All articles from Dan Murphy
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Backchannels Worrying signs of lawlessness in Libya
Seven Iranian Red Crescent members were abducted in downtown Benghazi yesterday. Today there were bomb blasts and a jail break.
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Backchannels In Syria, hardening sides, and risks of an even bloodier civil war
A new report argues the Syrian civil war is going to get a lot worse unless the country's rebels take a series of difficult and improbable steps.
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Backchannels Iraqi officials still being killed in large numbers
In at least one city. And that's far from the only echo of the old Iraq in the new one.
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Backchannels Termites: Altruistic, poisonous suicide bombers
It's not just for humans anymore.
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Backchannels US drought already rippling out into the world
Scuffles in Jakarta markets between tofu producers and soybean traders may be a taste of things to come.
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Backchannels Manaf Tlass: Being groomed as the Syrian Ahmed Chalabi?
Manaf Tlas, a defector from the Assad regime, has it all: money, foreign friends, and a secular outlook. Now he's being pushed forward by foreign groups as Syria's strongman in waiting.
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Backchannels From the people who brought you the Iraq war...
... a call for US military intervention in Syria that's straight out of the neocon playbook. What could go wrong?
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Backchannels Deadly Iraq bombings and a reawakening insurgency
The Iraq war is over for the US, and the country is a more stable place than at the height of its civil war. But the Sunni insurgency never really died, and Syria is adding some fuel.
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Backchannels Egypt's first Islamist president takes oath of office
Egyptian president-elect Mohamed Morsi addressed a throng of adoring supporters in Tahrir Square today. He is from the Muslim Brotherhood, the oldest Islamist organization in the world. So what does that mean, exactly?
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Backchannels What war in Syria looks like: journalist killings, deadlier IEDs
Whatever restraint that was being exercised by the parties to Syria's civil war appears to have been cast aside.
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Backchannels The political circus and spin after Muslim Brotherhood's Egypt presidential win
Spin, double talk, and attempts at partisan gain following the victory of the Muslim Brotherhood's Mohamed Morsi in the first free presidential election in Egyptian history.
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Backchannels In Egypt, the army wins. Again. (+video)
Egypt's presidential election Sunday was supposed to be the culmination of a transition to democracy. Instead, the military junta made it clear it has no interest in a truly democratic transition.
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Backchannels Syria war drumbeat builds, but where is it leading?
Pundits from John Bolton to Nick Kristof are issuing calls to arms. But there's little regard for national interest, or the law of unintended consequences, in the urgings to act now.
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Backchannels Can we declare the war on terrorism over?
Or at least stop spending so much money on it?
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Backchannels The latest 'top Al Qaeda leader' reported killed in Pakistan
The US says it has confirmed that it killed Abu Yahya al-Libi, an Al Qaeda leader who escaped US custody in 2005, in a drone strike in Pakistan, but what's in this report?
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Backchannels The horror in Syria, the cold realities of international action
Syria's civil war is horrific, with most of the crimes committed by the Assad regime and its supporters. This may lead to moral clarity, but not necessarily to international military action.
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Backchannels The sacred and the profane: Indonesian churches and Lady Gaga
The pop-star Lady Gaga and Indonesian churches have both been the recent target of a thuggish group called the Islam Defenders Front.
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Backchannels Concerns ahead for Egypt's election monitoring
The rules governing the monitors overseeing Egypt's presidential elections are very restrictive, reducing election transparency and making it easy for monitors to be disqualified.
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Backchannels In Malaysia, a May Day pay raise, but no victory for democratic reformers
The protesters of the Malaysia's Bersih democracy reform movement appear to have pushed Malaysia into announcing its first ever minimum wage. Electoral reform is something else again.
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Backchannels Rupert Murdoch declared unfit to lead. The price of half-truths?
A UK parliamentary committee declared Rupert Murdoch 'unfit' to run his global media empire, which could have implications for his stake in the profitable satellite TV network BskyB.
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