Muslim students are crying foul after the University of Southern California's provost took down historical documents that call for Muslims to kill Jewish people from a student group's site, the Daily Trojan reports. The documents come from a collection of scriptures known as hadiths, the words of Muhammad not included in the Quran. These hadiths, which include thousands of noninflammatory principles, were posted in their entirety on the school's server as part of the defunct Muslim Student Association's website.
The provost said that "the passage cited is truly despicable.... We did some investigations and have ordered the passage to be removed." But the Muslim Student Union, the dominant Muslim student group at USC, accused the university of censorship, calling the take-down "unprecedented and unconscionable."
"We are outraged at the censorship of a complete religious and classic text without consulting us or any religious authority first," the group said in the statement. "The 'compendium' is now incomplete. There are verses in many religious texts (be it the Torah or the New Testament) that when taken out of context can be taken as offensive."
Supporters of the move defend the provost's actions. "It may be part of the religious canon, but that doesn't make them less hateful," said David Horowitz, who has lobbied a number of schools to remove the "hadiths of hate," as he calls them, from their websites. Horowitz says this is the first he's heard of a university taking down documents after community members complained.
The Hadith that were removed:
Book 041, Number 6981:
Ibn 'Umar reported Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) as saying: You will fight against the Jews and you will kill them until even a stone would say: Come here, Muslim, there is a Jew (hiding himself behind me) ; kill him.
Book 041, Number 6982:
Ubaidullah has reported this hadith with this chain of transmitters (and the Words are):" There is a Jew behind me."
Book 041, Number 6983:
Abdullah b. 'Umar reported Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) as saying: You and the Jews would fight against one another until a stone would say: Muslim, here is a Jew behind me; come and kill him.
Book 041, Number 6984:
Abdullah b. 'Umar reported that Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) said: The Jews will fight against you and you will gain victory over them until the stone would say: Muslim, here is a Jew behind me; kill him.
Book 041, Number 6985:
Abu Huraira reported Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) as saying: The last hour would not come unless the Muslims will fight against the Jews and the Muslims would kill them until the Jews would hide themselves behind a stone or a tree and a stone or a tree would say: Muslim, or the servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me; come and kill him; but the tree Gharqad would not say, for it is the tree of the Jews.
Censorship, of course. If they think Islam is so bad, don't they want people to be educated about it? And if they think it's inciteful, don't they think Muslims can get access to it other ways? And what if a Palestinian wanted the part of the Old Testament taken down where it talked about massacring the Canaanites?
Sunday, September 7, 2008
Iranian women battle the system
Four more women in Iran have been sentenced to jail - six months behind bars - for campaigning for women's rights.
They were accused of "spreading propaganda" against the Islamic system here - specifically for taking part in the Million Signatures Campaign for equal rights for women.
One of those sentenced, Parvin Ardalan, was awarded the Olof Palme Prize this year - on her way to collect the honour, her passport was seized at Imam Khomeini International Airport in Teheran, and she was unable to travel.
An estimated 50 women have been detained since the signatures campaign began.
Women in Iran have severely restricted freedom of choice, and no equality with men.
A married woman must obtain her husband's permission before taking a job outside their home.
A man may have up to four wives. A woman may not have up to four husbands.
Women must observe the Islamic dress code - showing as little hair as possible, and their arms, their legs and their feet must be covered.
There is no protection against so-called honour killings for women who are raped; a husband - or a father - who kills the rape victim cannot be prosecuted and sent to jail for murder.
They were accused of "spreading propaganda" against the Islamic system here - specifically for taking part in the Million Signatures Campaign for equal rights for women.
One of those sentenced, Parvin Ardalan, was awarded the Olof Palme Prize this year - on her way to collect the honour, her passport was seized at Imam Khomeini International Airport in Teheran, and she was unable to travel.
An estimated 50 women have been detained since the signatures campaign began.
Women in Iran have severely restricted freedom of choice, and no equality with men.
A married woman must obtain her husband's permission before taking a job outside their home.
