Archive for January 7th, 2009

Leseempfehlungen

• Josef Joffe: Wo endet Toleranz? (DIE ZEIT)
  Gedankenverwirrung im Streit der Islamversteher und -verächter.
• What the Neocons got right. Believe it or not, they made a few good calls. By Steven A. Cook (Foreign Policy)
  When the editors at FP asked me to write 1,500 words on "What the Neocons Got Right" for the launch of their Middle East Channel, I jumped at the opportunity. To be sure, the topic generated a fair number of bipartisan guffaws and lame jokes among my friends: "It will be the shortest article you ever wrote," quipped one. "They got something right?" queried another. "How about 1,500 pages on what they got wrong?" still another partisan asked.
• Saddam Hussein weighed nuclear 'package' deal in 1990, documents show (WaPo)
  As troops massed on his border near the start of the Persian Gulf War, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein weighed the purchase of a $150 million nuclear "package" deal that included not only weapons designs but also production plants and foreign experts to supervise the building of a nuclear bomb, according to documents uncovered by a former U.N. weapons inspector.
• Thomas L. Friedman: It’s Up to Iraqis Now. Good Luck. (NYT)
  To say that mere voting or an election or two makes Iraq a success story would obviously be mistaken. An election does not a democracy make — and Iraq’s politicians still have yet to prove that they are up to governing, nation-building and both establishing and abiding by the rule of law. But this election is a big deal because Iraqis — with the help of the U.N., the U.S. military and the Obama team, particularly Vice President Joe Biden — overcame two huge obstacles.
• Abusive Congolese colonel got UN aid (WaPo)
  The United Nations peacekeeping mission in eastern Congo provided food, fuel and logistical support to a Congolese colonel overseeing soldiers accused of gang rapes, massacres and other abuses, months after U.N. human rights investigators included him on a list of the army's most abusive commanders and in further internal warnings.
• Palestinian Sees Lesson Translating Amos Oz’s Work (NYT)
  Six years ago, when violence was the order of the day here, Elias Khoury’s 20-year-old son, George, was killed in a Palestinian terrorist attack. The Khourys are Palestinian, so the murder of George — who was out for a jog and shot from behind by gunmen in a car — produced an apology. Sorry, the killers said, we assumed the jogger was a Jew.
• Wahlen im Irak: "Viele haben die Nase voll von den religiösen Parteien" (DIE ZEIT)
  Am 7. März wählt das irakische Volk ein neues Parlament. Regierungssprecher Ali al-Dabbagh spricht im Interview über inkompetente Minister, fehlende Sicherheit und die Rolle Irans.
• Nick Cohen: We abhor torture – but that requires paying a price (Guardian)
  Spineless judges, third-rate politicians and Amnesty prefer an easy life to fighting for liberty.
• Clinton Fears Iran Is Headed for Military Dictatorship (NYT)
  Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said on Monday that the United States feared Iran was drifting toward a military dictatorship, as she said the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps was seizing key positions in Iran’s political, military, and economic establishment.
• Under Obama, more targeted killings than captures in counterterrorism efforts (WaPo)
  Although senior administration officials say that no policy determination has been made to emphasize kills over captures, several factors appear to have tipped the balance in that direction. The Obama administration has authorized such attacks more frequently than the George W. Bush administration did in its final years, including in countries where U.S. ground operations are officially unwelcome or especially dangerous.
• The Islamic Republic of Torture, Rape, and Murder (American Thinker)
  This shockingly repugnant form of violating the human person has regrettably become widespread in the Islamic Republic of Iran's prisons, particularly in dealing with the young men and women arrested for the "crime" of peacefully demonstrating in the streets to demand accountability from the government for a raft of violations it has committed and continues to commit.
• Nuclear Weapons: The Dream of Zero (NYT)
  In many ways, Barack Obama has taken a more cold-eyed approach to foreign affairs than George W. Bush. He’s emphasized realism over human rights, negotiation over regime change, the national interest over the promotion of democracy. But there’s been one great exception to this realpolitik revival: the realm of nuclear strategy.
• Moshe Arens: It's wrong to suggest Israel was direct result of Holocaust (Haaretz)
  In the minds of some, the establishment of the State of Israel is linked to the Holocaust, or even seen as a direct result of the Holocaust.
• Tom Gross: Building Palestine Without Obama's Interference (WSJ)
  A promising, independent Palestine is quietly being developed, with Israeli assistance.
• The Militarization of Sex: The story of Hezbollah's halal hookups (Foreign Policy)
  Mohammad, a 40-year old Lebanese Shiite who lives in Hezbollah's stronghold in Beirut's southern suburbs, was holding forth on the virtues of resistance, loyalty, and sex. "You could create the most loyal army by providing political power, social services and fulfilling the desires of your men -- namely, sexual ones," he declared.

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