European empires

Visualizing empires decline from Pedro M Cruz on Vimeo.

A full screen, high quality version of Obama's Muslim world speech at Cairo University

I wanted to watch a full version of Barack Obama's big speech to the Middle East at Cairo University. Most versions are cut and spliced with journalistic comment but this one seems to be straight. Double click to watch full screen:

You won`t enjoy this. Put your headphones on.

Inside "the surge"

The bleeding obvious

That`s why they call them "intelligence" I suppose.

The difference between Persians and Arabs.

Funny.

(Hey, I get to use my "Iraq" and "Silly" tags on the same post!)

Fifteen Britons in a sea of intrigue

I found this helpful in trying to understand what is going on in Iran at the moment.

Preparing a hawkish myth

Bush: 8,200 more troops needed for wars.

In these last years of the Bush presidency, the hawks are preparing a myth. They were in sight of victory, they will say, only for America to be let down again by traitorous liberals.

Remember Comical Ali?

Few people can have had such an ignominious 15 minutes of fame as that clown who acted as Saddam's press spokesman during the invasion of Iraq. "Comical Ali" was what they called him. It was his unquenchable optimism in the face of grim reality that made his name, like claiming there were no American troops in Baghdad when US tanks were only a few hundred meters from where he was holding the press conference. There were other ramblings too:

"Do not be hasty because your disappointment will be huge.You will reap nothing from this aggressive war, which you launched on Iraq, except for disgrace and defeat."

"We will embroil them, confuse them, and keep them in the quagmire...they cannot just enter a country of 26 million people and lay besiege to them! They are the ones who will find themselves under siege."

Crazy old loon! Imagine what would happen if our own leaders had such a semi detached connection with reality. A scary thought.