Jean MacKenzie

Who Are The Pakistani Taliban?

A multitude of militant groups in Pakistan shares at least one characteristic: uncompromising hostility to the West, particularly the US.

Jean MacKenzie
Par Jean MacKenzie

  Editor's note: This is part of a two-part series called Know your Taliban. Click here for part one, Who bombed Pakistan's Christians? BUZZARDS BAY, Mass. — The explosion of violence in Pakistan over the past week has killed more than 100 people and, at least for now, derailed any hope that peace talks between the beleaguered government

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The United Nations Non-Event

No US-Iran handshake. No breakthrough on Syria. The UN General Assembly has been more significant for what did not happen than for what did.

Jean MacKenzie
Par Jean MacKenzie

BUZZARDS BAY, Mass. — It happens every year: leaders convene in New York to pay homage to an organization that’s still struggling, after 68 years, to demonstrate its relevance in an increasingly complicated world. “Let us empower the United Nations to be more than a first responder or a last resort,” UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said,

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The Russian Proposal: What Everyone Wants

How did a seemingly offhand remark by Secretary of State John Kerry become the back-from-the-brink solution for Syria?

Jean MacKenzie
Par Jean MacKenzie
Russian President Vladimir Putin holds a cup of tea as he meets with Sonya, 8, not pictured, from the city of Pskov in Moscow's Kremlin on Wednesday, May 9, 2012. Sonya undergoes a medical treatment at Federal Scientific Center for Child's Oncology in Moscow. (AP Photo/RIA Novosti, Alexei Druzhinin, Government Press Service)

As diplomatic crises go, this one has had more twists and turns than a Wild Mouse. First there was the endless hand wringing over red lines turning pink and America losing its credibility in the world. When it seemed inevitable that US bombs would begin to fall on Syria within days or even hours, President Barack Obama suddenly announced that he

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Long Shadow From 9/11 To Syria

America’s crisis over Syria has its roots in the deceptions and missteps stemming from the World Trade Center attacks.

Jean MacKenzie
Par Jean MacKenzie
King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, right, speaks with US President Barack Obama, during arrival ceremonies at the Royal Terminal of King Khalid International Airport, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Wednesday, June 3, 2009. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

BUZZARDS BAY, Mass. — On yet another dark anniversary of the day that changed the world, the United States finds itself once again in crisis. The events in Syria have shocked and sickened all who have seen the horrific videos of children gasping for life, of men and women foaming at the mouth, of stacks of white-shrouded bodies awaiting

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Death Of A Diplomat: Caught In An Old War

This undated photo provided by Tom Smedinghoff, shows Anne Smedinghoff. Anne Smedinghoff, 25, was killed Saturday, April 6, 2013 in southern Afghanistan , the first American diplomat to die on the job since last year’s attack on the U.S. diplomatic installation in Benghazi, Libya. (AP Photo/Courtesy of Tom Smedinghoff) She was young and idealistic, caught […]

Jean MacKenzie
Par Jean MacKenzie

She was young and idealistic, caught in an old war that, for many, had long since lost its raison d’etre. When 25-year-old Anne Smedinghoff died in a suicide bombing in the Afghan province of Zabul on Saturday, she sparked a painful and bitter debate about the meaning of the 11-year U.S. intervention in Afghanistan. On one side stand the

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