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Archives for April 2012
Afghanistan’s Taliban – a differing view of drones (Woods)
Chris Woods writes at the Bureau of Investigative Journalism: Scholars Alex Strick van Linschoten, 28, and 32 year old Felix Kuehn have swapped the musty libraries of London for the dusty streets of Kandahar, spiritual home of the Taliban. There the two have lived for almost five years, engaging with those many call the enemy […]
Egyptian Court throws out Fundamentalist Constitution-writing assembly, Insists on a Representative Body
Egypt’s administrative court invalidated the current constituent assembly charged with drafting the new constitution, on the grounds that it is overly stacked with Muslim fundamentalists and is unrepresentative of Egyptian society. The court relied on a 1994 law stipulating that sitting judges and parliamentarians may not be involved in constitutional revisions, lest they misuse their […]
Text from Hillary to Santorum: The Front Line of Combat is Not the Best Place for You
h/t to Texts from Hillary and Kevin Lamarque Rick Santorum on women serving in combat: “I think that could be a very compromising situation where people naturally may do things that may not be in the interest of the mission because of other types of emotions that are involved. I was talking about men’s emotional […]
Amman, Jordan (0111)
Photograph of Amman, Jordan, August, 2008, by Juan Cole
The Afghanistan Syndrome (Engelhardt)
Tom Engelhardt writes at Tomdispatch: The Afghan Syndrome Vietnam Has Left Town, Say Hello to the New Syndrome on the Block By Tom Engelhardt Take off your hat. Taps is playing. Almost four decades late, the Vietnam War and its post-war spawn, the Vietnam Syndrome, are finally heading for their American grave. It may qualify […]
Omar Khayyam (94)
I have no idea if the one who created me placed me among the good in paradise or the hideous in hell. A cup, a sweetheart, and a lute are cash enough for me and credit toward heaven for you. Translated by Juan Cole from [pdf] Whinfield 94
Syrian Civil War Kills 160, Spills over onto Lebanon, Turkey; Will US Intervene?
Fighting on Monday in Homs and other Syrian cities left some 160 dead on Monday, and, ominously, Syrian troops fired into Lebanon and Turkey, killing 3 persons. The Syrian crisis has escalated into a civil war, and now it is threatening to involve Syria’s neighbors. The Syrian military attacked the town of Rastan near Homs […]
“Smile” – Tamer Hosny and Shaggy’s Feel-Good Arabic Music Video
Egyptian singing star (“the King of Pop”) Tamer Hosny, a late convert to the Egyptian revolution, and Shaggy released this music video, entitled “Smile” a couple of months ago and it is still in ART’s Top Ten. Since the amount of Smiling, kindness and generosity that goes on every day in the Arab world is […]
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