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Christensen: In coming to grips
with AIDS, the worst health calamity since the Middle Ages and one
likely to be the worst ever, consideration inevitably turns to the
numbers.
According to estimates from UNAIDS, an umbrella group for five U.N.
agencies, the World Bank and the World Health Organization, 34.3
million people in the world have AIDS -- 24.5 million of them in
sub-Saharan Africa. Nearly 19 million have died from AIDS, 3.8
million of them children under the age of 15.
Read On...
AMIRI: The image of a disheveled Saddam
Hussein after his capture by American troops left many in the Arab
world bewildered and dejected, while others rejoiced and celebrated
the apprehension of one of the most brutal dictators the Middle East
has seen in recent decades. The former group far outweighed the
later in numbers, if not decibels.
Read on...
Tehranian: September 11, 2001 may be
considered a defining moment in world history. For a decade now
pundits have been groping for a new catch phrase to identify the
main features of the post-Cold War era. End of History, Clash of
Civilizations, and Globalization have been obvious candidates. These
terms catch an aspect of the phenomenon but distort others. None of
these terms seems to fit the new reality of a global war of
terrorism and counter-terrorism that seems to lie ahead of the
world. There is no catch phrase to grasp the tragedy and complexity
of this new reality. Since both state and non-state actors are
acting with willful planning, we may call our troubled times, "The
Era of Death by Design". Read on...
SOUAIAIA: With the stream of data coming
from Iraq, any informed individual can conclude that the days ahead
may be even harder to manage. With the rising death toll and
spiraling violence that is spreading to formerly quiet areas, one
does not need a CIA analyst’s opinion to surmise that the situation
may worsen. However, there is another equally important side of this
conflict which has not been adequately addressed and that is the
long term repercussions and implications of this ongoing war on the
stated goal of this administration. With the charge of illegal
possession of weapons of mass destruction as the pretext for
launching this war significantly enfeebled; the administration is
now defending this costly conflict with the need to create a
democratic regime in Iraq. Read on...
TEHRANIAN: The 20th century has been the bloodiest century in
all recorded human history (Tilly 1992). Can we turn the 21st
century into a century of peace? As we continue to make progress in
the hit/kill ratio of weapons, the next century might be even
bloodier. That perplexing problem is at the heart of all efforts to
develop a global culture of peace through a dialogue of
civilizations. This essay assumes a medical systems approach to the
problem by providing a diagnosis, prognosis, and therapy.
Read On...
AMIRI: Although yet to be featured on
Ripley's Believe It or Not!, United States occupation forces will
readily testify to its existence: an Iraqi Bermuda Triangle. It is
an area where the overwhelming majority of American troops have been
attacked or killed since the official end of war was declared May
1st, whether on routine foot patrol or flying Black Hawk and Chinook
helicopters. Mysterious powers seem to be at work in this territory,
rendering its inhabitants emboldened enough to launch an early
morning rocket salvo on the fortified Al-Rashid Hotel, rousing a
sleepy-eyed Paul Wolfowitz from his smug neo-colonialist slumber.
Needless to say, it was not the type of room service he was
expecting. Read on...
SOUAIAIA:
One of the contributing factors that limits the prospects and
success of the peace activists and the anti-war proponents is the
perception that their stance as being dictated by their
ideological position that can be seen as an abstract concept that
does not solve the real problems on the ground. The proponents of
non-violent resolutions of conflicts are characterized as naïve
and unpractical. There may be some truth to this view, but for
the current conflict, there is a reasoned and well-thought
position which might be the only way to resolving the current
escalation of violence. This view is articulated based on proper
understanding of the nature, definition, and dynamics of
“aggression”. Read on...
DEMHAS: The guidelines of
the Statutes of the Nobel Foundation are generally governed by
Alfred Nobel's will. Nobel wished that prizes be given to those who,
during the preceding year, "shall have conferred the greatest
benefit on mankind" and that the person who "shall have done the
most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the
abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and
promotion of peace congresses” shall have part of the total prize.
This year’s Peace prize was awarded to Shirin Ebadi of Iran
"for her efforts for democracy and human rights." Without taking
away from her efforts and achievement, this article is intends to
appraise the decision by the highly secretive judges.
Read on...
McKinnon:
An administration
that thinks and acts as a child
MARION, Montana:
Troubled teenagers fail at the tasks of a modern adolescence because
they try to solve sophisticated problems with an unsophisticated
approach whose elements routinely include a childish sense of time,
lack of empathy, florid narcissism, selfish ethics and concrete
logic.
They are usually not stupid, nor ill
- not the kids I'm talking about. But they fail across the board -
at school, at home and among their peers - because their approach is
childish.
I point this out because I want to
talk about adults, and specifically about the Bush administration
and its "approach." Read
on...
Amiri: The real Motive behind Israel's Decision to Expel Yasser Arafat
The Israeli Security Cabinet's decision to expel Palestinian President Yasser Arafat from his two-room compound in Ramallah may have come as a surprise to the world community and even caught the United States briefly off guard. However, to those familiar with the machinations of the Israeli government, the events which subsequently unfolded were as predictable as any bad made-for-TV movie.