A man may have up to four wives. A woman may not have up to four husbands.
Women must observe the Islamic dress code - showing as little hair as possible, and their arms, their legs and their feet must be covered.
There is no protection against so-called honour killings for women who are raped; a husband - or a father - who kills the rape victim cannot be prosecuted and sent to jail for murder.
EGYPT: Risking death for new life in Italy
CAIRO, 7 September 2008 (IRIN) - Italy has long been a popular destination among young men in Nile Valley villages. Relatives save up money for each other and a transnational information and communication network facilitates the movement of migrants across the Mediterranean.
Because about 95 percent of Egypt's 74 million people live along the Nile Valley and in the Nile Delta on about 4 percent of the country's land, the pressure to emigrate is significant.
Soliman al-Alfy, editor of the local newspaper, the Voice of Menufiyya, said: "It is a story of poverty, small agricultural lands with increasing rent, low income, no job opportunities - all that alongside good education and a lot of ambition."
Hamdi Hamdy, a taxi driver in a village in Menufiyya Governorate, northern Egypt, who made the journey, agreed. "People who emigrate to Italy return rich. Some of them buy cars worth 100,000 Egyptian pounds [US$18,500], others get married and build multi-storey buildings," he said. Just opposite his run-down building is a new pastel-coloured villa, whose owners work in Italy.
Until recently, most would-be emigrants crossed Libya. There, they would be stripped of their passports and hidden by smugglers until it was deemed safe to move to the Mediterranean. Sometimes they would stay for days in abandoned warehouses - often with other Arabs, Asians and Africans, and with little food - before being packed into 7m-long "zodiacs" and taken to the Italian island of Lampedusa.
Hamdy, however, took a different route. "We went to a town near Alexandria called Rashid, where we spent a night in a garden, then left at dawn. We were nearly 115 people. We got on a pick-up [truck], where they covered us with plastic and cloth, and it took nearly two hours till we reached the sea . Before reaching the ship, we ran for nearly half-an-hour on sand, till some of us fainted," he said.
The Centre for Migration and Refugee Studies (CMRS) at the American University in Cairo is sponsoring research on irregular migration of Egyptians to Europe via the Mediterranean Sea.
Dr. Ray Jureidini, Associate Director, expounding on the imperatives of such work said: "Departures from the north of Egypt are not new, but this particular part of the Mediterranean coastline has been primarily used for smuggling migrants via Crete, Cyprus and Turkey. Now this year, the local Arabic press has reported a series of sinkings and rescue operations of boats en route from Alexandria and Marsa Matrouh all the way to Italy. This seems to suggest that, due to increased border control mechanisms, the journeys are getting longer, riskier and more expensive - but desperate people are still willing to take them."
The route to Lampedusa from Alexandria can take up to seven days, when it takes only seven hours from the Libyan coastal city of Zuwara.
Border closure
Ayman Zohry, president of the Egyptian Society for Migration Studies, said the increase in departures from the Egyptian coast was due to the closure of the border between Egypt and Libya. Before March 2007, it was as easy to travel from Aswan to Tripoli as from Aswan to Cairo; it was only a matter of a minibus ride, Zohry said. "But after March 2007, it became difficult to go to Libya from Egypt by road. New regulations have been introduced by the Libyan authorities," he said.
Instead of passports and ID cards, Egyptians now have to show an official work contract, with a stamp from the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Zohry said.
Earlier this year, 34 Egyptians were sentenced to one year in prison and fined 1,000 Egyptian pounds ($186) after being caught in the northern city of Marsa Matrouh trying to reach Libya through a desert valley.
Despite a crackdown on attempts to cross from Egypt to Libya, these journeys are still taking place. In June, a boat sank off the coast of Libya on its way to Italy killing 50 Egyptians.
When Hamdy reached the beach in Rashid, he was put on a motor boat. After a journey of about one-and-a-half hours they reached a big wooden fishing boat, which took them, three hours later, to the final "ferry". "The ferry was supposed to take us to Italy. It sailed for nearly four days, but we faced death till we reached it," he said.
