War links
Remembering the victims of Pol Pot’s megacide.
Synchronised bombings on Mumbai rush hour trains. Over 190 killed. Perhaps it’s Mumbai’s modernity that makes it such a continuing target. The city is showing its resilience. Islamic militants are the prime suspects.
North Korea’s missile games is changing Japan’s outlook on military matters.
The steady abandonment of illusions over Israel-Palestine. Hezbollah gets into the abduction game, Israel organises for retaliatory strikes into Lebanon. Things are getting bad in Gaza.
Mayor “Red Ken” will not be at a memorial service for the London bombing victims after the Bishop declared him not a unifying figure. An Islamic cleric who is certainly not a unifying figure speaks in Birmingham on the bombings: The audience laughs as Omar Brooks, a British Muslim convert who also uses the name Abu Izzadeen, makes fun of non-Muslims as “animals” and “cowards”.
Brooks - who has previously described the London bombers as “completely praiseworthy” - identifies with the views of Mohammad Sidique Khan, the ringleader of the London attacks.
He contrasts the supposed bravery of Khan’s suicide to the “kuffar” (non-Muslims) who are characterised as debauched binge-drinkers who vomit and urinate in the street. The very modern nature of religious “fundamentalism”. The notable gap in the aforementioned article. And also.
About the rise of the Shi’a in the Middle East as a result of the Coalition intervention in Iraq and the complicated interactions between Teheran and Washington.
Things one didn’t know: the population of Afghanistan (31m) is larger than Iraq’s (26m). Arguing that we are winning in Iraq but losing in Afghanistan with some insightful comments and comparisons about different media on the way through. More (pdf). But the situation in Baghdad is still poor. More. The cycle of reprisal killings is spiralling upward. The US seems to be committed to slowly withdrawing come what may. Arguing that the level of sectarian hate was always too high for the US to deal with. An I told you so response. The wider context. The US Ambassador in Iraq analyses the current situation.
It has long been argued that Arab anti-Israeli sentiment was in part a release valve for political angst that was not permitted within their own countries: evidence from an online BBC forum provides support for this view. Or, perhaps, merely that one changes one’s mind about terrorism when subject to it oneself. About the Iraq and Afghanistant contrast.
Pentagon announces that article III of Geneva Convention applies to all US military detainees.
Synchronised bombings on Mumbai rush hour trains. Over 190 killed. Perhaps it’s Mumbai’s modernity that makes it such a continuing target. The city is showing its resilience. Islamic militants are the prime suspects.
North Korea’s missile games is changing Japan’s outlook on military matters.
The steady abandonment of illusions over Israel-Palestine. Hezbollah gets into the abduction game, Israel organises for retaliatory strikes into Lebanon. Things are getting bad in Gaza.
Mayor “Red Ken” will not be at a memorial service for the London bombing victims after the Bishop declared him not a unifying figure. An Islamic cleric who is certainly not a unifying figure speaks in Birmingham on the bombings: The audience laughs as Omar Brooks, a British Muslim convert who also uses the name Abu Izzadeen, makes fun of non-Muslims as “animals” and “cowards”.
Brooks - who has previously described the London bombers as “completely praiseworthy” - identifies with the views of Mohammad Sidique Khan, the ringleader of the London attacks.
He contrasts the supposed bravery of Khan’s suicide to the “kuffar” (non-Muslims) who are characterised as debauched binge-drinkers who vomit and urinate in the street. The very modern nature of religious “fundamentalism”. The notable gap in the aforementioned article. And also.
About the rise of the Shi’a in the Middle East as a result of the Coalition intervention in Iraq and the complicated interactions between Teheran and Washington.
Things one didn’t know: the population of Afghanistan (31m) is larger than Iraq’s (26m). Arguing that we are winning in Iraq but losing in Afghanistan with some insightful comments and comparisons about different media on the way through. More (pdf). But the situation in Baghdad is still poor. More. The cycle of reprisal killings is spiralling upward. The US seems to be committed to slowly withdrawing come what may. Arguing that the level of sectarian hate was always too high for the US to deal with. An I told you so response. The wider context. The US Ambassador in Iraq analyses the current situation.
It has long been argued that Arab anti-Israeli sentiment was in part a release valve for political angst that was not permitted within their own countries: evidence from an online BBC forum provides support for this view. Or, perhaps, merely that one changes one’s mind about terrorism when subject to it oneself. About the Iraq and Afghanistant contrast.
Pentagon announces that article III of Geneva Convention applies to all US military detainees.