Blogging the democratic revolution
Michael Ledeen of NRO has a strong piece on the movement toward democracy and revolution throughout the globe. The tidal wave has even reached into the planet’s darkest corners, most recently shaking the foundations of the North Korean hermit kingdom. A new leader is announced at the same time the monsters in Pyongyang whisper “We’ve got nukes” and demand legitimacy from George W. Bush. Given the opacity of the country, and the irrationality of its leaders, nobody seems to know whether the Dear Leader is still alive, or, if he is, why the transition has been proclaimed. But the North…
Ali has posted an incredible piece on the Iraq elections, doing the math for all of the parties and such but makes a very notable observation: One of my neighbors received his family’s ballot with his father’s name included even though he died a year ago. Under reporting of deaths was not that uncommon but it became more common after the last war as a result of the total collapse of the system for months. Another neighbor had his two sons’ names registered although they both left Iraq since 1995. This means that many Iraqis outside Iraq, regardless whether they…
John Burgess posts an unsigned editorial in Arab news condemning Syria for the assassination of ex-Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. It may take weeks, if not years, before we know who killed Rafik Hariri. Whoever was behind the dastardly deed clearly wanted to achieve two objectives. The first was to deprive the emerging Lebanese opposition front from a credible leader capable of cutting across sectarian divides in the name of national unity. The second was to create the impression that without Syrian troops on its soil, Lebanon would be plunged into chaos and civil war. It is important that the Lebanese…
Former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq al-Hariri has been assassinated by a suicide bomber. A Shia terrorist group calling itself “Victory and Jihad” has taken credit, and the Lebanese opposition is blaming Syria, of whom Hariri was a critic. I was just watching a news report on Al-Jazeera covering this, and it is looking like Lebanon, once known as the “Switzerland of the Middle East,” may soon become the Ukraine of the Middle East. The crowds gathering in the streets and the political opposition’s press conference certainly reminded me of recent events in that country. Syria has long maintained control over…
Daniel Drezner posts a large roundup, along with some of his own comments, from mainstream media writers about the future effects of the Iraq election. UPDATE: More from Pejman.
You may remember me directing you toward a post about how an Iraqi democrat’s family was killed for his views and actions. Neo Conneli has the rest of the story on this guy’s background, and the lack of coverage in the western media.
Regime Change Iran posts a disturbing article in which an Iranian hardliner makes a choice declaration: ???????We don????????t need any guardian. And if necessary we will select our own president, ministers and parliament members. For without the Hezbollah forces the Islamic Revolution will collapse from within.??????? the hardliner added. On Iran????????s nuclear issue, Kharrazi noted: ???????We have oil, gas and all other natural resources and thus we don????????t need interaction with other countries. We are able to produce atomic bombs and we will do that. We shouldn????????t be afraid of anyone. The US is no more than a barking dog???????…
Chrenkoff’s Good News from Iraq installment number 21 is up! Like always, I hope you have a few hours of extra time to read it.
Matt has some recently released poll results that show slightly more Israelis would prefer kicking the Palestinians out over evacuating from the occupied territories. It was 38% for the former and 37% for the latter. Either way, including doing nothing, is simply masochistic. Some ways less than others, which is why it is better to pull out than to shove out.
Big Pharoah has a “joke of the day” for all of us. Of course, it isn’t really that funny: I have a lovely habit. Every morning I pick up my Al Ahram paper, the number one paper in Egypt, to see how they prioritize their headlines on the front page. This tends to give me an indication of what the paper wants to convey as “important” and as “not very important”. The major headline today went to the security conference in Germany! (did anyone hear about it??). Then a headline a little bit underneath announcing the score of a major…
I take it they are playing it safe with a precarious situation: BAGHDAD, IRAQ – With a Shiite coalition set to take power in Iraq, American officials have begun grilling top Iraqi Shiite politicians to try to gauge the extent of their relationship with neighboring Iran, a predominantly Shiite nation ruled by its clergy. The nature of the Shiite coalition’s ties to Iran has become a crucial issue now that the cleric-backed alliance has emerged as the leading faction in the new Iraqi parliament and at a time when the United States and Iran are engaged in a war of…
This post is a supplement to my last post on the municipal elections in Saudi Arabia, intended to provide a summary overview of the situation in that country. First I suggest that you read Daniel Drezner’s article on the Saudi elections. It covers most of the territory, but make sure you read the comments, as a couple of them (one by myself) point out inadequacies. Second, if you have not already, read my post below, An Islamist Perspective on Saudi Elections. Drezner’s article mainly deals with the moderate reformists and the politically dominant Saudi-Wahhabi bloc, but my post deals with…
