[Note for TomDispatch readers: Last year, at my birthday, I wrote "When I'm 64... ,"a post about war and (lack of) peace in my time. Another year has rolled around, as it tends to do, so think of what follows as further scribbled notes, stuffed in an e-bottle, and set...
Anthony Shadid has, without a doubt, been the finest American mainstream journalist to cover Iraq in the period after the 2003 invasion. He's now back in Baghdad for the Washington Post, telling the saddest story of all ("In the City of Cement"). Here's part of what...
The armed might of the state (and its auxiliary forces) remains in the hands of Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and its "reelected" President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has, according to Neil MacFarquhar of the New York Times, solidified control over the Interior...
The American media in its 24/7 half-life tends to turn the surprises of history, large and small, into flood-tide events. They sweep over us, offering a kind of news satiation that leads quickly enough to forgetfulness -- as the media moves on. And then the subjects...
