Patrick Clawson
Patrick Clawson
Patrick Lyell Clawsonis an American economist and Middle East scholar. He is currently the Director for Research at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and senior editor of Middle East Quarterly...
activities begun countries harder persuade roll start
Traditionally it's much harder to get countries to roll back from activities that they have already begun than to persuade countries not to start something.
episode friendly lots nasty problems united
There are lots of problems in Iraq, and this episode was done by some nasty actors who are not friendly to the United States.
bring conflict government
The government will get a lot of blame; why did we bring this conflict? What happened?
dubai feels few navy port rules tightly using
Dubai is a place with few rules, but one of the few things tightly regulated is port security, and that's why the U.S. Navy feels comfortable using Dubai more than any other port in the world.
ambitious future role thinks
He is a very ambitious man, he thinks he has a role to play in the future of the country.
deal nuclear possible
It's possible we could have a deal on the nuclear matter.
mistaken optimism
I think he is mistaken in his optimism,
I don't think they would go out of their way to violate protocol.
belts bringing cutting difficult funds held income iraqi oil tight
Iraqi businessmen had been bringing back the funds that they held abroad. Now that it doesn't look like the oil income is going to come, Iraq is going to be in a very difficult situation. There's going to be a tightening of belts that are already so tight that they're cutting off circulation.