Updates on Israeli airstrike on Syria

Josh Landis over at Syria Comment has a series of posts updating the swirl of information, conjecture, rumors, and speculation over last Thursday's Israeli air strike on Syria. Be sure to check out his Recent Post column for the evolution of the story over the last few days. Turkey is none too pleased about this, either.

Salaam?

Leaving on a jet plane, soon.

Just watched: 2 Days in Paris, written, directed by and staring Julie Delpy. I LOVED this film!
Just discovered: The band Over the Rhine, who play literate and hard to define music, and the bibliophile blog 50 Books where Doppelganger reviews all her great reads and lusts after remarkable bookshelves (proving I'm not the only one with a bookshelf fetish).
Reading: My Nikon D80 manual, causing me to cast longing glances at my 30+ year-old Pentax K1000. I'm like an Amish kid on Rumspringa with digital right now.

Saturday will begin my last week in the States. Here are the plans. I leave on the 22nd for Istanbul. I fly via Chicago and Dublin and arrive at about 9pm on the night of the 23rd, which is far preferable to those 2am arrivals into Damascus. You're generally a quiet audience, but if anybody has any advice for an 8 hour layover in Dublin, please let me know.

The refugee women I teach on Saturdays threw me a party last week. Lots of laughing and lots of food from Afghanistan (chicken and pilaf - amazing) and Liberia (sweet potatoes, greens, chicken, and "broken rice"-delicious). I brought the music of Usted Farida Mahwash for one of my Afghan students and she danced and sang along all afternoon, making sure to point out to me which instrument I was hearing or something important about the structure of a song. Om-Taromeet is visiting Saturday for my last class. I will really miss these women.

Packing is a difficult balance. Clothes are relatively easy. Books are the hard part for me. I remember how expensive books in English are over there (not to mention a $25 New Yorker), which makes my diet an expensive one. There are the "I must takes": a few books on Turkish and Arabic, Kelby's book on Photoshop for CS2; the "I need to read"s: Said's Orientalism (I swear I'll finish it this time) and Covering Islam, a biography of Badshah Khan, Art & Fear, Reading Like a Writer, and Freely's Istanbul; and the "I want to read"s: The Mystical Poems of Rumi, Sontag's Styles of Radical Will, Maalouf's The Gardens of Light, Montaigne's Essays, Homer's The Iliad & The Odyssey, McCarthy's The Road. I'll be handing them off as I finish them, hopefully in trade. Of course I am still hunting for Munif's Cities of Salt and have my eye on Kinross's The Ottoman Centuries and Shafak's The Bastard of Istanbul. But, you have to say yeter at some point.

Om-Taromeet will visit from Florida tomorrow through Sunday. She told a class of 5th graders at her school I was moving to Turkey. They laughed, hard pressed to believe there is some place out there named after the bird they eat on Thanksgiving.

Ramadan karim and L'shanah tovah to my friends celebrating today.
Salaam.

Internet Censorship in Syria

Charlie don't surf* and, apparently neither do Syrians these days. Somebody please reply to Golaniya's question about solving the comments issue, especially in light of the Syrian government criminalizing anonymous comments. Like Turkey, the Syrian government seems to be going with the "it's to protect against defamation" claim. I wonder exactly what the forthcoming new media law will entail?

Salaam.


*I'm assuming you've seen Apocalypse Now, yes?

"Kicking a$$" in Iraq, the musical.

President Bush used a colorful phrase this week to describe his opinion of the progress of U.S. Forces in Iraq. His remark provided me a perfect opportunity to share video of one of my favorite songs. For once, and I suspect only once, thanks Shrub. May I present our new national anthem:


Fear not, good people of Turkey, I'm not like these fellas. Though, in the interest of disclosure, I do have relatives who bear a resemblance to the one in the overalls.

Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie are two of my absolute favorite Brits. Everybody should get the DVDs of A Bit of Fry and Laurie.

Salaam.

Happy Birthday, Marie!

