If truth is the first casualty of war, one has to wonder what that does in the socalled battle over hearts and minds of people, not only in Iraq, but across the Arab world and beyond.
Arab fears for region have substance Read More »
Washington admits that it wants to shape the entire Middle East into a kinder place. Sooner or later, that goal may take the U.S. to Yemen’s terrorist haven.
Is Yemen also on US hit list? Read More »
“We’re going to err on the side of caution and stay in the house for a few days,” is what I told a friend during a phone chat yesterday morning. Our self-imposed house arrest would mean Jean and I would miss a friend’s birthday party and a weekly gathering of friends. Not much of a sacrifice, considering a few hours later four Yemeni protesters, including an 11-year-old boy, lay dead on the streets of this capital city. They were killed by Yemeni police guarding the American embassy.
Don’t expect Arab uprising soon Read More »
If there is a time for everything — a time to search and a time to give up, a time for love and a time for hate — it would appear it’s time for the Americans to blow Saddam and all that is his to Kingdom Come.
Living under the threat of reprisal Read More »
The Yanks’ war plan sounds solid enough on paper. Capture land in Iraq quickly. Use it to set up bases for further attacks. Bomb Saddam’s palaces and cut command centres from the rest of the country to quicken the government’s collapse. Then make a seamless transition to military occupation. Don’t get caught in ugly street fighting. Deliver food. Get Iraqis involved with a new economic plan. Unfurl the flag of democracy.
A colonial occupation will never work in Iraq Read More »
Listen to the words of a cargo handler at London’s airport, spoken while he cleared freight I shipped to Yemen last year: “Those people are backwards and they don’t want to change. As far as I’m concerned, I couldn’t care less what happens to them.”
All of us can supply an alternative to war Read More »
Fear is a funny thing. Along with other Commonwealth citizens, Jean and I were recently informed that most staff members of the British Embassy here are leaving and that we should consider the same.
When a child screams in Baghdad… Read More »
It’s Valentine’s Day. Great fun. Two years ago today, I proposed to Jean. Her ring was presented in a restaurant, with the help of the official town crier, his booming voice, clanging bell and scroll. Moments later, along with thousands of others in London, Ont., we heard about our upcoming “royal wedding” on the radio.
In the Arab world there are no lonely singles Read More »
