Graphic: 3 New Provinces in Iraq
Chuck Spinney Comments & AP Story Below the Line
Beatrice Giblin: The Conflicts in the World – A Geopolitical Approach
Béatrice Giblin is a geographer and Professor of Geopolitics. She is teaching at Paris 8 University (former experimental center of Vincennes). Professor Giblin is the founder of the French Institute of Geopolitics (2002) that she headed for ten years. Moreover, she is Head of the geographical and geopolitical magazine Hérodote, founded by Yves Lacoste whom …
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NIGHTWATCH: Iraq Headed Toward Sunni Autonomous Region?
Iraq: Prime Minister al-Maliki urged residents and tribes of Fallujah to ‘expel’ al-Qaida militants from the Sunni-dominated city to avoid an all-out battle. Multiple news outlets have reported that the government is planning a major ground and air attack against Fallujah if the residents and tribes fail to oust the al Qaida militants.
Patrick Cockburn: Hazards of Revolution — and Counter-Revolution
Hazards of Revolution Patrick Cockburn London Review of Books, 9 January 2014 EXTRACTS: Why have oppositions in the Arab world and beyond failed so absolutely, and why have they repeated in power, or in pursuit of it, so many of the faults and crimes of the old regimes? The contrast between humanitarian principles expressed at …
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Chuck Spinney: Sharmine Narwani on Middle East Home Grown Security Arc
Attached is a very different analysis of emerging politics in the Middle East. I do not know what to make of it. Some of it rings true to me, like the pressures on Turkey to shift gears … but taken together, I just don’t know. I welcome any comments, pro or con, about it. I …
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Chuck Spinney: Two Evaluations of Middle East After Arab Spring
Attached below are two very important reports by two of the most astute observers of conflicts in the Middle East. The first is a precisely-focused report by Rami Khouri, editor at large of Lebanon’s Daily Star. Khouri analyzes how the recent assassination of Mohamad Chatah needs to be interpreted in the context of complexities of …
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Chuck Spinney: Patrick Cockburn Interviews Muqtada al-Sadr on Iraq — Toxic Mix of Sectarianism, Incompetent and Corrupt Government, and Interference by US, UK, and Iran
The United States bears a moral responsibility for the murderous state of affairs in Iraq, but contemporary American grand strategy has become a self-referencing mix of arrogance, narcissism, and exceptionalism; so it is not surprising that most Americans have dismissed Iraq their minds (as they are now dismissing Afghanistan). Below is an excellent reminder of the situation …
