“America is the most advanced model for civilization on the face of the planet, so when America extends its outstretched hand to Iraq in order to help her, that means, in the lexicon of politics and progress, that a miracle of good fortune has descended onto Iraq, a nation that has suffered greatly from bad luck and misery. And this has been chiefly due to the destructive behavior of its own sons. It is they and no others who have been solely responsible of the misery of their own country! … Beyond Allah, Iraq has no hope or savior except America, which is capable of protecting Iraq from itself and the crimes of its politicians, parties and the greed of neighboring countries - particularly Iran and Syria.”
November 17th, 2008 By DR. CLARISSA PINKOLA ESTÉS, Assistant Editor, TMV Columnist
The innocent; the children, the old people, the young policemen lying in their own blood, the relatives made instantly insane with grief.
Seeing/ knowing of these events, I’d like to humbly suggest an exhortation for us all. The exhortation starts with “Never never never never ever ever ever …” then, you please personally fill in the blank with whatever will preserve your sanity whilst allowing you to keep speaking up, acting up, never standing down about egregious matters.
For me, I think mine would go, “Never never never never ever ever ever … let the slaughter of innocents be taken to the cultural desert and buried in an unmarked political grave… and “Please, never never never never ever ever ever …” allow me to become inured, no matter how events in war grab and twist my tripes.
It’s so much easier to be inured, I think. So much easier. Mullen and I talk alot late a night about what a withdrawal from Iraq may presage, what slaughter of even more innocents might occur. We both remember the fall of Saigon intimately, people trying to throw their children over the walls of the embassy to save them, people trying to cling to the sled legs of the American helicopters in a desperate attempt to escape Saigon’s immanent bloodbath, but falling to their deaths instead.
If you would, please join me in praying for this father and mother of this little Iraqi madonna. In the photo, that is the child’s father. Please pray for all of us to be somehow impossibly wise, to be granted unlimited miracles in Iraq and Afghanistan and throughout the entire world. I am praying for you too, for your sanity, for your heart, for your endurance. That’s a promise.
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CODA
Thank you Andrew Sullivan for passing this so very sad photograph forward. Many of us have come to believe that we cannot sanitize war’s realities by withholding horrendous images, that we are past being, must be past being careful about people’s visual sensitivities. In Latin, Horrescere, to act, to stand on end, bristle, be rough; to reveal the reality to prompt action. I regret deeply that that’s the exact ticket needed to roll hot at present.
November 16th, 2008 By JAZZ SHAW, Assistant Editor
When we examine the election of 2008 and the makeup of government across the nation today, it seems that a few previously-uncomfortable questions have finally been answered. We have elected a black man as president. His chief rival in the primary was a woman who many analysts and poll results estimate would have beaten John McCain by an even wider margin. A gentleman of Hispanic descent is the Governor of New Mexico, was a serious contender for the White House and is widely being hailed as a highly qualified candidate to be Secretary of State. In 2000 we saw a Jewish man in the VP slot on the Democratic ticket which won the popular vote across the nation. In this environment are there any serious thinkers left who find the idea of an Asian candidate for President out of the question?
The point of all this is not the questions we’re asking, but the questions we are no longer asking. Are these people equal? Do they have the same rights and opportunities as “the rest of us?” In almost every case the good news is not that the answer is “yes,” but that we’re no longer even asking the question. These things are accepted as a given. No, I’m not so foolish as to think that racism and intolerance have completely disappeared from our shores. But at this point it is at least increasingly-restricted to some backward holdouts in comparatively small numbers who are primarily engaged in developing a time machine so they can go back and take one more crack at Pickett’s Charge or rescue some of Hitler’s DNA to be stored until cloning techniques improve. Given this heartening news, though, I find myself wondering whether anyone was left behind in these advances? I’m afraid that the answer is still yes.
