News stories by Analysis by Jim Lobe

When the United States formally ended its eight-and-a-half year military adventure in Iraq on Thursday with a flag-lowering ceremony presided over by Defence Secretary Leon Panetta Baghdad, hardly anyone here seemed to notice, let alone mark the occasion in a special manner.

A decade after its spectacular Sep. 11, 2001 attacks on New York City's twin World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon and despite the killing earlier this year of its charismatic leader, Osama bin Laden, Al Qaeda appears to have largely succeeded in its hopes of accelerating the decline of U.S. global power, if not bringing it to the brink of collapse.

A small group of inter-connected foundations, think tanks, pundits, and bloggers is behind the 10-year-old campaign to promote fear of Islam and Muslims in the U.S., according to a major investigative report released here Friday by the Center for American Progress (CAP).

As NATO-backed rebels continue efforts to secure Tripoli from forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi, analysts here are already debating whether the apparently successful uprising in Libya offers a precedent for future action elsewhere.

While the apparent end of Muammar Gaddafi’s 42-year reign over Libya was greeted with considerable satisfaction here Monday, no one was prepared to declare 'mission accomplished', particularly given the looming questions around what happens next.

Nearly ten years after seizing control of Republican foreign policy, neo- conservatives and other hawks appear to be losing it.

Even as the conflict in Libya appears increasingly stalemated, the administration of President Barack Obama seems determined to resist growing allied pressure to commit more U.S. military resources to the fight.

While all parties maintained a spirit of cordiality and mutual understanding, no new promises emerged from this week’s talks between the leaders of Israel and the Palestine Authority (PA) that offered tangible hope for a major breakthrough in resolving the more than 60-year-old conflict.

President Barack Obama will try this week to underline his progress in extricating the United States from the morass his predecessor's 'global war on terror' in the Greater Middle East.

In formally accepting the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo Thursday, U.S. President Barack Obama enunciated a worldview that places him squarely within the realist and liberal internationalist thinking that dominated post-World War II U.S. foreign policy - at least until his predecessor's 'global war on terror.'