However, Hamdy's dream did not pay off. He returned to his village, Mit Kha'an, after a few months of frantic job-hunting in Milan. He hopes next time he will be luckier.
Because about 95 percent of Egypt's 74 million people live along the Nile Valley and in the Nile Delta on about 4 percent of the country's land, the pressure to emigrate is significant.
Soliman al-Alfy, editor of the local newspaper, the Voice of Menufiyya, said: "It is a story of poverty, small agricultural lands with increasing rent, low income, no job opportunities - all that alongside good education and a lot of ambition."
Hamdi Hamdy, a taxi driver in a village in Menufiyya Governorate, northern Egypt, who made the journey, agreed. "People who emigrate to Italy return rich. Some of them buy cars worth 100,000 Egyptian pounds [US$18,500], others get married and build multi-storey buildings," he said. Just opposite his run-down building is a new pastel-coloured villa, whose owners work in Italy.
Until recently, most would-be emigrants crossed Libya. There, they would be stripped of their passports and hidden by smugglers until it was deemed safe to move to the Mediterranean. Sometimes they would stay for days in abandoned warehouses - often with other Arabs, Asians and Africans, and with little food - before being packed into 7m-long "zodiacs" and taken to the Italian island of Lampedusa.
Hamdy, however, took a different route. "We went to a town near Alexandria called Rashid, where we spent a night in a garden, then left at dawn. We were nearly 115 people. We got on a pick-up [truck], where they covered us with plastic and cloth, and it took nearly two hours till we reached the sea . Before reaching the ship, we ran for nearly half-an-hour on sand, till some of us fainted," he said.
The Centre for Migration and Refugee Studies (CMRS) at the American University in Cairo is sponsoring research on irregular migration of Egyptians to Europe via the Mediterranean Sea.
Dr. Ray Jureidini, Associate Director, expounding on the imperatives of such work said: "Departures from the north of Egypt are not new, but this particular part of the Mediterranean coastline has been primarily used for smuggling migrants via Crete, Cyprus and Turkey. Now this year, the local Arabic press has reported a series of sinkings and rescue operations of boats en route from Alexandria and Marsa Matrouh all the way to Italy. This seems to suggest that, due to increased border control mechanisms, the journeys are getting longer, riskier and more expensive - but desperate people are still willing to take them."
The route to Lampedusa from Alexandria can take up to seven days, when it takes only seven hours from the Libyan coastal city of Zuwara.
Border closure
Ayman Zohry, president of the Egyptian Society for Migration Studies, said the increase in departures from the Egyptian coast was due to the closure of the border between Egypt and Libya. Before March 2007, it was as easy to travel from Aswan to Tripoli as from Aswan to Cairo; it was only a matter of a minibus ride, Zohry said. "But after March 2007, it became difficult to go to Libya from Egypt by road. New regulations have been introduced by the Libyan authorities," he said.
Instead of passports and ID cards, Egyptians now have to show an official work contract, with a stamp from the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Zohry said.
Earlier this year, 34 Egyptians were sentenced to one year in prison and fined 1,000 Egyptian pounds ($186) after being caught in the northern city of Marsa Matrouh trying to reach Libya through a desert valley.
Despite a crackdown on attempts to cross from Egypt to Libya, these journeys are still taking place. In June, a boat sank off the coast of Libya on its way to Italy killing 50 Egyptians.
When Hamdy reached the beach in Rashid, he was put on a motor boat. After a journey of about one-and-a-half hours they reached a big wooden fishing boat, which took them, three hours later, to the final "ferry". "The ferry was supposed to take us to Italy. It sailed for nearly four days, but we faced death till we reached it," he said.
However, Hamdy's dream did not pay off. He returned to his village, Mit Kha'an, after a few months of frantic job-hunting in Milan. He hopes next time he will be luckier.
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Palin's preacher says bulldozer attacks are because Jews haven't "embraced Christianity".