The current spate of demonstrations against California’s decision on Proposition Eight should be the first indicator of Something Being Rotten in Denmark. Allow me to tie this point in with the two preceding paragraphs. We aren’t asking a question along the lines of whether or not a gay or lesbian American could be elected as president here. We’re holding an allegedly serious national debate as to whether or not gays and lesbians even have the same basic rights as everyone else, or whether it is proper for the majority to pass legislation limiting their rights based solely on their sexual orientation. Opponents - primarily found in the so called “social conservative” band of the political spectrum - are quick to point out that of course they aren’t homophobic, and of course gays have the same rights as anyone else. That’s why we’re going to provide them with these shiny new civil contracts which are pretty much just as good as a marriage, see? (Astute readers who have studied the civil rights movement in America should, at this point, be nodding their heads and reminding us of exactly how well “separate but equal” worked out for black Americans.) It is not the struggle for “marriage rights” which should capture our attention, but the fact that we are even debating the question at all which should sadden us.
The second group of Americans who seem to have missed the Hope and Change Bus are Muslims. For evidence of this, one need look no further than the campaign of our President-Elect. Right wing supporters were running around the nation making hay out of Obama’s middle name, Hussein. His supporters on the left were equally involved in accentuating the divide. While loudly proclaiming that all religions are equally welcome here, they were quick and vocal in attacking those who invoked the H word when speaking of Barack. If the fact of being a practitioner of the Muslim faith were really not an issue, why would you work so hard to establish Obama’s Christian bona-fides? It’s something that everyone knows, but nobody wants to talk about.
The election of Keith Ellison, a Muslim, to Congress sent shockwaves through the Right wing. CNN’s Glenn Beck went so far as to show up on national television and challenge Mr. Ellison, saying, “Sir, prove to me that you are not working with our enemies.” What should be automatically shunned in a real nation of religious freedom is still taken as a matter of fact. Today you can be an atheist, a Jew, a Hindu, Buddhist, Wiccan or any species of Christian and get by just fine. Others may raise an eyebrow at you or smugly mutter about how you will get your “reward” when you wind up roasting in hell, but you’re still part of America’s tattered religious tapestry. Muslims, however, are seen by too many has having “something to prove” by default, even if they were born and bred in the U.S.A.
These are the questions we are left with, representing the rotten dregs of sour grapes at the bottom of a rancid barrel. In the America most of us envision - that shining beacon of hope, opportunity and equality standing out on the hill - we shouldn’t be looking for answers to these questions. We need to be examining why anyone is still asking them at all. Should we ever reach the point where such queries are no longer taken seriously, then we may finally be getting close to the finish line. Until then, roll up your sleeves. The election of Obama sends a fine message to everyone, but there’s still plenty of work left to be done.
One of the untold stories about the effects of U.S. involvement in the Middle East has been the escalating power struggle between Iran and Saudi Arabia for control of the region. At the height of the insurgency in Iraq, for instance, Saudi Arabia—a supposed U.S. ally—was funneling money and volunteers to the Sunni insurgency to undermine the Maliki government, which it feared could become too susceptible to Iranian influence. The insurgency was prolonged by both countries funding militants in hopes of filling the power vacuum and/or preventing the other from taking control.
It’s also happening in Afghanistan, as Iran and Saudi Arabia have taken opposing stances on whether the Afghan government should negotiate with the Taliban. From the Diplomatic Courier:
The talks, held at the behest of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, took place in Mecca during the final three days of Ramadan, which ended on September 29 … The prospect of some sort of Taliban rehabilitation received a much frostier reception in Tehran. Iran’s Foreign Minister Manuchehr Mottaki urged the U.S. against talks, saying that the Taliban’s extremism could not be confined to the Middle East and West Asia. Iran’s ambassador to the UN said that negotiations would make Afghanistan even less stable. The chairman of Iran’s parliamentary foreign policy and national security committee said the talks would spread terrorism.
Iran despises the Taliban for three reasons. The first is sectarian. Iran is a Shia theocracy, whereas the Taliban are Sunni extremists who view Shias as heretics … Not surprisingly, Iran welcomed and assisted the Taliban’s downfall in 2001.
A second reason for Iran’s posture is the Taliban’s involvement in the production and shipment of Afghan opiates. Iran’s impact on the Taliban’s drugs revenue is one of the untold stories of the war on terror. Even the U.S. has praised Iran’s efforts against narcotics.