My friend Marie Elizabeth Wiegenstein O'Connor is turning 99 on September 10th. Yes, ninety nine. It's not just the accomplishment of grazing the century mark. Marie is one of the kindest, funniest, and downright pleasant people I've had the pleasure of knowing. She is a rare bird, a genuinely good soul. She's had quite a life. She and her husband lived in France as part of the reconstruction following WWII and traveled Europe extensively in a time when most Americans still spent most of their lives in hometowns. She raised three sons, is a proud grandmother, and never misses Mass. When she tells stories of the years she spent living out west or growing up on her family's farm, the margins of her stories are peppered with modest references to history that launched many a Google search.

Looking back at history, the world we know today has grown up with her:
1918: WWI ends; the Spanish influenza pandemic; the execution of Czar Nicholas II and his family; first documented interracial jazz recording made;
1928: Fleming discovers Penicillin; Hirohito becomes Emperor of Japan; first regularly scheduled television programming aired; Mickey Mouse makes debuts in Plane Crazy.
1938: The Anschluss; Kristallnacht; Oil discovered in Saudi Arabia; Atatürk dies; the ballpoint pen patented; Orson Welles causes chaos with War of the Worlds radio broadcast.
1948: Mahatma Gandhi murdered; establishment of the State of Israel; World Health Organization founded; Italian film The Bicycle Thieves released.
1958: Treaty of Rome signed establishing the European Economic Community (later the EU); 5,000 U.S. Marines land in Beirut; Radio Rebelde begins broadcasting from the Sierra Maestra in Cuba; Hitchcock's Vertigo.
1968: Dr. Martin Luther King and Sen. Robert Kennedy assassinated; Baathist take power in Iraq; Tet Offensive; Nixon elected President; Cash's Folsom Prison Blues and The Beatles White Album.
1978: First IVF baby born; Cardinal Karol Wojtyla becomes Pope John Paul II; Camp David Accords signed; Steve Martin premieres song King Tut on SNL.
1988: Soviet Union begins withdrawing troops from Afghanistan; Halabja; Iran-Iraq War ends; Hawking's A Brief History of Time.

Congratulations and much love, Marie. Here's to your 100th candle next year.

Salaam.

Oh, SAMA!

So, he's back after several years. He's looking less gaunt and has picked up a box of Just for Men to wash that gray right out of his beard. Last time we heard from him was just before the 2004 elections:
"And know that: "It is better to return to the truth than persist in error." And that the wise man doesn't squander his security, wealth and children for the sake of the liar in the White House."

After all these years and all those billions of dollars we have yet to find a 50 year old with a possible litany of health issues who depends on dialysis, walks with a cane, and lives in a cave.

My favorite comment came from Anderson Cooper last night:
"al Qaeda's production company -- and, yes, they do have a production company -- posted the following banner ad. "

The whole "hunt" has gotten surreal and ridiculous at this point. Apparently, most in the U.S. now believe he'll never be caught.

Salaam.

A Public Service Announcement for Women

I hope all the you women out there saw this story. I don't know about you, but I'm willing to "live in sin" for equality in the home. I am seriously disinclined towards domesticity and domestic pursuits myself.

Salaam.

The Strange Bedfellows of Turkey's Creationists

This story aired on PRI's The World last night.

Why does this partnership remind me of the "Christian" extremists, "Christian Zionists", etc. who rabidly support the Israeli government and are fervently courted and welcomed by some Israelis and Jews, even though their Rapture visions include the slaughter anybody who doesn't covert to their way of doing things, so to speak? I just want to sit them down and say "you do realize these people still think you're evil and going to hell, right?"

And no mention of the related WordPress ban.

As I keep telling people, usually after watching a little TBN, I hope Jesus is coming back and soon because he really needs to have a sit down with some of the folks claiming to be part of his organization. Speaking of which, has anybody ever seen the Saturday Night Live Skit with the late Phil Hartman as Jesus confronting an overzealous follower? Classic.

Salaam.

The Next War - Updates

This is troubling, but doesn't strike me as out of the realm of possibility. Keep checking the Global Affairs blog, which updates this topic regularly and includes many good links.

Salaam.

Riverbend and Her Family Made It!

