Archive for January 7, 2006

“”Victory or defeat” is, in fact, a false strategic choice. In using this formulation, the president would have the American people believe that their only options are either “hang in and win” or “quit and lose.” But the real, practical choice is this: “persist but not win” or “desist but not lose.” Victory, as defined [...]

Posted on January 7, 2006 by As'ad

Maybe this will get US public attention: “The real cost to the US of the Iraq war is likely to be between $1 trillion and $2 trillion (£1.1 trillion), up to 10 times more than previously thought”

Posted on January 7, 2006 by As'ad

“Bremer Says U.S. Was Surprised by Insurgency” (Is that becauase Bush’s Middle East experts (Ajami, Lewis, and Makiyya) assured the government that Arabs love, just love, brutal foreign occuaptions?)

Posted on January 7, 2006 by As'ad

Winning hearts, minds, and stomachs. “New details have emerged of how the growing number of prisoners on hunger strike at Guantánamo Bay are being tied down and force-fed through tubes pushed down their nasal passages into their stomachs to keep them alive.They routinely experience bleeding and nausea, according to a sworn statement by the camp’s [...]

Posted on January 7, 2006 by As'ad

I have the wisdom of a person sentenced to death by Palestinian poet Mahmud Darwish (my translation): “I have the wisdom of a person sentenced to death:Nothing I own to own me,I wrote my will with blood:“Trust in water, o residentsof my song!”And I slept bloodiedand crowned with my future…I dreamt that the heart of [...]

Posted on January 7, 2006 by As'ad

Muhammad `Ali-Al-Atasi writes about the persecution of and attacks on Syrian workers in Lebanon. He condemns the racist Lebanese press which whipped up hate against the Syrian workers, but he himself writes in An-Nahar newspaper which is most guilty of this racist agitation. Very ironic Muhammad `Ali. Very ironic.

Posted on January 7, 2006 by As'ad

Haytham Manna`. One of the most courageous dissidents in the Arab world. He is a Syrian opposition figure, widely respected for his human rights advocacy around the world. Today, he spoke against Khaddam’s attempt to infiltrate the ranks of the Syrian opposition, and reminded people of the long abysmal record of this pillar of the [...]

Posted on January 7, 2006 by As'ad

What are numbers and percentages [in elections] when you want to form a government? These were the words of former Iraqi puppet prime minister/Saddam’s henchman/car bomber/embezzler-in-Yemen, Iyad `Allawi. He stood today side-by-side with his fellow losers of the last election-under-occupation. He stood by while `Adnan Ad-Dulaymi expressed “thanks to the resistance” for allowing the election [...]

Posted on January 7, 2006 by As'ad

Flash. Elie Kazan: A PROUD LEBANESE. Fabrications of Lebanese Nationalism. Advocates of Lebanonese Nationalism have always been eager to take credit for things that Lebanon had nothing to do with, and to claim that people (who are wealthy and famous but) who have no links or roots in Lebanon are Lebanese, against their will. I [...]

Posted on January 7, 2006 by As'ad

Night in St. Cloud. Edvard Munch.

Posted on January 7, 2006 by As'ad