February 20, 2008 – 6:11 pm
With a hat tip to James Taranto, here’s a story you didn’t see in the New York Times: Bob Geldof, the noted social activist, former Boomtown Rat, and star of Pink Floyd’s Comfortably Numb video, praised George Bush for his commitment to fighting disease and poverty in Africa.
February 6, 2008 – 10:38 pm
Much was made of a National Intelligence Assessment last year that suggested that Iran was not the nuclear threat it had been cracked up to be. In today’s Washington Sun, however, we read: The director of national intelligence is backing away from his agency’s assessment late last year that Iran had halted its nuclear program, […]
January 31, 2008 – 11:32 pm
I’ve been nettled for years by the near-worship with which Bill Clinton has traditionally been regarded in these parts; if you ask most of my neighbors in Park Slope or Wellfleet, the man can simply do no wrong. This has always puzzled me, because although he is obviously highly intelligent and possessed of a certain […]
January 22, 2008 – 11:06 pm
There are those who would have us believe that the root causes of Islamic terrorism are poverty and political oppression, and that if we Americans weren’t such swaggering imperialists, and could just get along a little more amicably with other cultures, we’d have less to worry about. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Our […]
January 8, 2008 – 10:39 am
There are two interesting editorial items in the Wall Street Journal this morning. Some of you won’t like them — particularly the first one, because it is by Fouad Ajami, whose viewpoint is far from neutral, and because it says some good things about George Bush, and about our recent adventures in the East. (There […]
December 5, 2007 – 3:42 pm
With a “hat tip” to the Maverick Philosopher, Bill Vallicella, here is Garry Kasparov’s account of his recent arrest and imprisonment (as noted in these pages last week).
October 4, 2007 – 12:09 am
Neoconservatism takes a terrible pounding these days. The term “neoconservative” itself, and its common abbreviation, “necon”, are more often spat out in fury than with any understanding of what the word actually refers to, which is a coherent and morally informed school of thought that sees the traditional American ideals of liberty and democracy as […]
October 2, 2007 – 10:35 am
Violence declined sharply in Iraq last month. This was such unwelcome news at the New York Times that the story, which opened with the sentence “The number of violent civilian deaths in Iraq dropped precipitously in September compared with the previous month”, was presented “below the fold” on page 10, having been knocked off the […]
October 1, 2007 – 12:10 pm
Since 9/11, there has been a steady drone of voices from the Left asking “why do they hate us?” ((No, it’s not for the reason this wag suggests.)), and supplying, lest we might be tempted to assign any blame whatsoever to our enemies, a litany of reasons why U.S. influence in the world is toxic […]
September 30, 2007 – 1:45 pm
Well, as we feared would happen, it appears that the peaceful uprising in Burma has been tamped down by ruthless violence. The UN has sent an envoy, Ibrahim Gambari, to speak with the ruling junta, and we can be sure that he will, at the very least, administer a stern finger-wagging — and if that […]
September 26, 2007 – 11:04 pm
For those of you who are interested, here is a transcript of the events at Columbia University on Monday. Looking back, I suppose little was gained, and perhaps something lost, by Mr. Bollinger’s caustic introduction, although for those of you who have only heard about it, it is worth reading, because it is much more […]
September 25, 2007 – 11:10 pm
We note with considerable interest the goings-on in Burma these days, where the military junta that runs the country — one of the most repressive governments in the world today — is finding itself in a bit of a cleft stick as Buddhist monks are waging an ever-bolder campaign of civil disobedience. Were any other […]
September 24, 2007 – 11:32 pm
There was a predictable ruction about whether or not Mahmoud Ahmadinejad should have been allowed to speak at Columbia today, and I must say that at the very least it was gratifying to see that he was given a chilly greeting. It was nice to see the academic community turning out to express their disapproval […]
September 20, 2007 – 10:41 pm
Ask anyone these days, and they’ll tell you that health-care services in Cuba are second to none. Despite the island nation’s having been so thoroughly beggared by almost half a century of totalitarian Marxist rule that people drown themselves in rickety boats in desperate attempts to flee, even the humblest son of the soil, when […]
September 18, 2007 – 1:25 pm
On September 6th, Israel did something in Syria, something about which they have been rather uncharacteristically mum. In today’s Wall Street Journal, Bret Stephens, ex-editor of the Jerusalem Post, considers what it might have been.
August 26, 2007 – 8:37 pm
With a hat tip to our friend the Big Hominid, we direct you to a remarkable video clip, of the apostate Muslim gadfly Wafa Sultan engaging in a heated debate on al-Jazeera television. Sultan characterizes the struggle between jihadis and the West: The clash we are witnessing around the world is not a clash of […]
August 18, 2007 – 10:46 pm
We note with sadness, if not surprise, recent reports that the vainglorious popinjay Hugo ChÁ¡vez is further consolidating his dictatorship of Venezuela by seeking to eliminate Constitutional term limits.