I was so happy to finally see a new post today from Riverbend at Baghdad Burning, her first since her family made the difficult decision to leave Iraq. Everybody, especially in the US, should read this post. She and her family are lucky they made it into Syria before September 10, when Syria will begin requiring visas for Iraqi refugees.

Meanwhile, please explain to me why Iraqis cannot apply for refugee apply for refugee status at the shiny, new U.S. embassy in Baghdad, and instead must risk a border crossing to Syria or Jordan? How will they apply in light of Jordan and Syria changing their entry policies? Read this to see just how difficult the process is.

Listen to two great reports on the crisis in Damascus and the challenges facing the refugees seeking to immigrate to the U.S. from National Public Radio, which reports a mass exodus in anticipation of the deadline.

Shame on us.

Salaam.

Israeli Airstrike On Syria?

This morning on NPR I heard about the supposed intrusion on Syrian airspace by Israeli jets. Israel is saying they didn't, Syria says the Israelis did, dropped their fuel tanks and/or munitions, and Syrian forces fired on the jets. Tried to check the U.S. television news channels this morning, but they were tied up, as usual, with a useless local news story (another standoff with police). Josh Landis weighs in. He links to this article from Haaretz, which has some follow-up links at the bottom of the article.

According to Haaretz, Al-Arabiya is reporting the location as "North-Eastern Syria, near the Turkish border". The jets came in from the sea. Jerusalem Post says it happened near "Abyad".

Salaam.

Turkey and the U.S.

Just some random thoughts on Turkey that I am late in posting.

It was interesting to hear the commentators talk about the Gül Presidency and what
it means for Turkey. I say "was" because Gül and the election quickly dropped off the U.S. news radar. This discussion and analysis on The Newshour last week between Söner Çağaptay, director of the Turkish Research Program at the Washington Institute on Near East Policy, and Bülent Aliriza, director of the Turkey Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, seems to be typical with one side seeing it as the end of Turkey as we know and the other taking a wait-and-see attitude.

I am not Turkish and I am not an expert on Turkish politics, but in the U.S. when you call somebody an "Islamist" you are essentially equating them with Ayatollah Khomeini, Osama bin Laden, and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who are for most Americans are the poster boys for Islamic extremism. So far as I can tell, Gül doesn't seem to belong in that club and doesn't appear to be applying for membership. It strikes me as somewhat amusing, and sad, that I've had people here ask me if I am afraid about going to Turkey "now that the Islamists have taken over the government."

I have read commentators who blame the rising number of Turks with unfavorable views of the U.S. policy on some sort of conservative Islamic resurgence. However, it may be much simpler. Many Turks I talked to wanted to know why the U.S. government and military would not let Turkey deal with PKK camps in Iraqi Kurdistan. They asked why the U.S. was allowed to deal with its terrorists, but Turkey was forced to sit by idly. Some expressed a feeling of being used by the U.S. for very little in return.
The news earlier this month about guns from the U.S. intended for Iraqi forces ending up in Turkey, even being used in criminal activities there according to the Turkish government, will certainly and understandably not help things.

Salaam.

The Next War

UPDATE: Everybody should be keeping up with the Informed Comment Global Affairs Blog. There's more on this each day.

A U.S. attack on Iran is starting to sound like a matter of when, not if.

Average people I talk to here do not believe the Bush administration would attack and/or invade Iran for a variety of reasons: the U.S. military is already spread too thin; the growing public unease about the war in Iraq; lack of public support for a third war; it's just too crazy an idea, even for these loons...
I usually nod and acknowledge the logic of those arguments, which would certainly give better leaders pause. However, I do not believe this administration acts on logic. I think they have proven that time and again.

While the idea of an attack on Iran has been brought up before, the tone seems to be changing from the theoretical to the inevitable. Recent weeks have brought some disturbing writings concerning a U.S. strike on Iran. These are not the rantings of wild-eyed, tin foil hat-wearing conspiracy theorists. Read Juan Cole, Barnett Rubin, McClatchy, The New Yorker ("Test Marketing"), Scott Horton of Harper's, Glenn Greenwald of Salon, and Chris Floyd for yourself. Maccabee on Daily Kos has an interesting entry in his diary, as well.

