflict, the Assad […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com Remember the great “surge” of U.S.forces in Iraq that Gen. David Petraeus believed would finish off the bad guys before the U.S. scaled down and then withdrew its forces? It was as though the U.S. wanted to declare a victory and go home. Anyone would have known that […]
UNITED NATIONS — Like a swirling and malevolent desert sandstorm, an Islamic jihadi terrorist movement is sweeping across northern Iraq. With decisive speed, lightning gains, and sickening brutality the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) has seized key cities and destabilized an ineffective government in Baghdad. Washington has been jarred by these events […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com In all the stories I’ve been reading about the Tiananmen massacre 25 years ago, one element seems to have been missing. That’s the comparison between Tiananmen and Gwangju, South Korea. When I got to Beijing in May 1989 and saw these students taking over the square, I was […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com WASHINGTON — Winston Lord, a retired senior U.S. diplomat with wide experience in Asia, is “shocked” that President Barack Obama, in his much criticized commencement address at West Point, failed to say a single thing about the “pivot” of U.S. forces to Asia. Ralph Cossa, president of the […]
NEW YORK — Given his drifting and buffeted foreign policy, President Barack Obama needed to hit a political home run in his long awaited policy address at the West Point commencement ceremonies. Instead amid the majestic setting of the Military Academy graduation, the President presented a measured and lawyerly foreign policy lecture with a few […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com NEW DELHI – The United States has to go through a skillfully choreographed diplomatic dance as a prelude to making up with India’s incoming prime minister, Narendra Modi. That’s because Washington refused for more than a decade to grant a visa to Modi for his failure as chief […]
UNITED NATIONS — An expected, if still extraordinary, political tsunami has swept across India as voters elected a nationalist and pro-business political party to lead this country of over a billion people. Riding a wave of voter anger with both ingrained corruption, slowing economic growth and the entitled privilege of the incumbent Congress Party, voters […]