Geography Archives: Syria

This year is the 130th anniversary of Britain’s Anti-Slavery Convention of 1877.  In the second of two articles,1 James Heartfield discovers that “Anti-Slavery” turned out to be an excuse for colonisation in the struggle between Gordon of Khartoum and the Mahdi. Successful as the Anti-Slavery ethos of British policy was in rendering British domination as […]

To endorse the statement below, please go to: www.petitiononline.com/NYCLAW2/petition.html. January 24, 2007 Despite overwhelming rejection of its policies in the November elections, the Bush administration has steadily escalated its war in the Middle East. This has meant not only ordering thousands more troops to Iraq and Afghanistan, but arming and financing Israel’s attacks on Lebanon […]

When Colonel Harry Summers told a North Vietnamese counterpart in 1975 that “[y]ou know you never defeated us on the battlefield,” the reply was: “That may be so, but it is also irrelevant.1 News stories surrounding the US invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq proclaimed the arrival of a long-promised “Revolution in Military Affairs” (RMA), a […]

Several weeks ago, with much media fanfare, the James Baker-Lee Hamilton Committee submitted to President George W. Bush its long-awaited, bipartisan report on the U.S. war in Iraq.  On balance, the report provided Bush with a face-saving strategy for pulling out all U.S. combat forces by the beginning of 2008.  The Baker-Hamilton report favors an […]

The war that Western powers — primarily US, Israel and Britain — began against the Islamic world after September 11, 2001 is about to enter a new more dangerous phase as their early plans for “changing the map of the Middle East” have begun to unravel with unintended consequences. Codenamed “the war against terror,” the […]

Aussitôt achevées ses études de sociologie, elle s’est précipitée sur le cinéma.  Sans doute achevée pour y trouver des moyens vivants d’interroger notre société et de porter un regard sur les choses mais surtout les êtres, mettant en valeur ceux qui émergent en dépit des modèles formatés. Vous vous êtes signalée par un docu-fiction sur […]

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Discours de Sayyid Nasrullah, le 7 décembre 2006 Condoléances à la famille du martyr Ahmad Mahmoud, martyr pour la défense de l’indépendance et la souveraineté du Liban. Les gens du pouvoir ont essayé de susciter la peur chez vous pour vous empêcher de venir sur la place du rassemblement, mais ils ont oublié que vous […]

Annual Fundraising AppealFriends of MRZine and Monthly Review! The continuing existence of MRZine and Monthly Review depends on the support of our readers.  Unlike many other publications, we make all new Monthly Review articles, as well as MRZine articles, available online, free of charge.  We do so without drawing any advertising money at all from […]

Whoever denies that the division of the Palestinian scene is a function of the relation of regional forces is one who prefers to mouth vain slogans and proves that he does not have the capacity to resist. Some are happy to go on and on about the importance of Palestinian national unity, the unity of blood, the common enemy who does not distinguish between one Arab and another, one Muslim and another, but at the same time hides clear realities that rise to the surface, forcefully, from time to time, particularly during crises.

A NEW MOMENT It’s a new political moment for the antiwar movement. Washington’s failure in Iraq is undeniable: even Henry Kissinger says a U.S. victory is impossible.  The Iraq war was the prime reason the U.S. electorate delivered a huge “thumping” to George Bush on November 7.  The administration is openly flailing about for any […]

Since the coming into power of the Stephen Harper Conservative government in January of this year, there has been much gnashing of teeth over the foreign policy stance of Canada.  In particular, Canada’s relation with the U.S. on a phalanx of fronts has been at the center of controversy.  One has been the softwood lumber […]

L’assassinat de Pierre Gemayel, ministre libanais de l’Industrie, est un acte indéniablement terroriste qui intervient à un moment délicat de polarisation politique au Liban.  L’empressement de Washington – et certains de ses clients libanais – à désigner la Syrie souligne d’emblée l’enjeu géopolitique de la situation au Liban. Mais cela n’empêche pas de noter, froidement, […]

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 […]

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 — […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

  Face à l’évènement, certains veulent faire supporter à la Résistance tout le poids de cette guerre.  C’est endosser l’erreur.  La grande majorité des analystes politiques internationaux savent que cette guerre était prévue à courte échéance, avec ou sans prétexte ; Israël ne manque pas d’en créer au besoin.  Souvenons-nous de l’invasion de 1982 : […]

Coordinatrice des Campagnes civiles internationales pour la protection du peuple palestinien (CCIPPP), Nahla Chahal est chercheur à Paris.  Elle fut l’une des dirigeantes, dans les années 1970, de l’Organisation d’action communiste du Liban (OACL).  De retour du Liban, où elle a passé plus d’un mois pendant l’offensive israélienne, elle raconte et analyse ces événements. Quel […]