Category: War

I am Samar

Face That Screamed War’s Pain Looks Back, 6 Hard Years Later By Tim Arango, May 7, 2011 … MOSUL, Iraq — Until the past week, Samar Hassan had never glimpsed the photograph of her that millions had seen, never knew it had become one of the most famous images of the Iraq war. “My brother was …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://levantium.com/2011/05/07/i-am-samar/

Golgotha gone

Truth and reconciliation? It won’t happen in Syria By Robert Fisk, Saturday, 7 May 2011 … If you want to understand the cruel tragedy of Syria, there are two books you must read: Nikolaos van Dam’s The Struggle for Power in Syria and, of course, Patrick Seale’s biography Assad. Van Dam was an ambassador in …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://levantium.com/2011/05/07/golgotha-gone/

Everybody smoke

The real meaning of Bin Laden’s death By Johann Hari, Friday, 6 May 2011 … Scramble the film backwards. Rewind. Go back to the day 10 years ago when the air here in Manhattan was thick with ash and Osama bin Laden was gloating. There were two options for the US government – to pick …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://levantium.com/2011/05/07/everybody-smoke/

Been there, done that

Good advice. Been there; done that (1957).  Seemed like a good idea at the time, according to Eisenhower and two good old Presbyterian Princetonians named Dulles. Bad idea, however.  We don’t do intervention very well. Result: more harm than good!  Still paying the price! Ray Leave Syria to the Syrians By Charles Glass, May 02, 2011 … This is not a good time to be running …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://levantium.com/2011/05/07/been-there-done-that/

Close encounters

A close encounter with the man who shook the world By Robert Fisk, Tuesday, 3 May 2011 … One hot evening in late June 1996, the telephone on my desk in Beirut rang with one of the more extraordinary messages I was to receive as a foreign correspondent. “Mr Robert, a friend you met in …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://levantium.com/2011/05/02/close-encounters/

Is this what we wanted?

How the U.S. ‘Won’: Torture, Secret Prisons By Jack Stuef, 3:09 pm May 2, 2011 … In the midst of all the celebrations that good finally defeated evil yesterday, there is this fact: the U.S. got the leads that allowed it to find and kill Osama bin Laden from two men: Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://levantium.com/2011/05/02/is-this-what-we-wanted/

The chessboard is global

The African ‘Star Wars’ By Pepe Escobar, 26 Apr 2011 13:54 … From energy wars to water wars, the 21st century will be determined by a fierce battle for the world’s remaining natural resources. The chessboard is global. The stakes are tremendous. Most battles will be invisible. All will be crucial. In resource-rich Africa, a complex …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://levantium.com/2011/04/26/the-chessboard-is-global/