August 13, 2007 – 10:39 am
A reader who calls himself William has left an extensive comment on our recent post about the Korean hostages, in which he left quite a list of relevant links, prefaced by the follwing remarks: Hi, I’m also trying to learn what on earth these Koreans have got themselves into. Without passing any judgment on the […]
August 5, 2007 – 11:54 pm
Here, from the journal Foreign Affairs, is Barack Obama’s obligatory term paper on foreign policy. (Thanks to my friend Jess Kaplan for sending the link our way.) Though the paper deals mostly in generalities, its tone is encouraging, and although I doubt Obama will get the Democratic nod next year, I was pleasantly surprised to […]
The Gypsy Scholar, Horace Jeffery Hodges, discussed the question of absolute national sovereignty in a recent post. It’s an important and difficult issue, and opinions vary greatly.
August 3, 2007 – 11:07 pm
During Republican administrations there tends to be a steady seepage, across our northern border, of sanctimonious and neurasthenic lefties quitting the littoral zones of the USA to make new lives in Canada, their delicate constitutions overwhelmed by the populist social fluctuations permitted by our nation’s vastly more robust one. The Bush administration, which is pretty […]
In the Op-Ed section of yesterday’s New York Times was an optimistic essay on the situation in Iraq by Michael O’Hanlon (of the Brookings Institution) and the well-known Mideast expert Kenneth Pollack (no relation to any of the waka waka waka staff). The article is getting a lot of play today from the government for […]
Should there be a bedrock principle, in international affairs, of unchallengeable sovereignty? Should the international community allow the rulers of nations to do whatsoever they wish within their own borders, without interference, and without exception? I think the answer is no. H. Jeffery Hodges takes up the question here.
The Taliban have now begun slaughtering their South Korean hostages, according to recent news reports. Much has been made, not without good reason, of the monumental stupidity and arrogance of the hostages themselves. For these lunatics to imagine that their mission to convert fundamentalist Muslims to Christianity would accomplish anything other than to get themselves […]
I can see why living in New York City isn’t for everyone, and today was a good example. If nothing else, the weather, as is so often the case around here this time of year, was awful. Gotham is currently straddling a stalled frontal boundary, and with customary perversity we are just on the warm […]
On Sunday, the New York Times published a long editorial, The Road Home, declaring the US effort in Iraq an utter failure, and insisting that we withdraw forthwith. Many agree. Of course, many of those who agree do so more from a visceral loathing of this administration and distrust of government in general, an inchoate […]
I’m a peaceable fellow, but it was not without a wee quickening of my Scottish heart that I read (with a tip of the tam o’shanter to Dennis Mangan and his commenters) of the reception given a couple of jihadists recently up in Glasgow.
More stern stuff from Hitchens on the British terror plot, here.
The prominent Swiss Muslim theologian Tariq Ramadan is a controversial figure: to some, he is an important moderate voice, one that could do much to heal the deepening rift between Islamic and Western culture, while to others his call for an assimilable, Europeanized form of Islam masks a more radical agenda that is closer to […]
I’ve sparked more than a few arguments in these pages over the last couple of years by my support — primarily on moral grounds — for the ouster of Saddam, and by taking very seriously the threat to the West presented by Islamic extremism. While I’m not the right-wing moonbat that some folks seem to […]
A few days ago we directed waka waka waka readers to a Wall Street Journal piece by Bernard Lewis, in which he explained the psychological boost and doctrinal validation that a US abandonment of Iraq would give to our jihadist foes. Now that article is followed by a politically brave item by the Democrat Bob […]
In the wake of the tainted-pet-food story, folks are starting to take a closer look at what sorts of filth, exactly, the Chinese have been dumping on our markets. The story isn’t pretty: in fact, it’s revolting. You can read it here.
Last Wednesday The Wall Street Journal featured an article by Bernard Lewis, perhaps America’s foremost scholar of Islamic history and society. The article is entitled Was Osama Right?, and carries the following subheading: Islamists always believed the U.S. was weak. Recent political trends won’t change their view.
With a tip of the waka waka waka tam o’shanter to our old friend Jess Kaplan, we have further evidence of the beneficial effect of religion upon the world. Today the spotlight is on one Sheik Ahmad Bahr, acting Speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council, who in a sermon on Friday offered an inspiring example […]
Today’s Wall Street Journal features an informative piece by Mideast scholar Fouad Ajami on the changing balance of power in Iraq. An excerpt:
I’ve just run across an unsettling story on the BBC’s website: while we’ve been bickering about philosophical zombies, it appears that over in Cambodia they have to deal with the real thing. Have a look here.
March 31, 2007 – 11:11 pm
Beneath the spreading pall of dreadful and worsening news blowing daily from the tormented Middle East, there is a small spark of light — a newly founded party of peace and reason in Palestine that calls itself Wasatia. Its founder, Professor Mohammed Dajani, of Al-Quds University in East Jerusalem, describes the organization’s mission: “We want […]
From today’s New York Times:
BAGHDAD, March 20 — Insurgents detonated a bomb in a car with two children in it after using the children as decoys to get through a military checkpoint in Baghdad, an American general said Tuesday.
Speaking at a news briefing at the Pentagon, Maj. Gen. Michael Barbaro, deputy director for regional operations at the Joint Staff, said American soldiers had stopped the car at the checkpoint but had allowed it to pass after seeing the two children in the back seat.
