Iraqi leader speaks out

Zeyed, at Healing Iraq, brought this commentary to my attention. It's by the current president, Jalal Talabani, of the Iraqi Governing Council, and it's called "The Way Forward", and it confirms Bush's opitimism (best expressed in his two most recent, important speeches, see below) and counters a common view that Bush is rushing things too much. It expresses good things, like determination and responsibility:

"The defeat of the terrorists, however, must be largely an Iraqi endeavor. By taking up arms and routing the terrorists, Iraqis will own their new democracy--nobody will be able to say that it has been handed to them."

It also waves off the criticism that disbanding the Iraqi army was a mistake:

"Resurrecting the former Iraqi army is not an option. The Iraqi army had a record of internal repression and external aggression. L. Paul Bremer, the coalition's administrator, demonstrated great wisdom when he formally wound up the Iraqi army. Like the Allied decree in 1946 that dissolved Prussia, the edict abolishing the Iraqi army struck at the roots of the Arab nationalist militarism that plagued Iraq even before Saddam."

China Silk Route Today

Fascinating set of articles on the China silk route through an increasingly important part of the world, central Asia (Hat tip: The Argus).

Part 1: The Last Frontier: China's far West
Part 2: King of the Steppes
Part 3: In Pursuit of the Snow Leopard
Part 4: Touching Base
Part 5: A New Learning Experience

The Real History of Crusades

Thomas Madden offers a "History of Crusades", correcting the more cynical accounts. Professor Madden's approach is also delivered in light of Osama bin Laden (and others) contention that the West and the Crusades brought 9-11 on us.

Bush's Whitehall Palace Speech

Whitehall Palace Address

John Zvesper's piece is long but thoughtful. Well worth the time.

Wall Street Editorial

Be sure to check out Michael Novak's column on how Bush is generally always underestimated, but he also addresses the Whitehall speech in the context of his other great speeches. Novak's aim is draw out what makes Bush's speeches so powerful and important to us now. He has several more of Bush's speeches linked within the piece.

Like Novak, Peter Schramm broadens his reflections on Bush with this piece that compares Clinton's persona with Bush's character.

Richard Brookhiser's piece demonstrates how Bush's "common touch," most recently on display in his Thanksgiving visit to Iraq, is the best weapon against terrorism.

Afghanistan's progress to democracy

Noah Feldman, in the NY Times, offers his assessment of how things are going in Afghanistan, specifically, how they are making Isalmic state work with individual liberties. Some good things to report, some concerns. But, overall, it looks good.

Time for Apologies

Following Andrew Sullivan's lead, here is something too good to paraphrase or merely link to. From a brand new blogger in Iraq, with all his broken English eloquence, IRAQ THE MODEL's third blog:

YOU OWE US AN APOLOGY
I don’t know really know why Saddam’s regime lasted for over three decades, but I am sure as an Iraqi who survived that period that there’re no legal or moral justifications
for it to remain.
I was counting days and hours waiting to see an end to that regime, just like all those who suffered the cruelty of that brutal regime.
It’s been really a disgrace chasing the world ,the world of the 21st. century, reminding it how incapable it was to aid the oppressed and to sue those who dispised all the
values of humanity.
Through out these decades I lost trust in the world governments and international committees.
Terms like (human rights, democracy and liberty..etc.)became hallow and meaningless and those who keep repeating these words are liars..liars..liars.
I hated the U.N and the security council and Russia and France and Germany and the arab nations and the islamic conference.
I’ve hated George Gallawy and all those marched in the millionic demonstrations against the war .It is I who was oppressed and I don’t want any one to talk on behalf of me,
I, who was eager to see rockets falling on Saddam’s nest to set me free, and it is I who desired to die gentlemen, because it’s more merciful than humiliation as it puts an end
to my suffer, while humiliation lives with me reminding me every moment that I couldn’t defend myself against those who ill-treated me.
What hurt me more and kept my wound bleeding was that they gave Saddam a tribune so the skinner can talk, and offered him a diplomatic representation almost all-over the world to broadcast his filthy propaganda and sprinkle Iraq’s wealth on his supporters.
I really didn’t understand those countries demands to take away our misery. Did they really think that the sanctions were the cause?

We were not even human, Saddam wiped off our humanity , we were just numbers and a lot of Identity cards that we had to show wherever we went.
The Baath idea was this:
YOU’RE A CITIZEN , THEN YOU’RE A SUSPECT
Believe me , we were living in the” kingdom of horror”.
Please tell me how could the world that claims to be civilized let Saddam launch chemical weapons on his own un-armed people?
Shame..

Till when will the charts of human rights remain incompulsory , cancel them, because they remind you of your big disgrace.
Keep giving time and tribunes to regimes like those in Syria, Yemen, North Korea and Libya to justify their presence.
To me I don’t recognize your committees and I have no time to listen to that nonsense, I’ve got along way to walk building my country and helping my people forget the days of abasement.
You all owe the Iraqi people an apology.
What happened in Iraq was worse than the holocaust.