Yes, Sarah Palin sat in a church where this message was given. Two weeks ago.
Brickner described terrorist attacks on Israelis as God's "judgment of unbelief" of Jews who haven't embraced Christianity.
"Judgment is very real and we see it played out on the pages of the newspapers and on the television. It's very real. When [Brickner's son] was in Jerusalem he was there to witness some of that judgment, some of that conflict, when a Palestinian from East Jerusalem took a bulldozer and went plowing through a score of cars, killing numbers of people. Judgment — you can't miss it."
Brickner described terrorist attacks on Israelis as God's "judgment of unbelief" of Jews who haven't embraced Christianity.
"Judgment is very real and we see it played out on the pages of the newspapers and on the television. It's very real. When [Brickner's son] was in Jerusalem he was there to witness some of that judgment, some of that conflict, when a Palestinian from East Jerusalem took a bulldozer and went plowing through a score of cars, killing numbers of people. Judgment — you can't miss it."
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
"The End of the War on Terror and a new New World Order?"
by Ali Abunimah
In the shocking aftermath of September 11, the U.S. was still acknowledged as the sole superpower, and the president could get away with telling the World “either you are with us or you are with the terrorists.”6 This was in effect a demand that all other countries subordinate their own priorities to fighting America’s enemies as it alone defined them.
In 2008, the United States has come up against the limitations of this posture—a further built-in contradiction is that it has demanded absolute loyalty to its agenda from countries that increasingly felt much more victimized by American actions than by terrorism. This often put client governments on a collision course with their publics. A case in point is Pakistan where the only criterion for evaluating former President and military dictator General Pervez Musharraf was how much he served narrowly-defined U.S. interests. Unsurprisingly— except perhaps to Washington policymakers—he faced increasing domestic opposition from constituencies that felt their fundamental interests were being trampled, eventually forcing him from office. Similar dynamics are at play to a greater or lesser extent in countries across South Asia, the Middle East and Latin America.
Turkey’s President Abdullah Gül recently observed that the era when the United States alone could set the world agenda had ended. “I don’t think you can control all the world from one center. There are big nations. There are huge populations. There is unbelievable economic development in some parts of the world,” Gül said and, returning to a familiar theme, he argued, “What we have to do is, instead of unilateral actions, act all together, make common decisions and have consultations with the world. A new world order, if I can say it, should emerge.”7
In the shocking aftermath of September 11, the U.S. was still acknowledged as the sole superpower, and the president could get away with telling the World “either you are with us or you are with the terrorists.”6 This was in effect a demand that all other countries subordinate their own priorities to fighting America’s enemies as it alone defined them.
In 2008, the United States has come up against the limitations of this posture—a further built-in contradiction is that it has demanded absolute loyalty to its agenda from countries that increasingly felt much more victimized by American actions than by terrorism. This often put client governments on a collision course with their publics. A case in point is Pakistan where the only criterion for evaluating former President and military dictator General Pervez Musharraf was how much he served narrowly-defined U.S. interests. Unsurprisingly— except perhaps to Washington policymakers—he faced increasing domestic opposition from constituencies that felt their fundamental interests were being trampled, eventually forcing him from office. Similar dynamics are at play to a greater or lesser extent in countries across South Asia, the Middle East and Latin America.
Turkey’s President Abdullah Gül recently observed that the era when the United States alone could set the world agenda had ended. “I don’t think you can control all the world from one center. There are big nations. There are huge populations. There is unbelievable economic development in some parts of the world,” Gül said and, returning to a familiar theme, he argued, “What we have to do is, instead of unilateral actions, act all together, make common decisions and have consultations with the world. A new world order, if I can say it, should emerge.”7
Monday, September 1, 2008
What If the Israel Lobby were the Islamic Lobby? (Part Two)
The Israel Lobby Juggernaut scares the hell out of people. It tries to crush those who stand up against them; some suffer but persist, and the pragmatics survive by changing their tune. Nobody is immune; reporters, editors, columnists, professors, academics, politicians.... Everyone is labeled “anti-Semite” when s/he criticizes the power of the Israel Lobby or talks about the misery of the Palestinian people. Even a greeting kiss upsets them! And enquiries are never allowed to be held into Israel’s crimes.
