Geography Archives: Middle East

Occidente aparece, de pronto, desprovisto de sus mejores virtudes, construidas siglo sobre siglo, ocupado ahora en reproducir sus propios defectos y en copiar los defectos ajenos, como lo son el autoritarismo y la persecución preventiva de inocentes.  Virtudes como la tolerancia y la autocrítica nunca formaron parte de su debilidad, como se pretende ahora, sino […]

Exit polls conducted at last week’s elections reveal the contradictions and limits of the Democrats’ victories.  As reported in the New York Times (November 9, 2006, page P7), the four fifths of US voters who are white preferred Republicans (52 to 48 percent), while Blacks, Hispanics, and Asians chose Democrats (by 89 to 11, 70 […]

  The bus rumbled along a highway in southwest Iran, passing a series of anti-aircraft batteries and rickety guard towers before pulling in through a checkpoint to the Bushehr nuclear plant compound.  Having anticipated significant difficulties finding, much less nearing, the reactor, I stared in stunned silence at its dome.  So much for state secrets.  […]

I. Three Metropoles, Four Peripheries Many of us on the Left have pondered what would replace the Cold War division of the planet into the First, Second, and Third World.  Though the three worlds thesis was arbitrary at best — the social divisions within nation-states are often more significant than the distinctions between nation-states — […]

To the congressional winners of Campaign 2006: as you savor your victory and prepare to take office in January, consider this bit of free advice on how to make those tough decisions you’ll soon face on the war: pick a number. It’s simple.  Pick a number.  Any number.  It doesn’t much matter which number, as […]

What a treacherous weekend! Campaigning in Greeley, Colorado on Saturday, the WAR PRESIDENT said (to tumultuous applause), “My decision to remove Saddam Hussein was the right decision, and the world is better off for it.”  But perhaps not for the 655,000 Iraqis killed on the WAR PRESIDENT’s watch since he lied his way into this […]

The government offensive against Muslims in America met fresh opposition yesterday in Albany, New York when dozens of leaders of the anti-war movement and other progressive causes joined with Muslims to protest the recent guilty verdicts in the trial of Imam Yassin Aref and Mohammed Musharraf Hossain. Aref and Hossain were accused and convicted of […]

Dear God, This is your beloved son, Dubya.  I decided to write to you because you have stopped talking to me (even though I still talk to you daily).  I wouldn’t be so presumptuous as to assume you are unaware of my feelings, but let me say it anyway: I have been feeling miserable, my […]

The overwhelming response by alumni of United States service academies to the anti-war efforts of West Point Graduates Against the War (www.westpointgradsagainstthewar.org) has resulted in a combined arms organization of former and current land, sea, and air officers united against the war in Iraq.  The new organization, Service Academy Graduates Against the War (www.sagaw.org), was […]

What can we do to end one war and prevent another? Photo by Lynsey Addario The Tour for a Just Foreign Policy in Iran and Iraq is making its way across the Northeast in November with an amazing lineup of speakers and a photo exhibit by award winning photojournalists.  We invite you to join us […]

In recent days, reports have begun to appear in mainstream US media sources such as Time magazine and the Los Angeles Times hinting at a new strategy on Iraq from Washington.  This strategy, which is scheduled to be officially made public after the November congressional elections, is the product of a so-called bipartisan commission headed […]

Pauline Kael, the American film critic, once said that Gillo Pontecorvo was the most dangerous kind of Marxist: a Marxist poet.  When the Italian film director died last week at the age of 86, he had not made a full-length feature in over twenty-five years.  Yet the potency of Pontecorvo’s firebrand poetry can still be […]

The End of Faith: Religion, Terror and the Future of Reason by Sam Harris.  Norton, New York, 2004.  ISBN 0-393-03515-8. 336 pp.  Cloth $24.95. Sam Harris’ The End of Faith: Religion, Terror and the Future of Reason is unusual among books recently issued by mainline publishers in that it begins by rejecting all religious faiths […]

In case you’ve been too stunned by other newsworthy disasters to pay proper attention, the Military Commissions Act of 2006 was just signed into law.  This law gives the U.S. government legal permission to do things they’ve been doing sub-legally for years, such as: designate people as “unlawful enemy combatants”; deny these people the right […]

REVOLUTION IN THE AIR: Sixties Radicals turn to Lenin, Mao and Che by Max ElbaumBUY THIS BOOK I first met Max Elbaum in Vermont in 2002 at a conference against the war organized by the Burlington (VT) Anti War Coalition.  We had communicated via email and telephone before about his book Revolution in the Air […]

Olmert and Lieberman Just what we needed.  The government is running hard in order to avoid the appointment of an authentic Judicial Investigative Committee, i.e., one with wide powers.  Our Prime Minister is busy preparing himself for investigations into his all “too-successful” real estate deals.  His popularity rating hovers at a magnificent 7%.  But Ehud […]

The instant messaging antics that claimed the career of Florida Republican Representative Mark Foley have also served to remind the national Democratic Party that we are but a few weeks away from our national elections.  Declining Republican electoral fortunes were hobbled further by the Foley fiasco, adding to the growing list of reasons why voters […]

“Philosophy always comes on the scene too late.” — G.W.F. Hegel1 “They say we don’t stand for anything.  We do stand for anything.”  — Sen. Barack Obama2 For years it’s been a political commonplace to observe that the Republicans represent the party of ideas while the Democrats are the stupid party.  Even Bush-phobic Democrats like […]

August 29, 1949 — Soviet Union.  October 16, 1964 — People’s Republic of China.  October 7, 2006, Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea.  Three dates.  Three first-time nuclear tests by three enemies (at their respective times) of Washington.  All three tests were preceded by threats from that same Washington that warned of dire consequences for the […]

Nous appelons, alors que le Moyen-Orient est plongé dans sa crise la plus grave depuis des années, à une action urgente de la part de la communauté internationale en vue d’un règlement global au conflit israélo-arabe. Nous sommes tous perdants dans ce conflit, à l’exception des extrémistes, qui prospèrent à travers le monde en exploitant […]