Read on...
Edward
Said: A Window on the World
Nine
years ago I wrote an afterward for Orientalism which, in trying to
clarify what I believed I had and had not said, stressed not only
the many discussions that had opened up since my book appeared in
1978, but the ways in which a work about representations of
"the orient" lent itself to increasing misinterpretation.
That I find myself feeling more ironic than irritated about that
very same thing today is a sign of how much my age has crept up on
me. The recent deaths of my two main intellectual, political and
personal mentors, the writers and activists Eqbal Ahmad and Ibrahim
Abu-Lughod, has brought sadness and loss, as well as resignation and
a certain stubborn will to go on... Read
on
DEMHAS:
The Wisdon of the War of Terror
he aim of terror is to use force, undiscriminating force in most
cases, in order to meet certain declared demands. In short, it is
the choosing of coerced consent instead of a negotiated settlement.
The US war on terror is ultimately, the reliance on the use of force
in order to exterminate the agents of terror. Arguably, such a
solution may be necessary especially if faced with unreasonable
elements with unreasonable demands. However, relying on brute force
to coerce the subject to submission is ultimately an adoption of the
same technique; hence, legitimizing what is intended to be uprooted
in the first place. In the following, I would argue that war and
violence in this particular case is counterproductive to say the
least. Read on...
Amiri:
Favoring the Strongman in Pakistan over the populist of Persia
From walking through airport security in socks to the establishment of military tribunals in Cuba, Americans are under constant barrage by reminders of how life has changed since September 11, 2001. A new cabinet position and federal bureaucracy has been created, the Department of Homeland Security, along with a color-coded terror threat level continuously running along the bottom of our television screens.
Read on...
Amiri:
The US and Iraq's Shia:
The United States is quickly finding itself sinking into an ever deepening quagmire in the post-war occupation of Iraq. Ironically, the Bush administration is doing its level best to alienate the one group in Iraq that can prevent them from ultimately going under: the Arab Iraqi Shia.
Read on...
AMIRI:
Israel and India:
The state visit of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to India this week should come as no surprise to those familiar with the Zionist and fundamentalist Hindu states run by Ariel Sharon and his counterpart Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee. Indeed, it follows logically that the amicable military and philosophical relationship that Israel once held with apartheid South Africa should now be re-established with a like-minded country such as India, currently led by what one could reasonably call a "Hindu
Likud." Read on...
Alam:
Pakistan "Recognizes" Israel:
In June 2003,
Pervez Musharraf
,
Pakistan
’s self-appointed President and
strongman, was summoned to
Washington
. He returned with two errands from
President George Bush.
Pakistan
must recognize
Israel
and dispatch its troops to police
America
’s illegal occupation of
Iraq
. There was money in it for
Pakistani rulers: three billion dollars over the next five years.
Read on...
Leupp:
Shiites Humiliate Bush:
The remarkable funeral oration by Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, brother
of Iraq's most prominent Shiite cleric and political figure, the
slain Ayatollah Mohammed Baqr al-Hakim, might just prove the
death-knell of the occupation and even the neocons' whole
world-changing project. Last month's horrific car-bombing of the
Imam Ali Mosque in Najaf, which may have taken the lives of up to
125 people, was itself, as the BBC put it, "a massive setback
for coalition forces" regardless of who did it. But for the
dead cleric's brother, who (still) sits on Iraq's U.S.-appointed
Governing Council, to tell a crowd of half a million grieving
Shiites Sept. 1 that occupation forces bear primary
responsibility for all the bloodshed is perhaps an equal
setback. Embarrassing, too, that two Shiite members on the 25-member
puppet council (Mohammed Bahr al-Uloum and Mohsen Abdul Hamid) have
stepped down over the Najaf episode. They like most Iraqis protest
the lack of security, electricity and water resulting from the
invasion. When even those most willing to cooperate with you start
publicly dissing you---and bringing God into it---you know
you're in trouble. Read on...
Demhas:
A War that Opened another Front:
In one of his most recent remarks, President Bush acknowledged that
"terrorists are gathering in
Iraq
” and he argued that
“the more progress we make in
Iraq
, the more desperate the
terrorists will become." At
first glance, there may appear to be some intelligent logic in that
assessment of the situation in that part of the world.
However, when taken into the context of how we arrived where
we are now, that statement can only be construed as an alarming
admittance of failure and short-sightedness.
Read on...
Fisk:
Don't Say We Were Not Warned About This Chaos:
How
arrogant was the path to war. As President Bush now desperately
tries to cajole the old UN donkey to rescue him from Iraq - he who
warned us that the UN was in danger of turning into a League of
Nations "talking shop" if it declined him legitimacy for
his invasion - we are supposed to believe that no one in Washington
could have guessed the future. Read on...
Next
page...
Note:
Please email your opinion to op-ed@majalla.org;
Op-Ed articles are not peer-reviewed.
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