Tag Archives: Iraq

President Barack Obama’s Long Game

A number of things have, indeed, gotten better since Barack Obama became President of the United States. The following video is a useful reminder. _____ And don’t forget the end of George Bush’s sanctioning of torture. That’s a big one. … Continue reading

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Jacob Wrestling the Irrational Animal: George Orwell on Critical Thinking

In London’s Tribune, George Orwell wrote an essay (“In Front of Your Nose,” March 22, 1946) with a number of great observations on critical thinking. The first is this:   In general, one is only right when either wish or fear coincides with … Continue reading

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In Baghdad, Muslims Go Ahead and Hate Their Christian Neighbors

If there’s a hell, the Muslims who slaughtered their Christian brothers and sisters in Baghdad over the past ten days have certainly raised their odds of going there. The following was buried in a much longer story at the New York Times yesterday. The … Continue reading

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American Soldiers Gunning Down Two Reuters Reporters and Numerous Unarmed Iraqis: The Bradley Manning Video

I frankly thought more than twice about posting the following video. It includes American soldiers gunning down two Reuters reporters, a number of unarmed Iraqis, and shooting into a vehicle containing children. The actions are barbaric, obviously war crimes, and are worthy … Continue reading

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“Avatar” and the Destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE

Something that jumped out at me in the film Avatar was this: the calamity that befell the blue pagan forest people came very close to tracking the calamity that befell the Jews in 70 CE (when the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and … Continue reading

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John Bolton: Wrong in His Prediction That Israel Will Bomb Iranian Nuclear Facilities?

Neoconservative, and former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, said this past summer that he thought Israel might well bomb Iranian nuclear facilities before the end of the year. With just two weeks to go in 2009, he … Continue reading

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Adventures in New Atheistland: Jerry Coyne Calls Out Robert Wright for Being a “Blame America First” Muddle-Head in the War on Terror!

University of Chicago atheist biologist Jerry Coyne, at his blog today, summed up Robert Wright’s recent piece in the New York Times this way: The title of Wright’s piece is “Who created Major Hasan?”, and of course the answer is “America!” Coyne then … Continue reading

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Sealing Anuses, then Inducing Diarrhea: The Torture and Murder of Gays in Iraq

Andrew Sullivan has been talking about this. Iraqi Shiite’s have been targeting gays. And it’s almost too apalling to report, but this today in Gay City News: As the murder campaign targeting Iraqi gays intensifies, a leading Arabic television network … Continue reading

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Marble Greece, Limestone Egypt, and Muddy Mesopotamia: Why the Great Building Projects of Hammurabi and Nebuchadnezzar Have Not Endured

Mesopotamia once had ancient cities as architecturally grand and magnificently adorned as Egypt and Greece. So how come the region’s great cities, like ancient Babylon, are in such poor archaeological condition? Answer: Just like Leonardo da Vinci made his Last Supper … Continue reading

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Outrageous: Religious Fundamentalists Murder Six Gay People in Baghdad

Very depressing. A Reuters report from Baghdad today: Two gay men were killed in Baghdad’s Sadr City slum, a local official said on Saturday, and police said they had found the bodies of four more after clerics urged a crackdown … Continue reading

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Is Afghanistan a Quagmire?

So suggests Spiegel today: Afghanistan is on the brink of chaos: That is the stark message from local leaders, the US military and development workers in the troubled country. The elected government, they warn, can no longer compete with the … Continue reading

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IRAQ GOES SECULAR? By Bitter Experience with Religious Sectarian Politics, Have the Iraqis Learned to Love RICHARD DAWKINS?

Well, not exactly. But the thesis of New York Times’s Baghdad reporter, Mudhafer al-Husaini, is that the Iraqi elections were a vindication of SECULAR (as opposed to religious) politics: The initial results showed good gains for secular parties and Prime … Continue reading

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One Million “Commas”

The Nation revisits the question: How many Iraqis have died from Bush’s Iraq war? Answer: About one million. Money quote: [B]etween 800,000 and 1.3 million “excess deaths” as we approach the six-year anniversary of this war. That’s a lot of Hegelian commas. … Continue reading

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Okay, So Maybe George W. Bush Wasn’t ALL BAD

If the Iraqi elections really went as described this weekend, liberals (like me) need to be gracious enough to give the “W” his due. Max Boot: The claims made by so many analysts not long ago that the U.S. war … Continue reading

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A Historic Document on Torture: Captain Ian Fishback’s Letter to John McCain, September 16, 2005

Ian Fishback risked his career trying to get answers to the torture question. Andrew Sullivan calls Fishback’s letter, in 2005, a historic document, and thinks that Fishback should be TIME’s “Man of the Year.” Here’s Fishback’s letter: Dear Senator McCain: … Continue reading

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We Stand On The Crossroads Of History. Are You Engaged—or a Spectator on the Sidelines?

Barack Obama’s website link is here. Go now. Do something.  This is our time. This is our moment.

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The Afghan-Pakistan War: Nelson Fraser of The Spectator Writes of the Expanding War that Dare Not Speak Its Name

Pakistan has just switched up leaders, and has nuclear weapons, so nobody much wants to talk about it, but the War on Terror is fast expanding from Afghanistan into Pakistani territory. Nelson Fraser of The Spectator wrote an important article on this … Continue reading

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Mesopotamia’s Hillary Clinton: Bold and Cunning Ninsun, Gilgamesh’s Strong-Willed Mother, Argued with Her God, Manipulated Enkidu, Protected Her Son in His Going to War, and Got What She Wanted

How did ancient Mesopotamian women deal with their boys going off to war? Part 2 of the Gilgamesh Epic may give us some clues. Here we are introduced to Ninsun, Gilgamesh’s strong-willed mother. Ninsun systematically, and with a great deal of … Continue reading

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Stuff Happens: Donald Rumsfeld, the Free Will Defense, and the Problem of Suffering

After the invasion of Iraq in April 2003, George Bush’s Defense Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, provided a free-will defense for the rampant street looting in Iraq. Why was it occurring, and why wasn’t the United States actively engaged in stopping it? Here’s Rumsfeld’s answer: Freedom’s … Continue reading

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