Iraq
Cole’s top-ten myths
Juan Cole has a list of top-ten myths about the Iraq war, well worth reading. Top myth: The surge is working. This mantra is being repeated on every network news broadcast. Nothing in Iraq is that simple. P.S. – There are things of Cole’s to take issue with. He’s right to note that Kurdistan can no longer be regarded as
Lahr on Pinter
Soon after my last comment on Harold Pinter comes John Lahr’s New Yorker profile — mostly a close reading of the play “The Homecoming,” though Lahr touches on Pinter’s politics at the end: …he has lent the muscle of his voice to a variety of causes, among them the Sandinistas, the freedom of Slobodan Milosevic, the end of the Iraq
Turkey-Kurdistan-PKK
In light of continuing Turkish attacks against the PKK in Iraqi Kurdistan, one could do worse than read Marko Attila Hoare’s clear-eyed policy prescriptions. In short: yes, the PKK is a terrorist gang. But Turkey has created its Kurdish problem and can end it. It should grant the Kurds full, unconditional political freedom and recognize Kurdish as an official language,
Packer on “Redacted”
I observed my Jewish Christmas by watching Brian De Palma’s “Redacted” this evening. Was surprised to find it on-demand so soon. Anyway, I agree wholeheartedly with George Packer: De Palma has announced that his intention in making “Redacted” is to end the war. “The movie is an attempt to bring the reality of what is happening in Iraq to the
Jazzing Iraq
My guest column on the first-ever Summer Performing Arts Academy in Erbil, Iraqi Kurdistan, appears in the October issue of Jazz Times. Downloadable pdf is here.
Quagmires, military and rhetorical
This week’s Petraeus/Crocker testimony has prompted another round of stern lecturing by war supporters about the cost of failure in Iraq. Most Americans know full well: it is the Bush administration that has given us failure in Iraq. Even the most diehard war supporters concede that “mistakes were made.” Sorry, the passive voice will not do. Bush took us to
The buck stops … where?
It’s an unfolding investigation, with many conclusions still to be drawn, but the implications of this story are absolutely huge. It’s about thoroughgoing corruption in the procurement of weapons for the Iraqi armed forces. We’ve already heard about how the U.S. “cannot fully account for about 110,000 AK-47 rifles, 90,000 pistols, 80 items of body armor, and 115,000 helmets reported
An inconvenient massacre
It’s popular to beat up on the NYT’s Thomas Friedman, but he hits on something important in today’s column, “Swift-Boated By Bin Laden” (TimesSelect). His point: the Bush administration never hesitates to launch vicious p.r. attacks against Democrats but is curiously mute on Qaeda-inspired atrocities such as the anti-Yazidi attacks of August 14, which killed over 500 men, women and