Month: November 2004

Ignatieff on terrorism

Michael Ignatieff (that philosophical vagabond: he went from Oxford to the London School of Economics to Harvard in just a few years, and from Isaiah Berlin to war, peace and terrorism in even less time) offers an essay on the terrorist as an auteur, and draws the lesson that he is tempting us to join him in infamy:

An accomplished terrorist — al-Zarqawi is undoubtedly one — understands us better than we seem to understand him. He knows that the only chance of forcing an American withdrawal lies in swaying the political will of an electorate that, already divided and unwilling, has sent its sons and daughters there. This is where his images become a weapon of war, a way to test and possibly shatter American will. He is counting on our moral disgust and on the sense of futility that follows disgust. Moral disgust is the first crucial step toward cracking the will to continue the fight.

Now let’s not be sentimental about American virtue or scruple. Democracies can be just as ruthless as authoritarian societies, and Americans haven’t been angels in the war on terror, as the images from Abu Ghraib so plainly show. But the willingness of American democracy to commit atrocity in its defense is limited by moral repugnance, rooted in two centuries of free institutions. This capacity for repugnance sustained the popular protest that eventually took us out of Vietnam. Al-Zarqawi is a cynic about these matters: the truths we hold to be self-evident are the ones he hopes to turn against us. He thinks that we would rather come home than fight evil. Are we truly willing to descend into the vortex to beat him? He has bet that we are not.

But his calculation is that either way, he cannot lose. If we remain, he has also bet — and Abu Ghraib confirms how perceptive he was — that we will help him drive us into ignominious defeat by becoming as barbarous as he is. He is trailing the videos as an ultimate kind of moral temptation, an ethical trap into which he is hoping we will fall. Everything is permitted, he is saying. If you wish to beat me, you will have to join me. Every terrorist hopes, ultimately, that his opponent will become his brother in infamy. If we succumb to this temptation, he will have won. He has, however, forgotten that the choice always remains ours, not his.

(Thanks, Negar!)

Black cloud blues

As I look out of my window, a dense, soupy fog envelops the city. At least half the people I know are sick with some kind of flu, and since I’ve moved to Cairo nearly five years ago I’ve gotten an average of four flus a year. When I leave the city, exposure to clean air gives me a sore throat for a day or so, and when I come back the same thing happens. And I live in a relatively upscale, leafy neighborhood (although close to a major road). They say Cairo traffic cops have the lowest sperm counts in the world because of the lead they inhale, and that the pollution results in a Cairene baby “losing” at least eight points of IQ because of early exposure to heavy metals in the air. Beyond the black cloud that strikes at this time of the year, it’s becoming increasingly urgent for to do something about the pollution in Cairo — it’s reaching 19th century London proportions.

“Out of each 10 people you’ll meet in Cairo this time of year, six or seven of them will have this sort of flu-like cough,” says Dr Ashraf Hatem, professor of chest diseases at Cairo University Hospital, referring to the symptoms so many Cairenes suffer from during the period from late October through November.

“Usually it starts with a soreness or itching in the throat, pains in the eye, itching in the nose, low-grade fever, and sneezing,” Hatem explains. “Then there is a cough, which may come in sporadic attacks that worsen in the evening and at dawn, when the pollution is worst. While these symptoms usually indicate a viral infection of the kind which is passed on so easily in heavily-populated areas like Cairo, the condition is increased significantly by air pollution and what we call the ‘black cloud’.”

More Gamaa Islamiya members freed

The independent newspaper Masri Al Youm is reporting that over 700 members of Gamaa Islamiya have been released in recent days.

This is the second large release of Gamaa members over the past two years, after the fundamentalist renounced terrorism and denounced the killings it was responsible for during the 1980s and 1990s. This would be yet another sign that the state and Gamaa Islamiya have buried the hatchet, while the other main fundamentalist group, Islamic Jihad, has not operated in the country in years as most of its members joined Al Qaeda in Afghanistan.

An internet for empire

The New York Times explains the Pentagon’s plans to build a “Global Information Grid” that will put instant coverage of the entire world in the hands of military commanders:

Many new multibillion-dollar weapons and satellites are “critically dependent on the future network,” the agency reported. “Despite enormous challenges and risks – many of which have not been successfully overcome in smaller-scale efforts” like missile defense, “the Pentagon is depending on the GIG to enable a fundamental transformation in the way military operations are conducted.”

According to Art Cebrowski, director of the Pentagon’s Office of Force Transformation, “What we are really talking about is a new theory of war.”

A mujahid’s tale

The Washington Post has a rare insight into the life of a Yemeni man who left his country to fight the occupation of Iraq in Falluja:

Abu Thar turned 30, and might never have tried to reach Iraq again but for the photographs that emerged of U.S. military police abusing prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison. Seeing the photos, his wife, also a religious student, urged him to leave everything and go to Iraq to fight jihad. She was pregnant with their sixth child.

“She told me, ‘If they are doing this to the men, imagine what is happening to the women now,’ ” Abu Thar recalled. ” ‘Imagine your sisters and I being raped by the infidel American pigs.'”

He said he spent the night crying, tormented that he did not persevere earlier. In the morning he started making the rounds of friends, borrowing money to travel.

“Humiliating Our Friends”

Marc Lynch takes a look at the Bush administration’s efforts to spread democracy in the Middle East:

The problems with Bush’s approach to democratic reform in the region run deeper than a lack of seriousness or poor execution. The core problem lies in the administration’s clear contempt for Arab public opinion, a contempt which is keenly felt by those Arab moderates who actually share the goals of political, economic and cultural reform. The administration is divided between hawks, who believe that Arabs respect force and can be either browbeaten into submission or else easily repressed by friendly dictators; and neoconservatives, who believe that greater democracy will naturally produce pro-American attitudes. Both theories have been painfully disproven over the last few years, as repeated demonstrations of American strength combined with soaring democracy rhetoric have produced only ever-greater levels of anti-American sentiment. But faced with clear evidence of failure, the administration refuses to change course.

There are a few other good passages in that piece, it’s worth reading.

What did Arafat die of?

As I watched today his funeral on TV and then went to see the protests after the Friday sermon at Al Azhar mosque (which were surprisingly small, but then again the mood of the day was sadness rather than anger), this question kept coming back: what is the cause of Arafat’s death. As this story on the rumors that he was poisoned by the Israelis — a rumor started by Hamas — shows, we still don’t know. I wouldn’t give much credence to the poison theory, but I think we need to know what happened. Did they pull the plug on him? Who made that decision? Or was it simply the result of the brain hemorrhage he was suffering from? If these questions aren’t answer, the rumors are just going to keep spreading.

Allawi family kidnapped

I just received some news that three members of Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi’s family were kidnapped today, including his wife.

This is not confirmed yet, but it just keeps getting worse and worse, doesn’t it?

Update: Here’s the first item I see. It’s not his wife, but his cousin and his cousin’s wife, as well as another relative.

Here’s another report:

A posting on an Islamic Web site by a group calling itself Ansar al-Jihad group claimed responsibility for kidnapping three Allawi relatives, and threatened to behead them in 48 hours if their demands aren’t met.

They demanded that Allawi and his government release all female and male detainees in Iraq, and lift the siege on Fallujah.

“We promise Allah and his messenger that if the agent government doesn’t respond to our demands within 48 hours, they (the hostages) will be beheaded.”