September 2004

Rabat, Morocco – September 25, 2004 – Published by Kyodo News, Japan The question posed in the title implicitly admits that the Arab world is not presently master of its own destiny. This is quite true and has been so for several decades. The Arab world is composed of 22 countries, including Palestine, a total population of 300 million 40% of whom are under 15 years of age. The region represents an area of 13 million square kilometres (35 times the area of Japan). It is hard to understand what is happening in this region today without recalling elements of a past which is still affecting the present and conditioning the future. Atomization has been and remains one of the basic obstacles facing the region. Eighty percent of the total Arab population is concentrated in 7 countries whereas 7 other countries barely reach 2 percent of that total. This geo-political...

Bush upbeat as Iraq burnsBob Herbert, op-ed columnist in The New York Times Baghdad Year Zero: Pillaging Iraq in pursuit of a Neocon UtopiaA conversation with Naomi Klein, from New Democracy A strident minority: anti-Bush US troops in BaghdadAnn Scott Tyson in The Christian Science Monitor Who are the progressives in Iraq? The Left, the Right, and the IslamistsFrank Smyth, Foreign Policy in Focus Arab League condemns terrorism in Iraq & pledges to support BagdadTruthout – AFP Iraq losing its best and brightestHoward LaFranchi in The Christian Science Monitor Iraq: A descent into civil war?Luke Harding in The Guardian Factbox: Guerilla strongholds in Iraq – where the US has no controlReuters Classic guerilla war forming in IraqBrad Knickerbocker in The Christian Science Monitor The reconstruction. U.S. intelligence pessimistic on Iraq’s futureDouglas Jehl in The New York Times Warring visions for Iraq – Kerry’s and Bush’s views on the futurePeter Grier...

Imad Salamey and Frederic Pearson, FPIFToward a US Exit Strategy from Iraqand a Transition to Full Sovereignty International Crisis GroupReconstructing IraqMiddle East report N 30 Peyman Pejman, Common DreamsRebels Begin to Control More Areas in Iraq Tom Regan, TruthoutReport: Civil War most Likely Outcome in Iraq Robert Fisk, TruthoutWe Should Not Have Allowed 19 Murderers to Change our World William Rivers Pitt, TruthoutOne Thousand and One Steve Weissman, TruthoutAmericans: The Missionary Position Bassem Mroue, TruthoutThousands of Iraqis Estimated Killed The NY TimesA Look at 1000 Who Died

Er der nogen der spekulerer på om Al Qaeda-krigere har det svært med deres nattesøvn? Selv tror jeg ikke at de har nogen problemer. Efter at være blevet høje af at slagte “de utro” sover de de retfærdiges søvn, på trods af den manglende godkendelse en sådan opførsel har fra den islamiske teologi. Det er mere interessant at spørge om hvorvidt George W. Bush og Tony Blair sover godt. Hvad slags narkotika har de kunnet indtage? Ingen hulde jomfruer venter i deres himmel, og deres krigsføring er langtfra inspireret af de Augustianske principper for den retfærdige krig. Men de er dog mænd af religiøs overbevisning, og burde det så ikke være svært at slukke sin sengelampe, når man ved at man har givet ordre til en langt større slagt af uskyldige end tilfældet var ved terrordådet d.11.september 2001. I vores vestlige kultur bliver man, hvis ens handlinger ikke er i...