Archive - Jun 16, 2008 - Article

The fourth option

The Islamic Republic would actually welcome either of two misguided U.S. strategies — negotiations or war. Both strategies will strengthen their repressive control over Iran and will allow them to extend their strategic hegemony over much of the Middle East, into parts of Central Asia and the Indian Ocean region. The Islamic Republic has a long record of using negotiations as a tactic of buying time to further its illicit policies. Besides, official negotiation means officially recognizing the legitimacy of the other side — which is something the clerical regime has longed for. Official negotiations will also be interpreted as the U.S. government’s concession to the clerical regime. Do the prime supporters of global terrorism deserve rewarding?>>>

Why America can't build states

Afghanistan remains in deep turmoil and the situation appears to be deteriorating with every passing day. Two recent events should crystallize the evermore deleterious situation which is currently unfolding. First, is the most recent of assassination attempt on the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, at the end of April, in which he barely escaped with his life. And second, last week’s assault by Taliban forces on a prison in Kandahar, which the authorities were helpless to thwart and resulted in the return to the dusty and forlorn battlefields of southern Afghanistan of some 400 hardened Taliban fighters. These events mark the most recent in a string of incidents which have dogged the Afghan government and its beleaguered president>>>

Walls and ceilings

Then the guard throws me in the cold room and the metallic sound of the closing door echoes in the darkness. My foot gets stuck to an object and I fall on something warm. It feels like a leg. It’s a room full of black shadows. I can’t see anything. “Hi,” somebody whispers. “Where are you?” I reply. “Who are you? I don’t see you.” Someone moans. Someone else laughs. “He’s crazy,” a voice says. “He isn’t one of us.” I touch the ground. I feel toes, I feel hands, I feel warm skin, and bones. “Someone died last month,” the voice says. Still, I feel like a blind. I don’t see the dead or the living.>>>