It’s not a new phenomenon; back in the 1950s, the frustrated Secretary of State John Foster Dulles unambiguously stated: “We cannot have all our policies made in Jerusalem.” To the owner of Time Inc. Henry Luce he said: “I am aware how almost impossible it is in this country to carry out a foreign policy not approved by the Jews. [But] I am going to try to have one. This does not mean I am anti-Jewish, but I believe in what George Washington said in his farewell address, that an emotional attachment to another country should not interfere.”
It’s not a new phenomenon; back in the 1950s, the frustrated Secretary of State John Foster Dulles unambiguously stated: “We cannot have all our policies made in Jerusalem.” To the owner of Time Inc. Henry Luce he said: “I am aware how almost impossible it is in this country to carry out a foreign policy not approved by the Jews. [But] I am going to try to have one. This does not mean I am anti-Jewish, but I believe in what George Washington said in his farewell address, that an emotional attachment to another country should not interfere.”
Libertarianism, Republicans, and Natural disasters
A recent report by the inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security said that the FEMA has made only “limited progress” in the area of “mission assignments” — that is, in its ability to coordinate the response to a crisis. So FEMA still isn’t up to carrying out its principal task.
That’s no accident. FEMA’s degradation, from one of the government’s most admired agencies to a laughingstock, wasn’t an isolated event; it was the result of the G.O.P.’s underlying philosophy. Simply put, when the government is run by a political party committed to the belief that government is always the problem, never the solution, that belief tends to become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Key priorities are neglected; key functions are privatized; and key people, the competent public servants who make government work, either leave or are driven out.
Yasmin and Abe, correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't this Ron Paul's philosophy as well?
That’s no accident. FEMA’s degradation, from one of the government’s most admired agencies to a laughingstock, wasn’t an isolated event; it was the result of the G.O.P.’s underlying philosophy. Simply put, when the government is run by a political party committed to the belief that government is always the problem, never the solution, that belief tends to become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Key priorities are neglected; key functions are privatized; and key people, the competent public servants who make government work, either leave or are driven out.
Yasmin and Abe, correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't this Ron Paul's philosophy as well?
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Polygamy is the key to a long life
Want to live a little longer? Get a second wife. New research suggests that men from polygamous cultures outlive those from monogamous ones.
After accounting for socioeconomic differences, men aged over 60 from 140 countries that practice polygamy to varying degrees lived on average 12% longer than men from 49 mostly monogamous nations, says Virpi Lummaa, an ecologist at the University of Sheffield, UK.
Lummaa presented her findings last week at the International Society for Behavioral Ecology’s annual meeting in Ithaca, New York.
Rather than a call to polygamy, the research might solve a long-standing puzzle in human biology: Why do men live so long?
This question only makes sense after asking the same for women, who - unlike nearly all other animals - live long past the menopause.
One answer seems to be a phenomenon called the grandmother effect. For every 10 years a woman survives past the menopause, she gains two additional grandchildren, Lummaa says. It seems that doting on and spoiling grandchildren aids their survival, as well as furthering some of their grandmother’s genes.
Men, by contrast, can reproduce well into their 60s and even 70s and 80s, and most researchers assumed this explained their longevity. But Lummaa and colleague Andy Russell wondered whether other factors explained the long lifespan of men, such as a grandfather effect.
To test this possibility, the team analysed church-gathered records for 25,000 Finns from the 18th and 19th centuries. People tended to move little, no one practiced contraception and the Lutheran Church enforced monogamy.
widowed men could remarry, and if they had children with their new wife, they fathered more kids, on average, than men who married once...
