Category Archives: Iraq War

A Reporter’s Shiite, but a Historian’s Shi’a

Iraq War, Journalism and Media, Terrorism Issue

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If the Muslim World fit the blurred binary vision of columnist Thomas Friedman, the problems of the Middle East could easily be reduced to a choice of words that start with the letter s. In his Wednesday, November 16, 2005 op-ed piece in The New York Times, Mr. Friedman beseeches a silent Sunni majority to ask the question, “why anyone?” He correctly notes that “Suicide bombs taint the heart of Islam.” Given ongoing suicide bombing inside and outside liberated-and-now-occupied Iraq, we are reminded, “‘Here’s Ahmed – he blew up 52 Muslims at a wedding.’ ‘Here’s Muhammad – he blew up 25 Shiites at a funeral.'” Tell us ‘taint so’ Ahmed. Tell Muhammad’s children that Abu just went straight to hell. “So why don’t more people in the Sunni world speak out against the Sunni Arabs doing this?” he asks, not really expecting an answer. Continue reading A Reporter’s Shiite, but a Historian’s Shi’a →

Wrong Flag, Mr. Speaker

Iraq War

When a tough ex-marine says our military strategy in Iraq is flawed, it is worth standing at attention. Today Rep. John Murtha of Pennsylvania joined other Democrats and a clear majority of the American people in courageously calling for the President and his neoconclave to stop waving the red flag of bull in front of Iraqis and Americans alike. “There’s a difference between supporting the troops and continuing to support a failed policy,” observed this conservative veteran legislator. “It’s up to the president to clearly define the goals and objectives of what constitutes success in Iraq. The American people deserve this. Even more important, the troops deserve to hear what the policy is.” Continue reading Wrong Flag, Mr. Speaker →

Numbers in Context

Iraq War

In an op-ed column in today’s (October 27, 2005) in New York Times, classicist and Hoover Institute commentator Victor Davis Hanson tries to put the reaching of 2,000 American military casualties in Iraq “in context.” “Compared with Iraq,” he argues, “America lost almost 17 times more dead in Korea, and 29 times more again in Vietnam – in neither case defeating our enemies nor establishing democracy in a communist north.” For those of us who think 2,000 is 2,000 too many, Hanson suggests we remember the 400,000 dead in World War II. “If our enemies similarly believed in the obsolescence of war that so heartlessly has taken 2,000 of our best young men and women, then we could find solace in our growing intolerance of any battlefield losses. But until the nature of man himself changes, there will be wars that take our youth, and we will be increasingly vexed to explain why we should let them.”

But why stop with World War II? Continue reading Numbers in Context →

Trial by Ordeal

Iraq, Iraq War

The headline of the October 20, 2005 New York Times says a lot: “Defiant Hussein, Lashing out at U.S., Goes on Trial.” Everyone involved in this scene, from the defiant defendants to the many victims under Saddam’s brutal dictatorship, knows what the verdict will be. We are trying Saddam Hussein in a televised court of legal process not to determine if he is guilty but to remind the world of his crimes against humanity. There is no innocence to presume. Nor is there a Johnny Cochran waiting in the wings with too-tight, blood-stained gloves.

All indications are that this trial will be an ordeal. Continue reading Trial by Ordeal →

Reporting Suicide is Not Painless

Iraq War, Islamophobia, Journalism and Media

In an editorial in Wednesday’s New York Times (“Silence and Suicide.” October 12, 2005, p. A23), op-ed columnist Thomas Friedman vents about “Sunni Muslim insurgents” who are said to have “no respect for the sanctity of Muslim lives, Muslim houses of worship or Muslim holy days…” He continues, “… and no one from their own wider Sunni community really moves to restrain or censure them.” What does this mean for Sunni Muslims? “If the Sunni Muslim world does not act to halt this genocidal ethnic-cleansing campaign against the Shiites of Iraq… the Sunni world will eventually be consumed by this very violence. A civilization that tolerates suicide bombing is itself committing suicide,” he concludes.

The rhetorical traps in this piece are a good example of how not to report the obviously problematic issue of suicide bombings in the name of a major world religion. Continue reading Reporting Suicide is Not Painless →

In Iraq, Mourning Has Broken on a Bridge to the Past

Iraq War, Islamic Rituals

On Wednesday, Aug. 31, upwards of a thousand Muslim pilgrims died in a panic on a bridge in Baghdad. In a matter of minutes there were at least half as many fatalities as American forces have suffered so far in the entire Iraq War. This time there was no suicide bomber, but fear of an attack proved just as deadly.

The pilgrimage that left so many women and children dead was itself an act of mourning for the execution 1200 years ago of the seventh Imam in Shi’a tradition, Imam Musa ibn Ja’far al-Sadiq. Partisans believe the imam was poisoned by the fabled “Arabian Nights” Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid while he was in the custody of the chief of police in Baghdad. Musa ibn Ja’far lingered on for three days until achieving martyrdom in the eyes of his countless followers over the centuries. Continue reading In Iraq, Mourning Has Broken on a Bridge to the Past →