THIS BLOG MOVED

to here (a while ago):

http://www.seriesofdreams.blogspot.com/

Which is another series of wasted words but this time on the Beta Blogger.

Robert Fisk: "The conquest of the middle east"

If you are interested in the middle east politics, it is essential to know the history of this area. Here, in a the first part of this talk (in Canada) Robert Fisk takes you back to the English invasion of Iraq and how similar it is with the recent US invasion. It is just incredible how rare this thing gets mentioned. The fact that they had so many common points gives a good guess how this is one going to end, that is, history is going to repeat itself, Fisk argues. But what R. Fisk is really angry about is that journalists have rarely done anything else other then analyzing what politicians say and saying what the politicians think. They rarely mention what is not being said, what is deliberately left out.


The second part of the talk takes on the topic of terrorism and has a very nice reading from his new book. Very nice indeed.


There is a third and fourth part, and you can actually look all the videos on you Tube, under "Robert Fisk".

Iraq the model

This was one of the "award winning" blogs on the middle east and Africa. As a matter of fact, all the award winning blogs in the middle east were pro-American and pro-Israelis. Can someone explain ? This either mean that American like to read whatever makes them feel better about themselves or the competition was not exactly as fair as the Tour de France say ..
I actually thought that this blog "Iraq the Model" carries a lot of potential to shake the American opinion, and tell them : Hey , can't you see what you're doing ! 100,000 lives are the price we paid to a free ... Civil war, I am afraid.
I think somebody needs to wake them up and tell them that we care about this blood that is being shed, even if you don't.
Anyway, so what is worst then seeing this guy defending the American policies in the middle east, criticizing the Lebanese media, and calling by terrorist whoever Israel and the US call terrorist. I am not sure what made this person say what he says and work so hard on his website, and I do not want to make theories and link it to the sizeable influence of the US on the new media in IRAQ. What I know, is that the Arab world as most of the developing nations, have known so many bad rulers and dark days that anyone who comes to replace the old ruler, becomes our friend , for some people and for a limited time, before we discover that our freedom can not be brought from outside as a gift.

From the horse's mouth... Hear this

In an earlier post, I was talking about the opportunities that present for both moderate Arabs and their self-declared supporters to leave a nicer impression for the less educated lower income Lebanese, many of which are Shi'ite. I was hoping something would be done so that those people that we all should care about, remember the US and Europe for things other than delaying the cease fire and selling missiles to Israel. I think most reasonable people would agree with the above, in particular the importance of not letting go this opportunity.
I was amazed when I heard this interview on NPR. Host Lisa Mullins spoke with Michael Hess of the US Agency for International Development in Washington, about the political and diplomatic challenges for the US in aiding the reconstruction effort in Lebanon. You should hear it to find out that clearly the US does not care about such opportunity, and will not regret doing so. So far the US have donated indirectly 15 million Dollars and have a staff of 7 on the ground to help with the reconstruction. Yes only 7. When hearing the interview please notice how this guy repeatedly escapes her question about the opportunities America sees in the rebuilding process. Yes, Bush is longing for a free, democratic and liberalized society in the middle east right ?! It is just to show you yet again that what they say and do in Washington are two different things.

Here is the link :
http://www.theworld.org/latesteditions/08/20060816.shtml

after the truce... the sad Truth

Today everybody lost the war. One indication is that both Hezbollah and Israel declared victory today. Another indication is the declaration by George W. Bush that Israel won the war, just like a referee in a box game, he had to wait till there is so much blood around, but we are familiar with his declarations. Iraq is still fresh in our mind, Iraq is still on the TV in fact. The truth is not only both Israel and Hezbollah lost, but of course Lebanon and the U.S., the U.K. and the UN. Also today Syria and Iran lost. But those strategic losses can be recovered one day, can be forgotten when a prime minister steps down or when there will be a change of regime. However the lives that are lost, are lost forever and the ones that were broken will never look the same. Those who were able to stop the blood shep are the ones to blame today and tomorrow. We should not forget all the pathetic justifications given by so many diplomats that helped postpone a cease fire, cause if there is one thing that we can do is to teach the warmongers a lesson.

Euh... .Ahmadinejad online !

Here is a blogger who will draw more visitors than me: Ahmadinejad ! yes he's blogging. Starting today I guess. It seems you can also get to post your comments.
It is safe to assume that they will be moderated. I am not aware if other presidents leaders have went online.
Internet keeps on surprising me. Check out the poll he's throwing. And analyze that !

http://www.ahmadinejad.ir/

You best allies against terrorism

are, undeniably, the moderate Arabs and Muslims. Today the "new world order" resembles more than anything else a clash of religions while in reality it is not so much. After all, Christian and Jews are still living in the Arab world with no major problems as it has always been the case. The danger in the present situation lies in the fact that people are being more and more convinced of religious roots of the problem, which is evidently making the problem even worse.
There is so much talking about "war on terrorism" these days and "war on extremism" on fudamentalism that people forget that there are other means to go about it. In fact, this problem in particular would most likely not be resolved (if not worsened) by those waged wars. Neither will we make ourselves safer by innovating new ways to protect ourselves from people who are ready to die and blow us up. It is not very difficult to see that stopping terror is not going to be possible by banning "Crest" from commercial airplanes.
Again talking about wars made people forget that there has been a complete disregard of smarter means for durable peace.

I would like to cite an example, but I would leave the details for future posts. The cedar revolution could have been spurred long time by the US but it was not for obvious political situations involving a weird relationship between Syria and the US. Furthermore, even after the Cedar Revolution, did the US and Europe helped spur a friendly sentiment to the "west". When you talk about the middle east you are often talking about missed opportunities. And if one tenth of these billions of armament aids that are going to Israel would go to building modern schools in the South and North of Lebanon ?
I think millions of people in the Arab world are waiting for you to surprise them by supporting their democratic endeavors and struggle for a modernized middle east.

Peace, Propaganda and the Promised Land, a documentary

The middle east experts in this video will explain to you, why you have been reluctant to speak up. They will show you how the US media made you weary of defending the rights of palestinians by fear of associating yourself with terrorists.
Besides many people ignore the nature of the situation there, so this movie gives a bit of background. Note that implicitly this documentary takes UN resolutions very seriously, therefore the opinions expressed here are most likely to be shared by the most moderates of Arabs rather than Hamas and other extremist groups. Yet these point of views and facts are offensive to some of the most moderate republicans and democrats in this country.

Part 1 : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCL6WdnuNp4
Part 2 : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mo2HW4T7wK4