A third reason that Iran dislikes the Taliban is because it sees the militia as a tool of Arab influence in West Asia. Saudi Arabia and the UAE were among only three countries, the other being Pakistan, to recognise the Taliban’s government in Afghanistan.
Iran is locked in a battle with the Saudis for influence in Pakistan. Tehran is favorably impressed by Pakistan’s new president Asif Zardari, who hails from a Shia Baluch family. Zardari’s prime minister and foreign minister are both drawn from Pakistan’s majority Barelvi sect, a syncretic form of Sunnism that shares elements with Shiism (such as the worship of saints). Zardari has publicly pledged himself to the war against the Taliban and has also forsworn violence against India, an old Iranian ally. Since he took office in September, Pakistan’s army has waged its most effective campaign against the Pakistan-based Taliban to date, killing as many as 1,000 militants during a summer offensive in the Bajaur tribal agency.
As far as the Arab world is concerned, Obama’s election has brought cautious optimism. But there is another narrative that has been emerging that Moderate Voice readers may have noticed if you have been following our recent posts from the Arab world.
“It is said that in the first few months of his presidency, America’s new head of state plans an address to the Islamic world to dispel any idea of a clash of civilizations. The intention is a good one, but any speech will ring hollow as long as the Israeli lobby continues to dictate American foreign policy toward the Arab world. It’s difficult to forget Obama’s speech to AIPAC [American Israel Public Affairs Committee], when he practically pledged allegiance on the very day he won the Democratic Party nomination. In this act of allegiance, one could take the measure of a system in which the Zionist lobby is very powerful. Another reason not to succumb to Obamania.”
Today from Kuwait, we have posted the most pessimistic article yet, which contains yet another meme that has emerged over the past few days: That Obama’s choice for chief of staff, Rahm Emmanuel, is everything from simply ‘bad’ because he’s Jewish to a Mossad agent because he was once an Israeli Defense Force volunteer.
“Since the day he announced his candidacy to win the Democratic Party nomination, Barack Obama was largely applauded …We saw nothing but his skin color and his father’s name (Hussein) … Even editors at our newspapers have waxed poetically, talking sweetly of the ‘Brown Knight’”
“America’s policy, particularly in regard to us, will not change, neither during the era of Obama or his successor in four or eight years.”
Is a new fratricidal conflict, even ‘more ferocious’ that what has already occurred, about to break out in Iraq? According to this article from Iraq’s Sotal Iraq, now that American plans for Sunni-Shiite sectarian strife have run their course, Washington is whipping up an ethnic conflict between the Kurds and the Arabs - centering on oil-rich Kirkuk.
October 23rd, 2008 By JOE GANDELMAN, Editor-In-Chief
Is the West’s goal respecting all religions? And, if it is, is this truly happening? In this Guest Voice post Iranian freelance writer and blogger Kourosh Ziabari takes a look at the issue of religion and respecting religions.TMV runs Guest Voice posts of various viewpoints. Guest Voice posts do not necessarily reflect the opinion of TMV or its writers.
Violence against religion: Road toward freedom
By Kourosh Ziabari
Most of us have esteemed religions and creeds. We believe in a certain faith, prophet(s) and a holy book, pray to a unique God and struggle to behave in a way that pleases Him — or so we believe.
To followers of monotheistic religions including Christianity, Judaism, Zoroastrianism and Islam, there is just one God who is supposed to be the owner and creator of the whole universe and its components. While believers might assign various names to this creator and possessor of everything, which is natural due to cultural and linguistic differences, it does not make any difference in the nature, unity and almighty nature of the Lord.
The thing is: we believe a single and unparalleled God has created us, assisted us and guided us through a firm path in his unity. Such a God who is able to design the construction of man’s mind with its endless capabilities, design the arrayed rotation of four seasons without any disorder — and design millions of flower species with special smells for each of them — would undoubtedly have no collaborator, and needs no help to manifest his privileges and powers. Otherwise, he would not be called as the “creator”. Read the rest of this entry »
I’ve got to say, Campbell Brown has impressed me with her willingness to say what other journalists have only been thinking this election season. First, she called out the McCain campaign for shielding Palin from the press “like a delicate flower who will wilt at any moment.” And her latest commentary addresses the bigotry against Arabs and Muslims popping up at McCain rallies.