“Children in the back seat lower suspicion,†he said, according to a transcript. “We let it move through. They parked the vehicle. The adults run out and detonate it with the children in back.â€
General Barbaro offered no further details.
I confidently await the storm of outrage and condemnation that the Muslim world will surely visit upon these vicious men for such an atrocity.
We are adding two new links to the sidebar. Both are blogs maintained by citizen journalists from Baghdad, with very different perspectives. The first, Iraq the Model, is the work of two brothers, Mohammed and Omar Fadhil, who see in their nation’s strife and suffering the hope of a nascent modern democracy, while the second, Baghdad Burning, which is written by a highly articulate and obviously well-educated woman who goes only by the name Riverbend, bitterly laments the cruelty and chaos that has resulted from the war, and the fracturing and destabilization of Baghdad society after the fall of the old regime. Both are extraordinary examples of the power of this new medium.
February 15, 2007 – 6:26 pm
In Lebanon yesterday, supporters of the pro-Western, Sunni-led government marked the second anniversary of the assassination of the former prime minister Rafik Hariri with a large demonstration. According to the story in today’s paper, as they marched along they chanted:
“We are against sectarianism!
…And God is with the Sunnis!!”
February 10, 2007 – 3:13 pm
I’ll join Kevin Kim in suggesting that readers go take a look at this post by Bill Keezer — one of our valued readers and commenters — on how wrong things might go if our Islamic enemies acquire nuclear weapons.
January 18, 2007 – 12:08 am
A grim story in today’s New York Times begins as follows:
The United Nations reported Tuesday that more than 34,000 Iraqis were killed in violence last year, a figure that represents the first comprehensive annual count of civilian deaths and a vivid measure of the failure of the Iraqi government and American military to provide security.
This is indeed a sickening tally of human misery. And to be sure, the Iraqi army and police have been, by all accounts, at best useless, and at worst, have themselves been agents of grisly violence. It is also quite clear by now that the US management of postwar Iraq — attempted, as Tom Friedman put it, “with our pinky” — was vastly inadequate.
January 11, 2007 – 11:57 pm
However dreary your day, or stifling your job, just be glad you don’t live in Mogadishu, Somalia. This article from today’s New York Times, by Reporter Jeffrey Gettleman, gives us a glimpse of one of the most wretched places on Earth.
It is easy enough to sit back at aloof and luxurious remove and fling curmudgeonly barbs at the preening popinjays and benighted saps that bray and caper upon the stage, but when one thinks of the intractable misery in this world, the inexhaustible capacity people have for making other people suffer horribly for no particular reason, and the fact that, for most people who have ever lived, their lot has been little but misery, hunger, anguish, and death, it really isn’t funny at all.
January 4, 2007 – 7:14 pm
Richard Dawkins, who seems to be everywhere lately (he’s even been spotted recently in a small town in Colorado), has an Op-Ed piece in today’s Los Angeles Times in which he laments the execution of Saddam Hussein, for some of the same reasons that I brought up in this recent post.
December 30, 2006 – 12:43 am
Well, it appears that moments after my previous post, news of the monster Saddam’s execution hit the airwaves. It should be a lively day in Iraq.
December 29, 2006 – 10:20 pm
It appears, in case you have not heard, that the ruthless tyrant Saddam Hussein — under whose monstrous and sanguinary reign hundreds of thousand were tortured and killed, including entire villages upon which he unleashed chemical weapons — is to be hanged within the next few days. At the risk of startling my friends on both the left and the right, I must say that I rather wish he weren’t.
December 26, 2006 – 1:53 pm
The front page of today’s New York Times featured an account of heinous abuse of prisoners at a jailhouse in Basra, Iraq. The suffering captives were delivered from their abusers by a British-led military operation that culminated, after the building’s evacuation, in its destruction. The suffering inflicted was truly awful, according to the report:
More than 100 men were crowded into a single cell, 30 feet by 40 feet, he said, with two open toilets, two sinks and just a few blankets spread over the concrete floor.
A significant number showed signs of torture. Some had crushed hands and feet, [a British military spokesman] said, while others had cigarette and electrical burns and a significant number had gunshot wounds to their legs and knees.
The responsible parties were not U.S. soldiers or other infidels, Iraqi police.
I await, with hand cupped to ear, the incendiary storm of outrage from the Islamic world that Muslim prisoners might be abused in this way.
December 23, 2006 – 1:40 am
We note with interest the passing of Sapurmurat Niyazov, supreme ruler of Turkmenistan. I’ve had my eye on him for a while; he established total control of that Central Asian country upon the dissolution of the Soviet Union, and was the object of a textbook personality cult, right down to writing the textbooks.
December 10, 2006 – 2:45 pm
Former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet has died in Santiago at the age of 91.
It’s supposed to get up to around 86° in Santiago today, but it will be even warmer where he’s going.
November 30, 2006 – 3:18 pm
Political disagreements, such as those that have been taking place lately in comment threads here at waka waka wakaexhibit a property not unlike that ascribed astrophysicists to the hypothetical “dark energy” that is thought to permeate the cosmos: they exert a mysterious repulsive force.