Mid-East Meets Midwest

Israel admits using white phosphorus in Gaza, but maintains it was not war crime. Read Al Jazeera’s report: http://tinyurl.com/mg5aez

Col. Timothy Reese (courtesy of Antiwar.com)

A senior military adviser in Iraq, issued an internal memo urging the US to significantly speed up its pullout from Iraq.  In this memo leaked to the New York Times, Col. Timothy Reese pushes for the U.S. to simply “declare victory” and have announce that all troops will be out of the nation by August 2010.

Bluntly, Col. Reese says keeping US troops in Iraq “isn’t yielding benefits commensurate with the effort and is now generating its own opposition.” He asserts that America has overstayed it’s welcome, saying, “guests, like fish, begin to smell after three days.” Read more…

Violence interrupted the celebrations of National Sovereignty Day (photo courtesy of Iraq Solidarity Campaign)

One month ago today, celebrations filled the streets of Baghdad as Iraqis marked “National Sovereignty Day,” commemorating the official withdrawal of American troops from Iraqi cities.  But in Kirkuk, just 150 miles north of Baghdad, the cheers and high spirits were replaced with screams and panic when a car bomb exploded in a crowded market, killing at least 34 people.

This incident caused me to take a step back and ask, ‘Is Iraq ready to stand on its own two feet?’

Over the last six years American troops, advisers and diplomats have been working to establish a stable Iraq, combating violence, training Iraqi soldiers and police, and planting the seeds of democracy for the first time in Iraq’s history.  What more can the United States do to help this war torn nation?

Perhaps the answer is to stop helping. Read more…

Plans to film Sex And the City sequel derailed by United Arab Emirates. Offended by “sex” so no filming in Dubai http://tinyurl.com/l2u7n2

The Mid-East Meets Midwest blog is now on Twitter! Visit the site http://bit.ly/jseio

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The American government is now paying for skydiving lessons. And paint ball.

In what could be seen as reverse logic, the U.S. Army is hoping an adrenaline rush will help vets calm down.

With a wave of soldiers returning home from Iraq with mental health disorders and this problem has the military searching for new ways to supplement and redefine its counseling and self-awareness evaluation programs. Beyond your typical therapy, the Army is hoping thrilling terror of war home through safe outlets through a new program called “Warrior Adventure Quest.”

Warrior Adventure Quest sends soldiers just home from war on outings of paintball, mountain biking, scuba diving, sky diving, whitewater rafting, alpine skiing, snowboarding and rock climbing in hopes of overcoming the “Rambo Syndrome”– the emotional need for some of the tension and fear-tinged excitement of combat.

Army officials say they’ve learned that soldiers who are used to life in a war zone suddenly find life at home to be moving at a glacial pace and hope this program will reduce the anxiety of this shift.

Read the AP’s story: Army Using Extreme Sports to Help War Veterans

The protests may have slowed down, but Iran and it’s government hierarchy are still in turmoil.  This Sunday, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad fired two members of his cabinet.  Many are seeing this act as another indicator that conservatives within Iran are at odds over how best to handle the protests following the controversial and contested election.

According to Iranian law, any president who fires 11 members of his cabinet must face a vote of confidence before the Iranian parliament. The two firings, according to CNN.com, would put Ahmadinejad past this threshold.

However, it is unclear whether both men will remain dismissed, or if one will return to avoid the vote of
confidence. The Iranian state media is claiming that only one person was really let go.

Back in the U.S., Secretary of State Hillary Clinton held firmly to the White House’s position on Iran’s protests saying that the country’s future “is really for the people to decide.”

Read CNN.com’s: Ahmadinejad may face vote of confidence in parliament

In the latest saga of a debate that has been raging since Vietnam, the Pentagon will no longer be releasing figures on how many militants have been killed fighting American forces in Afghanistan.

This move reflects a shift in strategy, similar to what we saw in Iraq, where soldiers are now concentrating on protecting the Afghan people rather than finding and wiping out insurgents. Now the military will only release general estimates. “We send the wrong message if all we talk about is the number of insurgents killed. It doesn’t demonstrate anything about whether we have made progress,” Navy Rear Adm. Gregory J. Smith, who decided on the new policy, told the Los Angeles Times.

Read more…

Skipped that world politics class? Fret not. You can take a lesson from personality battles of rap world.

Press Play to listen to NPR’s Morning Edition Story: Rapper Feud Mirrors World Politics

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Professor Marc Lynch, George Washington University’s Director of Middle East Studies, says you can take a lesson about the United States’ hegemonic control from the career of rapper Jay-Z.

In his article in Foreign Policy magazine, “Jay-Z schools us in U.S. hegemony,” Lynch explains, “See, Jay-Z (Shawn Carter) is the closest thing to a hegemon which the rap world has known for a long time. He’s #1 on the Forbes list of the top earning rappers. He has an unimpeachable reputation, both artistic and commercial, and has produced some of the all-time best (and best-selling) hip hop albums.”

He continues the analogy saying, “But the limits on his ability to use this power recalls the debates about U.S. primacy. Should he use this power to its fullest extent, as neo-conservatives would advise, imposing his will to reshape the world, forcing others to adapt to his values and leadership? Or should he fear a backlash against the unilateral use of power, as realists such as my colleague Steve Walt or liberals such as John Ikenberry would warn, and instead exercise self-restraint?”

Read Lynch’s article:Jay-Z Schools Us In U.S. Hegemony

Nassim Nazemi

The news from Iran has died down, but some Americans, like Chicago’s Nassim Nazemi, have not stopped their fight. Click the play button to hear what she has to say.

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Highlights:

• “We expected that no matter who won the election, it would be business as usual”
• “Suddenly we’re using social media, things like Twitter and Facebook to actively resist oppression and to help people actively resist government oppression.”
• “It got harder and harder to get the world’s attention as the protests waned, as time went by, as Michael Jackson died and took over the news cycle.”
• “I know one thing with certainty and that is, Iran will never be the same.”

Don’t want to listen? Here’s the transcript:

Earlier this week, I had the opportunity to speak with Nassim Nazemi, an Iranian-American, to talk about what she has been doing to help foster democracy in Iran and help her friends and family that are still there.

First Question Nassim… have you always followed Iranian politics so closely?
I would say myself and most of my friends and family who’ve become involved in one way or another never really viewed themselves as politically active in any way.  Most of us, at least speaking for myself, didn’t expect much to come out of the election.  We viewed it with the same skepticism that we’ve developed over the last 30 years in regards to this Islamic republic.  We expected that no matter who won the election, it would be business as usual.

Read more…