The Truth about March 14- July 18, 2008 The &8220;March 14&8221; movement is a political vehicle for Lebanon&8217;s liberals, democrats, free-market capitalists, human rights activists, and those who want an exit from the seemingly endless war with the &8220;Zionist entity.&8221; Unfortunately, that is not all it is. It&8217;s also a political vehicle for hard-line Sunni Arab Nationalists and other political retrogrades who only oppose Hezbollah and the Syrian Baath regime because they hate Shias and Alawites as much as they hate...http://www.michaeltotten.com/archives/2008/07/the-truth-about.php Is the War Over- July 17, 2008 (Note: I wrote a brief post on this topic a few days ago. This is an excerpt from a longer piece for COMMENTARY.) Independent reporter Michael Yon has spent more time in Iraq embedded with combat soldiers than any other journalist in the world, and a few days ago he boldly declared the war over: Barring any major and unexpected developments (like an Israeli air strike on Iran and the retaliations that would follow), a fair-minded person could say with reasonable certainty that the war has...http://www.michaeltotten.com/archives/2008/07/is-the-war-over.php An Abominable Blood-Logged Plain- July 15, 2008 &8220;The war in Bosnia will look like a tea party if Serbian nationalism runs wild in Kosovo.&8221; U.S. Representative Eliot Engel &8220;The whole world is a vast Kosovo, an abominable blood-logged plain.&8221; From Black Lamb and Gray Falcon by Rebecca West, 1941. Strange country, Kosovo. It&8217;s European, but it isn&8217;t Christian. It&8217;s majority-Muslim, but it is not anti-American. Foreign soldiers are hailed as liberators and protectors rather than occupiers. Most Western...http://www.michaeltotten.com/archives/2008/07/an-abominable-b.php The Iraq War is Over- July 14, 2008 Michael Yon infuriated a whole swath of his audience some years ago when he said Iraq was in a state of civil war. Only the most committed anti-war leftists wanted to hear it. Vice President Dick Cheney famously and foolishly said the U.S. was &8220;turning the corner&8221; around the same time. Cheney is a politican. Yon is a straight-shooter. So it means something when Yon writes the following: The war continues to abate in Iraq. Violence is still present, but, of course, Iraq was a...http://www.michaeltotten.com/archives/2008/07/the-iraq-war-is.php Stand By- July 14, 2008 I wasn&8217;t terribly productive with my writing during the past week. There were too many domestic duties and distractions -- including a family reunion and my 20-year high school reunion, which was great fun. My next dispatch is just about ready, however. Look for it here Monday night. In the meantime, use the comments box for an open thread. If you read anything interesting over the weekend, feel free to share. And be nice in the comments. Don&39;t make me pull over the car.http://www.michaeltotten.com/archives/2008/07/stand-by.php You Can't Please Everybody- July 10, 2008 And it&39;s disastrous to even try. Make of this what you will: Most Arabs only know Barack Obama&39;s name and skin color, so, unsurprisingly, they are fairly enthusiastic about his candidacy. But what are Thomas Friedman&39;s Arab equivalents, the opinion leaders of the Middle East, saying about Obama A famously diverse group--ranging from idealistic reformers to moralizing Islamists--the Arab world&39;s pundits are almost unanimous in their skepticism of him, offering a sharp corrective to..http://www.michaeltotten.com/archives/2008/07/you-cant-please.php Back to Iraq this Summer- July 8, 2008 I swore I wouldn&8217;t go back to Iraq during the summer. But I&8217;m never able to keep promises like this to myself, so I&8217;m sucking it up and I&8217;m going. I am not going yet. The trip will be closer to the end of the summer than to the beginning. I have to finish my Kosovo material first. (Thanks, by the way, for indulging me while I take a break from the sandbox. Iraq is hot, depressing, and dangerous, and I faced a choice: either do something else for a bit or burn out. I chose..http://www.michaeltotten.com/archives/2008/07/back-to-iraq-th.php Happy Birthday, America- July 4, 2008 During the last week or so, my wife and I saw the first half of the HBO mini-series John Adams on DVD, which so far is excellent and highly recommended. Watching our original thirteen colonies declare and then fight for independence is electrifying. We Americans are accustomed to revolution and war taking place inside other countries, not inside our own. But of course it wasn&8217;t always this way. We were born in revolution and war. Revolutions, as most of us have learned since, often devour..http://www.michaeltotten.com/archives/2008/07/happy-birthday.php Aftermath of a Bombing- July 2, 2008 Earlier this year I visited the Iraqi city of Karmah (also spelled Garma), a small city wedged between Fallujah and Baghdad. It was winter, and a time of jubilation and rebirth after the local defeat of the ferocious murder and intimidation campaign waged by Abu Musab al Zarqawi&8217;s Al Qaeda in Iraq. Zoriah Miller, an excellent professional photographer I met last summer in Baghdad, is there now. And he witnessed the immediate aftermath of a horrific suicide bombing just a few days ago....http://www.michaeltotten.com/archives/2008/07/aftermath-of-a.php |