https://pjmedia.com/michaeltotten/feed/PJ Media is a leading news site covering culture, politics, faith, homeland security, and more. Our reporters and columnists provide original, in-depth analysis from a variety of perspectives.en-usWed, 30 Sep 2026 13:17:13 -0400<![CDATA[This blog has a new home at World Affairs and from now on will be updated there instead of here.]]>Sat, 03 Mar 2012 13:18:48 -0500<![CDATA[Michael J. Totten]]>https://pjmedia.com/michael-j-totten-2/2012/03/03/this-blog-has-moved-n145677<![CDATA[Tunisia was a quiet place when I went there eight years ago. Ben Ali’s authoritarian regime was a model of enlightened dictatorship compared with Moammar Qaddafi’s mad totalitarian prison state to the east. It was a model of stability compared with Algeria to the west where more than 100,000 people were butchered in the modern era’s most terrifying and bloodthirsty Islamist insurgency.]]>Tue, 28 Feb 2012 19:49:23 -0500<![CDATA[Michael J. Totten]]>https://pjmedia.com/michael-j-totten-2/2012/02/28/to-the-great-ideological-battleground-n145674<![CDATA[According to Asharq al-Awsat, the Free Syrian Army has rejected offers of “help” from freelance jihadists who have arrived in the country to fight the Assad regime.]]>Mon, 27 Feb 2012 16:07:53 -0500<![CDATA[Michael J. Totten]]>https://pjmedia.com/michael-j-totten-2/2012/02/27/is-the-free-syrian-army-rejecting-jihadists-n145671<![CDATA[Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Saud Al-Faisal told Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Tunis that backing an armed insurgency against Syria’s Bashar al-Assad “is an excellent idea.” He told her that because she asked his opinion, which means she’s thinking about it, as well.]]>Fri, 24 Feb 2012 15:58:02 -0500<![CDATA[Michael J. Totten]]>https://pjmedia.com/michael-j-totten-2/2012/02/24/the-saudis-want-to-arm-an-insurgency-n145668<![CDATA[My Israeli friend and colleague Jonathan Spyer sneaked into Syria from Turkey with the Free Syrian Army. He wrote two dispatches, one for Tablet and the other for the Weekly Standard, that everybody should read.]]>Fri, 24 Feb 2012 13:01:42 -0500<![CDATA[Michael J. Totten]]>https://pjmedia.com/michael-j-totten-2/2012/02/24/an-israeli-embeds-with-the-free-syrian-army-n145665<![CDATA[I don’t know about the rest of of you, but I don’t need Hollywood war movies to be pro-American. I just want them to be more or less accurate and to not be anti-American. I can provide whatever pro-American opinion or feeling is appropriate on my own. The best recent war movies, Black Hawk Down and The Hurt Locker, tell their stories straight and are rightly hailed for that reason. Self-generated emotions—not just of patriotism, but also of love, hate, compassion, and anger—are more powerful than artistically manipulated emotions anyway.]]>Thu, 23 Feb 2012 13:42:51 -0500<![CDATA[Michael J. Totten]]>https://pjmedia.com/michael-j-totten-2/2012/02/23/act-of-valor-n145663<![CDATA[A handful of nuclear scientists were recently assassinated in Iran, presumably by Israeli intelligence.]]>Wed, 22 Feb 2012 13:33:49 -0500<![CDATA[Michael J. Totten]]>https://pjmedia.com/michael-j-totten-2/2012/02/22/he-was-constructing-a-genocide-weapon-n145660<![CDATA[My blog will be moving to World Affairs after the end of this month, which is just a little more than a week from now. I don’t have a new url yet, but I’ll be sure to let you know what it is as soon as it’s ready.]]>Mon, 20 Feb 2012 01:34:02 -0500<![CDATA[Michael J. Totten]]>https://pjmedia.com/michael-j-totten-2/2012/02/20/this-blog-is-going-to-move-n145657<![CDATA[This week the New York Times thought it was a good idea to publish an opinion piece by a Mr. Eric X. Li called Why China’s Political Model is Superior.]]>Sat, 18 Feb 2012 03:20:15 -0500<![CDATA[Michael J. Totten]]>https://pjmedia.com/michael-j-totten-2/2012/02/18/actually-that-was-a-bad-idea-n145654<![CDATA[On the subject of black humor in the Levant (see the previous post), someone in the comments section reminded me of a terrific moment in Thomas Friedman&#8217;s From Beirut to Jerusalem. (Friedman can be ridiculous sometimes, but his work in Beirut was fantastic.)]]