After accounting for socioeconomic differences, men aged over 60 from 140 countries that practice polygamy to varying degrees lived on average 12% longer than men from 49 mostly monogamous nations, says Virpi Lummaa, an ecologist at the University of Sheffield, UK.
Lummaa presented her findings last week at the International Society for Behavioral Ecology’s annual meeting in Ithaca, New York.
Rather than a call to polygamy, the research might solve a long-standing puzzle in human biology: Why do men live so long?
This question only makes sense after asking the same for women, who - unlike nearly all other animals - live long past the menopause.
One answer seems to be a phenomenon called the grandmother effect. For every 10 years a woman survives past the menopause, she gains two additional grandchildren, Lummaa says. It seems that doting on and spoiling grandchildren aids their survival, as well as furthering some of their grandmother’s genes.
Men, by contrast, can reproduce well into their 60s and even 70s and 80s, and most researchers assumed this explained their longevity. But Lummaa and colleague Andy Russell wondered whether other factors explained the long lifespan of men, such as a grandfather effect.
To test this possibility, the team analysed church-gathered records for 25,000 Finns from the 18th and 19th centuries. People tended to move little, no one practiced contraception and the Lutheran Church enforced monogamy.
widowed men could remarry, and if they had children with their new wife, they fathered more kids, on average, than men who married once...
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
The Yes Men
I've loved the yes men ever since I saw the movie about them. Anyway, just in case you're fans (and most of you will be after reading their website or watching the movie (it's hilarious, rent it!), I thought I'd share the email I got from them:
Dear Friends,
Twice in the past, we've asked you for money to help us take aim at the
world's nastiest criminals. Both times, you responded generously - and
the results you can see at http://theyesmen.org/ (search on "Exxon" and
"Halliburton").
Now, we've teamed up with a dozen talented pals to aim our sights on
the biggest crime of the twenty-first century: the destruction of a
whole country for obviously fabricated reasons by the thugs in charge
of our country.
Your donation (http://theyesmen.org/donate/) will make it possible for
us to print and distribute up to hundred thousand copies of, um,
something. We can't tell you what it is, but we can say it'll happen
well before the Presidential election, that it's fantastic and funny
and smart, and that it aims to change the discussion from just managing
the Iraq War, to ending it, with all that that would mean for the US as
well. Because this war has been a disaster not just for Iraq.
If you give us money (any amount is helpful), we'll make sure you get a
copy. And if you live in the New York area and would like to be part of
this action, please write mailto:newyork@theyesmen.org.
(Speaking of New York: Chris Smith, one of the directors of "The Yes
Men," has made an incredible new film, "The Pool," that will open at
Film Forum in New York on September 3:
http://www.filmforum.org/films/pool.html For subsequent screenings in
other cities, see http://www.thepoolfilm.com/)
(Oh, and speaking of movies, we're nearly done with ours! In three
months or so we will have a brand new film based on five of our
actions, with plenty of plot and some investigative journalism to boot.
Stay tuned!)
Love,
The Yes Men and friends
Dear Friends,
Twice in the past, we've asked you for money to help us take aim at the
world's nastiest criminals. Both times, you responded generously - and
the results you can see at http://theyesmen.org/ (search on "Exxon" and
"Halliburton").
Now, we've teamed up with a dozen talented pals to aim our sights on
the biggest crime of the twenty-first century: the destruction of a
whole country for obviously fabricated reasons by the thugs in charge
of our country.
Your donation (http://theyesmen.org/donate/) will make it possible for
us to print and distribute up to hundred thousand copies of, um,
something. We can't tell you what it is, but we can say it'll happen
well before the Presidential election, that it's fantastic and funny
and smart, and that it aims to change the discussion from just managing
the Iraq War, to ending it, with all that that would mean for the US as
well. Because this war has been a disaster not just for Iraq.
If you give us money (any amount is helpful), we'll make sure you get a
copy. And if you live in the New York area and would like to be part of
this action, please write mailto:newyork@theyesmen.org.
