"It is human for you to shout and to tear at your hair. But there is no point trying to kill the croupier. You must get over your compulsion to gamble."

"Some analyst-collaborators argue that may be Iraq was not a war against Islam but a war for Islam. None of the independent Muslim analysts has argued that Iraq war was directly a war on Islam and as a result the neocons would succeed in eliminating Islam as such."

"What’s needed, however—is truthfulness and sincerity, will and flexibility to trounce the existing fallacious and imaginary view that ‘Kashmir is integral part of India’.

"Israel's second concern is Palestinian Islamist terrorism, fostered and supported by Hizballah with Iran's active backing and Syria's acquiescence. The current de facto ceasefire renders this last threat dormant, though it is not clear for how long."

"Terrorism in the name of national defense is still terrorism, and torture is a brutal form of terrorism, designed to punish and invoke communication simultaneously by infliction of pain and fear."

"The assassination of Hariri has put an even greater strain on the Iran-Syria alliance. From Tehran's perspective, the anti-Syria demonstrations in Lebanon may force the Iranian regime to make a particularly difficult decision. Iran places great importance on its standing in the Arab and Muslim world as a freedom-fighting bastion of anti-imperialism, and the Islamic regime is particularly romanticized among Lebanese Shi'ites, many of whom are grateful for Tehran's patronage of Hizballah and speak with deference about "Sayed Ali", Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei."

"One justification for having so many agencies is that policymakers get a range of opinion. In the case of Iraqi WMD, however, the numerous agencies all knew who was boss and what he wanted to hear. Any dissent—and there wasn't much—was stifled or ignored. Perhaps the intelligence agencies should be made more independent of presidential authority, much like independent regulatory boards."

"While Americans debate the wisdom of the Iraq war, we rarely confront the domestic costs. What could have been done with the more than $150 billion already spent on the war? And what are the implications of the fact that huge expenditures for the war are continuing with no end in sight?"