Habib Siddiqui

With the U.S. presidential election only five months away, the Capitol Hill is behaving more and more like a cheer-leading ‘Amen Corner’ for the rogue state of Israel these days than a body of wise law-makers that care about what is best for the USA and her people. Two weeks ago, the House of Representatives passed a   resolution   H. Res.568 that was designed to tie the president’s hands on Iran policy.  The resolution was the usual boilerplate denouncing the Islamic Republic of Iran as a “state sponsor of terrorism” that is on the road to nuclear weapons capability, and “urges the President to reaffirm the unacceptability of an Iran with nuclear-weapons capability and opposition to any policy that would rely on containment as an option in response to the Iranian nuclear threat.” This was like telling the president that any U.S. response to that “threat” other than war was unacceptable. Just reflect on the audacity of the resolution! Everyone knows that A...

Dear Congressman, I strongly urge you to do everything in your power to stopping another war with Iran which would be suicidal for our country, that is already a debtor country, courtesy of two wars started by President Bush and continued by President Obama. Iranian leaders have repeatedly assured us that their nuclear program is for peaceful purpose, e.g., medical use. It is better to believe them than to start a war on false premises, much like we did with Iraqi invasion. The Iraqi war has bankrupted us, killed nearly 5000 of our forces and injured another 50,000. Was that necessary? Surely not. Let's not repeat the mistakes of the Bush era.

Recently, the U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton visited Bangladesh . It was a short visit. She flew into Dhaka from China after convincing Chinese leaders to free blind dissident   Chen Guangcheng.   The stop in Bangladesh was "personal"  to renew old friendships  with Bangladesh . Two of her “favorite men” in the world are Bangladeshis – Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammed Yunus, a pioneer in providing microcredit to the poor, and Sir Fazle Hasan Abed, founder of the world's largest development organization - BRAC. Since 1995 when she visited Bangladesh with her daughter Chelsea, Ms. Clinton has been something of a household name in Bangladesh . That was quite obvious from the throngs of people that stood four to five rows deep along the motorcade route to welcome her recently. A sign along the motorcade route read, "Heartiest congratulation to our beloved U.S. foreign minister Hillary Clinton." Many in Bangladesh hopes that she would one d...

Politics in Bangladesh has been far from perfect for a plethora of reasons. Not the least of this long list is corruption. As I noted recently what was more like an exception during Bangabandhu Sk. Mujib's rule when he is blamed for mildly tolerating it, the vice got institutionalized during the Zia rule, and got a veneer of respectability during the Ershad rule. And ever since the restoration of civilian rule in 1991, there has not been a turn around. Corruption simply has blossomed to take it to new heights! And that is sad for a nation which gave so much blood to make things better.  Is there an alternative - a third or fourth or fifth force (depending on how one counts major political parties) waiting in the sideline that is committed to take the nation in a new direction away from the politics of crime and corruption that seem to have shadowed people's true aspirations? Or is there even a hope that current major parties would learn, grow up and weed out bad apples from t...

The U.S. missile defense plans in Europe have been one of the thorniest topics in U.S.-Russian relations for years. Last week, Russia's top military officer threatened to carry out a pre-emptive strike on U.S.-led NATO missile defense facilities in Eastern Europe if the USA goes ahead with her controversial plan to build a missile shield. At an international conference last Thursday that was attended by senior U.S. and NATO officials Chief of General Staff Nikolai Makarov said, "A decision to use destructive force preemptively will be taken if the situation worsens." Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov also warned that talks between Moscow and Washington on the topic are "close to a dead end.” Russia rejects USA's claim that the missile defense plan is solely to deal with any Iranian missile threat. Russia has voiced fears that it will eventually become powerful enough to undermine her nuclear deterrent. The U.S.-NATO missile defense plans use Aegis ra...