Over the years, this blog has covered many things, and one of those, historical blogging, has accounted for a lot of my best stuff, like my essay on Zheng He and the Chinese Age of Discovery, my six-part series “Are We Rome?” (examining the Roman invasions of what’s-now-called Iraq) and most recently, my in-depth exploration … Continue reading “Famous 8th century Umayyad mosque destroyed in Syrian crossfire”
In my post in September 2006, The Religion Century, I argue that now that the world is no longer bi-polar, the only pole left is the US, and in place of a conflict between nation-states, we have clashing cultures and ideologies. Religious fervor, among Muslims, Christians and Jews, not to mention European paganism and the ancient … Continue reading “The Religion Century: Challenged By European Atheists? No.”
Everyone interested in understanding the current crisis in the Middle East should watch Jon Stewart’s conversation with Mansour O. El-Kikhia, a Benghazi-born professor who chairs the political science department at UT San Antonio. This is an important pro-intervention viewpoint to think about, though I differ in pivotal areas and OPPOSE American intervention in a third concurrent … Continue reading “U.S. Expat Professor From Benghazi Talks To Jon Stewart (a pro-intervention viewpoint)”
You can’t really form productive relationships with many every day folk in the U.S. (nor Mexico, South America and Africa) if you’re completely ignorant of Christianity, and, increasingly, its more charismatic groups, which are seeing explosive growth. Unless you can *get* where people are “coming from,” you won’t understand them, and the spiritual is a … Continue reading “Religious Literacy and Understanding, For Our Own Sake”
This topic occurred to me after reading Larry Kramer’s long rant in the Huffington Post claiming that because men outnumbered women 6 to 1 in the original Jamestown colony in 17th century America, that lots of gay sex had to be going on, and that historians are erasing gays from history out of homophobic bigotry. … Continue reading “How Will Gender Imbalance Affect China’s Future?”
As I posted before, Iraq is now killing homosexuals at a startling rate, and since many can’t blend in, are forced into hiding. And three safe houses have now closed for want of funding. PaulCanning forwards an urgent request from IRAQI LGBT: IRAQI LGBT started to establish a network of safe houses inside Iraq in … Continue reading “A Worthy Cause: Helping LGBT Iraqis Who Are Being Chased Down And Executed”
Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir is one the worst war criminals in recent history. His Janjaweed thugs have killed 300,000 people in Darfur, raped untold numbers, and caused over 2.5 million Darfuris to flee to perilous existences as refugees. Bashir makes Slobodan Milosovic (with an estimated 10,000 killed) look like small potatoes. Most recently, in response … Continue reading “Arab League Embraces Sudan’s Genocidal Dictator”
On this day, August 19, in 1953, the Americans and British overthrew the democratically-elected Prime Minister of Iran, Mohammed Mossadegh. Mossadegh ended (BP) British Petroleum’s monopoly over Iranian oil, and *gasp* nationalized their oil fields so that Iranians would benefit from their own resources. The Western powers, angry at being cut out of the oil … Continue reading “This Day In History, U.S. Overthrows Iran Gov’t”
There were many wars between the Romans and the Iraqis / Persians, too many wars to adequately describe here, one time a Roman general even defected to the Parthians and invaded Syria, but suffice it to say, neither side ever gained much territory long-term. The wars continued into the era of the Byzantines vs. the … Continue reading ““Are We Rome?” Part V: The Spoils of Ctesiphon”
Did you know that for nearly 150 years off and on, the Roman Empire fought to conquer Mesopotamia? At the time, the area that is now Iraq, Iran (Persia) and more was ruled by the Parthian Empire. What was the Parthian Empire like, and how did they collide with mighty Rome? The Parthians formed from … Continue reading ““Are We Rome?” Part IV: The First Roman Invasions of Iraq”
I found this on YouTube. It is testimony from Dahlia Wasfi, a physician with a Jewish mother (who fled the Nazis) and an Iraqi father, and she has done two long visits to Iraq recently to help during the war. This testimony is riveting. She is very angry, screen-melting angry, about America invading her country. … Continue reading “Iraqi Jewish Woman Very Angry At War”
I wanted to post a quick note of my thoughts on the developing (and rapidly changing) situation on the Iraqi front. Check out this story from the AP wire, Iraqi Insurgents Now Fighting Each Other. It describes how some of the Sunni insurgents are turning against al-Qaida: MUQDADIYAH, Iraq — At least two major insurgent … Continue reading “Latest From The Iraqi Front, April 2007”
I thought this was a great photo. A camel crossing in Dubai. In the Mideast, the new world is colliding with the ancient. Nick
In my post, Why did they create the new nation of Iraq? I discussed T.E. Lawrence (“Lawrence of Arabia”) and his vision of the Middle East’s borders after WWI, which would’ve amounted to the Shias getting their own state in the Mesopotamian Basin, a single state for most of the Sunnis of what are now … Continue reading “What The U.S. Can Learn From “Lawrence of Arabia””
After World War I destroyed the Ottoman Empire, why did the British decide to create the new nation of Iraq out of the 3 different Ottoman provinces? The British divvied up the Ottoman Empire’s holdings and created Iraq out of the three Ottoman “vilayets” (regions) of Mosul, Baghdad and Basra. Why would they do this? … Continue reading “Why did they create the new nation of Iraq? UPDATED”
U.S. Foreign Policy In Deep Shi’ite An in-depth analysis In 2007, the dominant news story will be the ongoing bloodshed in Iraq. War is also the dominant spiritual and moral issue of my generation. It’s impossible for me not to blog about this. The president has ordered a “surge,” or increase of 21,500 troops, which … Continue reading “U.S. Foreign Policy In Deep Shi’ite”
U.S. Foreign Policy Lumbers, Hobbles and Bleeds Into New Year Thoughts on a “regional conflagration” in Iraq. Also, Israel in the spotlight Your foreign policy forecast for 2007: Iraq will be partly cloudy with a high chance of scattered shrapnel, and heavy sectarian bloodshed expected to the north, south, east and west of Baghdad. Earlier … Continue reading “U.S. Foreign Policy Lumbers, Hobbles and Bleeds Into New Year”
“Liberated” Iraqis Free To Join Forces With Hezbollah Hezbollah and Iran Training Shia Militias In Iraq Poster from the Mahdi Army, the Iraqi Shiite militia led by Moktada al-Sadr (upper left). Hezbollah, under Iranian auspices, are training the Shiite Mahdi Army (seen above). How sweet and helpful of them. According to the New York Times … Continue reading “Freed Iraqi Shias Joining Forces With Iranian Military and Hezbollah”
Arab Monarchs To Bankroll Bush Library Institute For Democracy OMG THE IRONY!!! In my last post, I showed the Administration snuggling up to evil Arab tyrants. Today, I see this from the New York Daily News: Bush sources with direct knowledge of library plans told the Daily News that SMU and Bush fund-raisers hope to … Continue reading “Arab Monarchs To Bankroll Bush Library Institute For Democracy”
Latest Mideast News: Dick Cheney Hugs Saudi Despot So the Vice President of the United States went to Saudi Arabia yesterday for talks about stopping the Iraqi civil war and stabilizing the Mideast. It was all over the news. These images were all over the TV: Video here That’s right, Dick Cheney hugged Saudi Arabian … Continue reading “Latest Mideast News: Dick Cheney Hugs Saudi Despot”
What You Need To Know About The Middle East “Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” — George Santayana Steven Pressfield recently wrote an in-depth piece on Iraq, Why We Will Never See Democracy in the Middle East. His main thesis that we are operating in Iraq while largely ignorant of … Continue reading “What You Need To Know About The Middle East”