Shocked! World leaders are “shocked” by the outcome of the Palestinian democratic elections. Cable TV’s faux news experts are breathlessly analyzing “what it all means” when people half a world away won’t vote the way we want them to… Let’s see if we can break it down: With great fanfare and general acclamation (by those same …
Category: Foreign Policy
Permanent link to this article: https://levantium.com/2006/02/05/shock-and-awe/
Dec 10 2005
Lines, lines, everywhere lines
I noticed the other day that the border between Israel and the Sinai is not a straight line. About halfway across, between Gaza and Aqaba, the border has a couple of protrusions into the Egyptian side (there are other places, but these are the most noticeable). Does anyone know the history of how this border …
Permanent link to this article: https://levantium.com/2005/12/10/lines-lines-everywhere-lines/
Dec 09 2005
The dead and the mutilated
From Nobel Laureate Harold Pinter’s December 7 lecture: The 2,000 American dead are an embarrassment. They are transported to their graves in the dark. Funerals are unobtrusive, out of harm’s way. The mutilated rot in their beds, some for the rest of their lives. So the dead and the mutilated both rot, in different kinds …
Permanent link to this article: https://levantium.com/2005/12/09/the-dead-and-the-mutilated/
Sep 29 2005
Border forts
It’s interesting how news about the war in Iraq dribbles out. Today’s local paper has a front-page story about a James Vandenberg, a Little Rock architect who serves in the Civil Engineering Corps, U.S. Navy Reserve Seabees. He recently spent 10 months in the Al Anbar region of Iraq. Here’s the part of the story …
Permanent link to this article: https://levantium.com/2005/09/29/border-forts/
Aug 14 2005
All imperialism
Monroe, It’s Sunday morning. Why aren’t you in church? I hate to bring this up again because I got flamed big-time on the last occasion, but here’s an excerpt from Charlie Reese’s editorial in today’s local paper: All imperialism, even the American form, is ultimately based on social Darwinism, a belief not openly stated these …
Permanent link to this article: https://levantium.com/2005/08/14/all-imperialism/
Jun 09 2005
Don’t you realize?
It’s really very simple. George W. Bush IS God, or at least speaking directly for Him. What I can’t quite figure out is why God can’t pronounce “nuclear” or string together a coherent, gramatically-correct sentence (to paraphrase Molly Ivins). Anyway, nearly half of the country acknowledges Bush’s deity and the other half are hell-bound infidels …
Permanent link to this article: https://levantium.com/2005/06/09/dont-you-realize/
Nov 02 2004
Trolling for fools
With Trembling Finger By Hal Crowther, circa November 2004 I used to take a drink on occasion with a network newsman famed for his impenetrable calm — his apparent pulse rate that of a large mammal in deep hibernation — and in an avuncular moment he advised me that I’d do all right, in …
Permanent link to this article: https://levantium.com/2004/11/02/trolling-for-fools/