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Prosecuting War Crimes? Be Sure to Read the Fine Print
Aug 29, 2011 It all depends, I think, on whether criminals are our friends (Stalin at the time) or our enemies (Hitler and his fellow Nazis), whether they have their future uses (the Japanese emperor) or whether we'll get their wealth more easily if they are out of the way (Saddam and Gadhafi).It all depends on whether criminals are our friends or our enemies, or whether we'll get their wealth more easily if they are out of the way.Syria Has Seen Similar Bloodshed Before
Jul 6, 2011 History comes full circle in Syria. In February 1982, President Hafez al-Assad's army stormed into the ancient cities to end an Islamist uprising.German Captains, U-Boats and Other Lies About Ireland
Jun 19, 2010 By chance, I arrived in Dublin this week on the day that the Saville report on Bloody Sunday was published.
The Taliban’s Glossy New Front in the Battle for Hearts and Minds
Apr 3, 2010 It's sleek, it's glossy, it's in eloquent Arabic, Pashto and Dari, and it pours derision on American and NATO forces in Afghanistan; it is the brand new propaganda wing of the Taliban: not just Internet video of attacks on the Western armies in Helmand and Kandahar, but professionally produced magazines.It's sleek, it's glossy, it's in eloquent Arabic, Pashto and Dari, and it pours derision on American and NATO forces in Afghanistan; it is the brand new propaganda wing of the Taliban.
The Terrifying World of Pakistan’s ‘Disappeared’
Mar 19, 2010 If you want to know how brutally Pakistan treats its people, you should meet Amina Janjua An intelligent painter and interior designer, she sits on the vast sofa of her living room in Rawalpindi -- a room that somehow accentuates her loneliness -- scarf wound tightly round her head, serving tea and biscuits like the middle-class woman she is.
Getting a Read on the Middle East
Mar 13, 2010 The greatest problem of writing historically about the Middle East is that the story has not ended. The war goes on. And both "sides" -- actually, there are rather a lot of sides -- produce conflicting narratives. The greatest problem of writing historically about the Middle East is that the story has not ended. The Middle East is about injustice. So who tells the story best?
Mubarak’s Challenger Can’t Rely on a Fair Race
Mar 6, 2010 What keeps old men in power in Egypt? And what keeps middle-aged men wanting power in a country whose crippled society, increasing sectarianism, brutal police force and endemic corruption are only compounded by an electoral system widely regarded as a fraud? Most Egyptians don't think that President Hosni Mubarak is immortal, even though he still reigns supreme at the age of 81. Even the pharaohs believed they would live on only in the next world.
State of Denial: Searching for Peace in Israel
Feb 12, 2010 The Israeli-Arab conflict is about land It is about colonies and walls and about binational states and two states and -- in the end -- about who has power The Israelis with their eternal American supporters? Or the Palestinians, hopelessly divided and soaked -- in Gaza, at least -- in corruption and nepotism The Israeli-Arab conflict is about land .
War Looms Between Israel and Hezbollah
Jan 23, 2010 It looks like a hop, skip and a jump There's the first electrified fence, then the dirt strip to identify footprints, then the tarmac road, then one more electrified fence, and then acres and acres of trees Orchards rather than tanks Galilee spreads beyond, soft and moist and dark green in the winter afternoon -- a peaceful Israel, you might think.
Walls Never Work — in the Middle East or in Ireland
Jan 4, 2010 The story of the Protestant "settlements" in Ireland provides a ghostly narrative of those modern-day "settlements" in the West Bank, where the Israelis insist on fighting the world's last colonial war with the assistance of that great anti-colonial nation known as the United States.The story of the Protestant "settlements" in Ireland provides a ghostly narrative of those modern-day "settlements" in the West Bank.