(Speaking of New York: Chris Smith, one of the directors of "The Yes
Men," has made an incredible new film, "The Pool," that will open at
Film Forum in New York on September 3:
http://www.filmforum.org/films/pool.html For subsequent screenings in
other cities, see http://www.thepoolfilm.com/)
(Oh, and speaking of movies, we're nearly done with ours! In three
months or so we will have a brand new film based on five of our
actions, with plenty of plot and some investigative journalism to boot.
Stay tuned!)
Love,
The Yes Men and friends
They are spending 50 million dollars on policing at the Democratic National convention to disrupt this.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
I'd like to recommend a book I just finished: The other side of Israel. It is written by a (former) Zionist Jew. She goes to live in an Arab town in Israel and very quickly realizes she is living in an apartheid state. We don't hear much about Palestinian residents of Israel because things are worse for Palestinian citizens of the West Bank and Gaza, but they are pretty fucked as well. It would be a good book to give to any colleague of yours who is not fully aware and outraged at the racism and apartheid.
The big questions about Iraq
by Patrick Cockburn
Will Iraq disintegrate if the United States withdraws its combat troops?
The US and Iraq are close to agreeing a security accord under which the US would pull its combat troops out of Iraqi cities, towns and villages on June 30, 2009 and out of Iraq by December 31, 2011. This will only happen if a joint Iraqi-American ministerial committee agrees that security in Iraq has improved to the point where the half million strong Iraqi security forces can take over. Other aspects of the draft agreement show that the government of Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki is increasingly confident of its own military and political strength. The accord now close to being agreed is very different from the one the US proposed as recently as March which would simply have continued the US occupation, much as it has been under the UN mandate which runs out at the end of the year. The main point about the agreement, if it is implemented as expected, is that the US will cease to be the predominant military power in Iraq from next summer for the first time since the US-led coalition overthrew Saddam Hussein in 2003.
Will Iraq disintegrate if the United States withdraws its combat troops?
The US and Iraq are close to agreeing a security accord under which the US would pull its combat troops out of Iraqi cities, towns and villages on June 30, 2009 and out of Iraq by December 31, 2011. This will only happen if a joint Iraqi-American ministerial committee agrees that security in Iraq has improved to the point where the half million strong Iraqi security forces can take over. Other aspects of the draft agreement show that the government of Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki is increasingly confident of its own military and political strength. The accord now close to being agreed is very different from the one the US proposed as recently as March which would simply have continued the US occupation, much as it has been under the UN mandate which runs out at the end of the year. The main point about the agreement, if it is implemented as expected, is that the US will cease to be the predominant military power in Iraq from next summer for the first time since the US-led coalition overthrew Saddam Hussein in 2003.
Monday, August 25, 2008
I'd like to highly recommend this movie I saw last night. It's like black people from poor areas live in another country than me. I walk around all the time knowing the authorities will help me if something like this happens in New York. I don't know what it would feel like knowing the government wouldn't help me, would let me die without a thought.
Friday, August 22, 2008
Hi, all. I won't really be blogging much anymore. I have decided it is more important for me to spend the time with my son. I might pop up here and there if I can think of something interesting to say or an interesting article to post, and of course will be in the comments section. Keep fighting the good fight and remember, blogging doesn't change the world. Oh, and go green! Or there will be no world left to fight for.
Monday, August 18, 2008
We live in an extremely sick country
We ignore our own citizens in natural disasters, we don't ban chemicals (used on crops and in childrens' toys) that the EU bans, we don't provide health care for our citizens, we deport children without their parents (90,000 in 7 months), we don't pick up garbage in cans on the streets (in my neighborhood, they don't seem to, anyway), we barely educate our kids (my sister's high school history textbook was 20 years old) unless they live in a rich area, teachers may carry guns, 67 people were shot in schools last year, we throw juveniles in general prison populations, allowing them to get raped repeatedly, etc., etc. And I only mentioned a few reasons that I told my husband why we can't raise our son here. And then there's this story that happened only a few miles away from us.
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