>Fri, 17 Feb 2012 19:54:14 -0500<![CDATA[Michael J. Totten]]>https://pjmedia.com/michael-j-totten-2/2012/02/17/99-7-percent-n145651<![CDATA[”No great movement designed to change the world can bear to be laughed at or belittled.” &#8211; Milan Kundera]]>Fri, 17 Feb 2012 12:08:07 -0500<![CDATA[Michael J. Totten]]>https://pjmedia.com/michael-j-totten-2/2012/02/17/black-levantine-humor-n145648<![CDATA[Michael Young’s latest piece in NOW Lebanon is a must-read for Syria watchers. There’s a lot to it and it’s impossible to summarize so you should read the whole thing, but here’s the bottom line:]]>Tue, 14 Feb 2012 01:16:45 -0500<![CDATA[Michael J. Totten]]>https://pjmedia.com/michael-j-totten-2/2012/02/14/the-anvil-of-syria-n145645<![CDATA[A car bomb just exploded outside the Israeli Embassy in New Delhi, India, and wounded the wife of a diplomat.]]>Mon, 13 Feb 2012 11:52:39 -0500<![CDATA[Michael J. Totten]]>https://pjmedia.com/michael-j-totten-2/2012/02/13/hezbollah-car-bombs-in-georgia-and-india-n145642<![CDATA[It’s no secret that Saudi Arabia will want nuclear weapons if Iran gets them. Riyadh has been saying so for years and said it again a couple of days ago.]]>Sun, 12 Feb 2012 14:10:12 -0500<![CDATA[Michael J. Totten]]>https://pjmedia.com/michael-j-totten-2/2012/02/12/the-saudis-will-want-the-bomb-too-n145639<![CDATA[I’ve spent the last several days at a remote location in Central Oregon wrapping up my book Where the West Ends. I only have about one more day’s worth of work left before it is finished. Of my three books so far, this one, I think, is the most accessible and the most entertaining. Now that I’m back, I can start blogging again as soon as I figure out what’s going on in the world.]]>Sun, 12 Feb 2012 13:38:51 -0500<![CDATA[Michael J. Totten]]>https://pjmedia.com/michael-j-totten-2/2012/02/12/im-back-4-n145637<![CDATA[I can’t think of a single head of state anywhere in the world I’d be less interested in interviewing than Syria’s Bashar al-Assad. The man lies like he breathes, as a friend recently put it. Just about everyone who interviews him comes off looking ridiculous, partly because he would never sit down with someone who actually knows what they’re talking about, but also because he’s a master manipulator.]]>Tue, 07 Feb 2012 11:17:04 -0500<![CDATA[Michael J. Totten]]>https://pjmedia.com/michael-j-totten-2/2012/02/07/how-to-manipulate-an-american-n145634<![CDATA[A few years ago I interviewed Paul Berman shortly after he published his must-read book, The Flight of the Intellectuals, about writers who have done good work in the past but who now draw a perverse sort of moral equivalence between Somali-born human rights activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali and the Swiss-born Islamist Tariq Ramadan.]]>Mon, 06 Feb 2012 12:11:51 -0500<![CDATA[Michael J. Totten]]>https://pjmedia.com/michael-j-totten-2/2012/02/06/the-flight-of-the-intellectuals-continues-n145630<![CDATA[Iranian filmmaker Asghar Farhadi won a Golden Globe last month for his most recent film, A Separation. I haven’t seen it yet, but he has done fine work in the past.]]>Sat, 04 Feb 2012 17:45:32 -0500<![CDATA[Michael J. Totten]]>https://pjmedia.com/michael-j-totten-2/2012/02/04/a-separation-n145629<![CDATA[My essay on the Arab Spring in the January/February issue of World Affairs is now out from behind the pay wall.]]>Thu, 02 Feb 2012 23:09:01 -0500<![CDATA[Michael J. Totten]]>https://pjmedia.com/michael-j-totten-2/2012/02/02/arab-spring-or-islamist-winter-2-n145626<![CDATA[Hussein Ibish over at NOW Lebanon explains—accurately—why the United States has an interest in seeing Syria’s revolution wrapped up as quickly as possible.]]>Thu, 02 Feb 2012 00:26:33 -0500<![CDATA[Michael J. Totten]]>https://pjmedia.com/michael-j-totten-2/2012/02/02/intervention-in-syria-dont-count-on-it-n145623