- posted by Omar @ 19:18

There are about 12 new Iraqi blogs, since the invasion. And, they are all extremely helpful and not a little inspiring to read and keep track of. Though, as Zeyed does today, they may have hard things to say. They are worth more than a whole boatload of reporters. My favorites are Zeyad's Healing Iraq and THE MESOPOTAMIAN. Check them out.

Rebuilding the Buddhas

Here is a link to the story regarding the attempt to rebuild the statues of Buddha destroyed by the Taliban in Afghanistan in the '90's.

News of Iraq

The recent invasion in Iraq provided many instances of why our sources of news do matter. For example, the sailors in the Royal Navy were reported to have given up on BBC as their main source of news of the war's progress: as I recall it being told, they turned BBC off with "disgust." Embedded reporters and war and Iraqi (recently) blogs provided some of the most immediate and unfiltered insights. In the big media, John Burns of the NY Times stood out during and now as a reliable source. Here he is a recent article offering his experience of the good and bad things going on in Iraq.

Paul Johnson: America as "Empire of Liberty"

British historian, Paul Johnson, here, makes the argument that America has, since 9-11, "reawakened" to its responsibility as an "empire of liberty" (a phrase borrowed from Jefferson--where?). America's foreign policy following WW II was tailored to address the Cold War (or as Eliot Cohen compelling puts it, WW III, below), so containment was the solution.

Now, America finds itself in a place of needing to become more active and involved for change around the world. And Johnson thinks this is the good that empire has to offer. As he recalls of Britain in his younger days,

When I was a boy in the 1930s, a quarter of the world on the map was colored red, that is, part of the British Empire and Commonwealth of Nations. It was a liberal empire and a democratic commonwealth, and its aim, as with America in the Philippines, was to prepare its components for self-government. There have been some outstanding successes: Canada, Newfoundland, New Zealand, Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, and, most of all, India; with a billion inhabitants it has become the world's largest democracy.

It is singularly good timing that Johnson's piece should be published now, seeing how Bush signaled a reversal of the Cold War policy, in his National Endowment for Democracy speech last week (see below). There, Bush says many wonderful and powerful things, such as, this:

Sixty years of Western nations excusing and accommodating the lack of freedom in the Middle East did nothing to make us safe -- because in the long run, stability cannot be purchased at the expense of liberty.

UPDATE:

Here is yet another Johnson article on "Empire of Liberty." Is this the same article?

Arabian Islam and slavery

Daniel Pipe has a blog regarding the legalization of slavery in Arabia. He has a couple of interesting links as well. He quotes one Arabian Islamic leader as saying this surprising thing:

"Slavery is a part of Islam," he announced in a recent lecture. "Slavery is part of jihad, and jihad will remain as long there is Islam." He argued against the idea that slavery had ever been abolished, insulting those who espouse this view as "ignorant, not scholars. They are merely writers. Whoever says such things is an infidel."

Various world papers on Democracy in Iraq

Oxblog collects several links to papers taking sides on democracy in the Middle East.

Here are some German papers' reactions.

More Iraqi Bloggers

Two new bloggers from Baghdad. Worth checking out. Seems they're friends of Seyed ( Healing Iraq ). Each offer insights and perspectives that seem very authentic: authentic as Iraqis and as people. Below them is another Iraqi blog, but evidently, she has been around for a while.
Mesopotamian
Iraq at a Glance
Riverbend

2nd Anniversary of Iranian blogs

The father of Iranian blogs has a piece to mark the occasion of his writing up directions for publishing blogs for his countrymen. Besure to check out his articles (listed on the right, on his website) on blogging.

Bush on Freedom in Iraq and the Middle East

This speech at the National of Endowment for Democracy is a must read for any student of the Middle East today. It provides some context for Bush's foreign policy and the direction of the war on terror. He sees himself as Reagan saw himself 20 years ago in a speech at Westminister Palace, bearing witness to a turning point in history: the failure of the then threat to freedom and democracy (Soviet communism) because it had denied its people the dignity and creativie power of individual freedom. Reagan's moral advocacy helped to usher in a "great democratic movement" that spread throughout Europe and other parts of the world. Today, Bush wants to do the same for the Middle East. And the door is open in Iraq and Afghanistan.

UPDATE:
Christian D. Brose has a worthy caution to Bush's opitimism.

William Safire has some high praise for it. (Registration probably required.)

Fareed Zakaria calls it "Bush's Really Good Idea" (Be sure to check out some of his other provocative and good articles in his Archives.)

Daniel Pipe's commentary in the Jerusalem Post is titled: "Bush the Radical".

MORE:
British blogger, Oliver Kamm, in light of Bush's arrival in London tomorrow, gives his praise. He says that Bush has become the true progressive:

"George W. Bush comes to this country as head of state of the world's leading democracy and our most important ally. He is also the principal heir to a progressive tradition that regards political liberty as universal and that considers the first task of foreign policy to be to spread it rather than overlook its absence. He is accordingly a theorist, spokesman and figurehead for the ideals of the liberal Left; he merits the gratitude of those of us who would adhere to them."