Below is a translation from the pro-Islamist London-based newspaper, Al-Quds Al-Arabi, on the municipal elections in Saudi Arabia. I was thinking about translating some articles from Saudi papers and their reports on the political success of the process, but what I read sounded too much like something from Pravda on the economic rejuvenation of the Ukraine in the 1920s. I have a few comments below. Keep in mind that the interviewee is considered an ally of Osama bin Laden; see links at bottom in this regard (and keep in mind that the writing style was clumsy in the original, the…
They just got released, and as expected, the Shiites dominated: BAGHDAD, Iraq Feb 13, 2005 ???????? Iraq’s majority Shiite Muslims won nearly half the votes in the nation’s Jan. 30 election, giving the long-oppressed group significant power but not enough to form a government on their own. The Shiites likely will have to form a coalition in the 275-member National Assembly with the other top vote-getters the Kurds and Prime Minister Ayad Allawi’s list to push through their agenda and select a president and prime minister. The president and two vice presidents must be elected by a two-thirds majority. The…
I just received this email from The Dread Pundit Bluto: A family member serving in Kuwait says that the troops there don’t have access to news about the area because the only major news source in the camps is CNN. He says the troops have been trying to find information on blogs. Recent terrorist activity in Kuwait makes this a pressing issue, especially since al-Qaeda linked terror cells have admitted wanting to target routine convoys from Kuwait to Iraq. This is not the sort of thing CNN reports until it’s too late. This is a post summarizing recent events in…
Daniel Henninger thinks so: The Nobel Peace Prize Committee will announce its 2005 winner in October. I think that this year the voters of Iraq should receive the Nobel Peace Prize. They have already won the world’s peace prize by demonstrating in a single day a commitment not seen in our lifetime to peace, self-determination and human rights–the goals for which the Nobel Peace Prize began in 1901. Formal recognition by the Nobel Committee of what the Iraqi people did on Jan. 30 would do more to ensure the furtherance of these goals, in concrete ways, than any other imaginable…
From Regime Change Iran, though I wish they’d post the link to the Reuters article they cite: North Korea has sent a message of solidarity to Iran amid suspicions the reclusive communist state had boasted of having nuclear weapons to raise the stakes while U.S. attention is focused on Iran’s nuclear programmes. North Korea declared on Thursday for the first time it possessed nuclear weapons and pulled out indefinitely from six-party talks on its weapons programme, saying it needed a defence against a hostile United States. The North’s official news agency reported on Friday that two top officials had sent…
John Burgess posted a roundup of news from the Arab press on the munipal elections, along with his own commentary about the articles. And the press seems very excited.
Looks like everything went fine: RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – (KRT) – Saudi men went to the polls Thursday for the first nationwide election in the Arab world’s most conservative monarchy, though the royal family barred women from the experiment. The election passed in peace, despite fears that rebels might seek to disrupt the vote and embarrass the government on the day that the world was watching. At war with a homegrown insurgency, the ruling House of Saud is betting that a flicker of democracy – limited to local elections – might win support for the regime and ease public frustration…
Kirk H. Sowell posts five reasons why you should read his blog. I suggest you do that.
The Iranian government has banned Seymore Hersh’s article about U.S. special forces penetrating Iran from being reprinted in newspapers.
I just came across more commentary from Iraq the Model on the assassination attempt of a democratic Iraqi politician.
Abbas is quickly getting a reputation for reform: GAZA (Reuters) – Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas fired three of his top security chiefs on Thursday after militants, puncturing a cease-fire he reached with Israel, bombarded Jewish settlements in Gaza with mortar rounds. Israeli cabinet minister Ophir Pines praised Abbas for “an unprecedented step” in dismissing the three, members of Yasser Arafat’s old guard, in response to violence that flared after Tuesday’s summit in Egypt with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. The United States, which has pledged renewed commitment to Middle East peacemaking after Abbas succeeded Arafat last month, also praised the dismissals.…
In case you weren’t invited to the party, here is a recap: BAGHDAD ???????? U.S. military police threw a mudwrestling party at a prison camp in Iraq and a woman who took part has been found guilty of indecent exposure and demoted, the U.S. military said on Monday. At least three female guards stripped to their underwear and wrestled each other in a paddling pool full of mud in the grounds of Camp Bucca, the biggest U.S. camp for detainees in Iraq, Lt. Col. Barry Johnson said. Several guards who watched the wrestling have been reprimanded for failing to intervene.…
Neo Coneli posts an enormous writeup about recent attacks on an Iraqi politician’s life and how the media doesn’t understand why he is being targeted. Very in depth.