Month: April 2016

Eighty people were killed across Iraq. A car bomb killed and wounded dozens in Baghdad.

No. It’s not "us" and "them". Not "us" – the good ones, the moral ones, the righteous ones. Or, to put it bluntly, the magnificent ones. The Jews. And not "them" – the bad ones, the evil ones. To put it bluntly again: the despicable ones. Yes, the Arabs. We, who were chosen by God, … Continue reading “‘Us’ and ‘Them’”

“You had to live – did live, from habit that became instinct – in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and, except in darkness, every movement scrutinized.” – George Orwell, 1984 In past ages, those who dared to speak out against tyranny – viewed as an act of treason – were blinded, … Continue reading “Censored, Surveilled, Watch-Listed, and Jailed”

Daesh claimed to have killed dozens of security forces in Iraq.

The reaction to GOP frontrunner Donald Trump’s much-awaited foreign policy speech from the Washington elites was all-too-predictable: they sneered and snickered that he had mispronounced “Tanzania.” The more substantive criticisms weren’t much better: perpetual warmonger Lindsey Graham, whose presidential bid garnered zero percent in the polls, tweeted “Trump’s FP speech not conservative. It’s isolationism surrounded … Continue reading “The Trump Test”

During the last decade, people have become more and more afraid of the dystopian possibilities of a country – or a world – full of drones. And though drones offer a smorgasbord of grim possibilities in terms of of surveillance, and warfare, the actual technology mostly remains a distraction. (Though one normalized in warfare by … Continue reading “It’s Not About Drones, It’s About Lazy War”

In a Greater Middle East in which one country after another has been plunged into chaos and possible failed statehood, two rival nations, Iran and Saudi Arabia, have been bedrock exceptions to the rule. Iran, at the moment, remains so, but the Saudi royals, increasingly unnerved, have been steering their country erratically into the region’s … Continue reading “The Coming World of ‘Peak Oil Demand,’ Not ‘Peak Oil’”

At least 107 people were killed across Iraq.

Would all of our lives be safer if the government could break down all the doors it wishes, listen to all the conversations it could find and read whatever emails and text messages it could acquire? Perhaps. But who would want to live in such a society? To prevent that from happening here, the Framers … Continue reading “Fruit of the Poisonous Tree”

At the age of 21, I crossed Gaza into Egypt to pursue a degree in political science. The timing could have not been worse. The Iraq invasion of Kuwait in 1990 had resulted in a US-led international coalition and a major war, which eventually paved the road for the US invasion of Iraq in 2003. … Continue reading “Did the Arabs Betray Palestine?”