Last week a supporter told McCain she didn’t trust Obama because he was an Arab, to which McCain replied, “No ma’am. He’s a decent family man, citizen that I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues. That’s what this campaign is all about. He’s not, thank you.”
Now, I commend Sen. McCain for correcting that woman, for setting the record straight. But I do have one question — so what if he was?
So what if Obama was Arab or Muslim? So what if John McCain was Arab or Muslim? Would it matter?
When did that become a disqualifier for higher office in our country? When did Arab and Muslim become dirty words? The equivalent of dishonorable or radical?
We’ve all been too quick to accept the idea that calling someone Muslim is a slur. We can’t tolerate this ignorance — not in the media, not on the campaign trail.
Few have been willing to address that issue directly, and as a consequence, slurring Muslims/Arabs has become an acceptable shield for racists who would never have voted for Obama in the first place. Racism against African Americans has become so taboo that most genuine racists are afraid express themselves in public. But slurring people from the Middle East? Well, hell, we’re at war and all. Nothing wrong with standing up in front of a large crowd with a microphone and spewing hatred for “those people,” right?
I can understand why this is a sensitive issue in a post-9/11 world. But kudos to Brown for calling a spade a spade. Let’s hope Obama follows suit. His response to accusations like this typically isn’t much different from McCain’s. He reassures voters that, no, he’s not a Muslim; he’s just a decent family man. For once it would be nice to hear him respond along the lines of, “So what if I was?”
History tells us that even the best foreign soldiers, and great conquerors and diplomats, in the world have met their nemesis in Afghanistan. So it would do no harm even if presidential hopefuls Obama/McCain too leaf through the past and recent history.
The intelligent US soldier Petraeus is likely to discover that Afghanistan has been a graveyard of the ambitions of the mighty empire builders — including Alexander the Great, the Great Mughals, the clever British colonialists, and the powerful Soviets. All of them failed to subdue its hardy and fiercely independent people inhabiting the toughest of mountainous terrain.
What have the US/NATO forces achieved in the past six years? Is there any other option to sort out the Afghanistan mess? General Petraeus has one month before he takes up the challenging Afghanistan assignment. I strongly recommend that he, or any other person interested in Afghanistan, should read at least three books to get an inkling of the enormous challenge ahead.
In Afghanistan the invading forces are fighting not just ‘militants/terrorists’ but a centuries old way of life and culture that have flourished to this day. So the biggest challenge before Petraeus/NATO forces is how to win the “War against Terror” without losing forever the goodwill of the people in Afghanistan/Pakistan. (In an interview this week General Petraeus expected the fight against the insurgents in Afghanistan and Pakistan to get worse before it got better).
General Petraeus must know that “low intensity war” is different from a full-fledged war and hence the strategy has to be different. In such long-lasting wars, the armed forces should play a stand-by role, leaving the civilians to tackle day-to-day exigencies. India learnt it the hard way. In fact, General Petraeus should seek active participation of seasoned Indian and Pakistani soldiers in his new enterprise.
Meanwhile to get a fascinating insight into the complex yet fascinating past (as well as present) of this part of the Indian subcontinent I recommend a newly-released book by a young British woman (Empires of the Indus — The Story of A River by Alice Albinia) that I read recently.
I quote from a review in the Financial Times: “Empires of the Indus is a magnificent book, a triumphant melding of travel and history into a compelling story of adventure and discovery. Alice Albinia has…a captivating account of her explorations through Pakistan, Afghanistan, India and Tibet, taking us back in time to the earliest days. We have been drawn through an array of peoples, cultures, landscapes and stories.” More here…
Or the review by Nigel Collett (author of The Butcher of Amritsar: Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer). “She (Alice Albinia) traverses areas darkened by the fanatics of the Muslim world, areas from which the faint hearted of the west have been frightened by books such as Bernard-Henri Levy’s account of the murder of Daniel Pearl. Read the rest of this entry »