The Raw Story has a piece about a report issued by Dr. Dan Plesch, the Director of the School of Oriental and African Studies' Center for International Studies and Diplomacy, and Martin Butcher, an international security politics consultant, that analyzes the potential for a U.S. war with Iran and how it might unfold. You can download the actual report from a link in the story.

The administration, neocons, and their supporters are ratcheting up their rhetoric and it is sounding somewhat familiar. This follows Senate passage of the Lieberman amendment to the defense spending bill and revelation of U.S. plans to label Iran's Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization.

As Jon Stewart says, "cue the fear music"...


Bill O'Rielley was again claiming on his show this week that what war critics really want the U.S. to lose in Iraq. The "dissent is treason" thing is so tired, absurd, offensive. At this point, I am not even sure what the U.S. losing means in practical terms. What to we call the situation now? Bill, I would love to be proven wrong. I would love to have a stable, safe, functioning Iraq where people can return home to live in peace. I just don't see that happening. And I wouldn't believe the people running my government telling me they had to fight the school bully because he was taking milk money from the other kids if I saw it with my own eyes.

I was in Morocco in 2004 and the question friends kept asking was "why are the people in your country not out in the streets (about the Iraq war)?" That was before many of the big reveals of lies and manipulations. I didn't have many good responses for that question then. I don't feel I do now, either. I just hope it's not too late to stop the next war.

Salaam.

Bayn yalnız bıraz Türkçe konuşabiliyorum ama geliyorum!

I am due to leave September 22 for Istanbul where I will be attending a CELTA course through mid-December. I intend to stay in that part of the world after that, but refuse to give details because I simply don't have them. Yes, I am aware they do not speak Arabic there, although most people here I speak to are surprised by this fact. (sigh) I know enough Turkish to get by and will simply throw myself at the language as I did in Syria, which seemed to work well. Not taking yourself too seriously, willingness to screw up and/or make a fool of yourself, and a real love of talking to just about anybody helps a lot in learning a new language. My favorite Turkish word, so far:

Türkleştiremedigimizlerdensinizdir.
Perhaps you are one of those we cannot Turkify.
(We shall see.)

I am in a bit of a whirl getting everything sorted before I leave. Tonight, though, I am going to hear the should-be Governor of Texas, Kinky Friedman, speak at the Decatur Book Fair.

As the Kinkster says, "May the God of your choice bless you."
Salaam.

Random Reads

I am finishing my application for the CELTA in Cairo and interviewing with the Istanbul program today. Just some things of note from the last few days, including a the loss of a great sound, the power of the image, and paddling out for peace.

Doc Rocks!
Even I've heard of Doc. Some people may say his gift is frivolous. To me, it's someone who saw a need, knew they could help, and helped. Simple as that. And, there's no telling where this could lead. When I was a kayak guide, working with kids from the rougher parts of town was the best part, to see their confidence and smiles grow as they learned the strokes and managed to handle a 3 meter long kayak. Who knows what can come from teaching the children of Gaza to surf.

The drumming circle in heaven got sweeter last week. R.I.P., Max. You will be missed.

I attended the exhibit Annie Leibovitz, A Photographer's Life, 1990-2005 at the High Museum on Friday. Leibovitz is most well-known for her celebrity portraits. In fact, until Friday I only had a vague idea of her other works. I'd heard she was in Sarajevo during the war, but didn't know much about her journalistic or personal work. That's why the show was a revelation to me. In her artist's statement she states her professional and personal work should be considered one body of work because she considers her life unified; that there's not this part of her life over here and that part over there. That's my philosophy of life, too, or at least what I strive for, so I appreciated that and the way it was reflected in the staging of the exhibition. Most striking, one wall is bracketed by a large print of Johnny Depp and Kate Moss formally posed in bed and the chilling image of a yellow wall in a Rwandan Tutsi school streaked with bloody foot and hand prints, the remnants of a massacre. In between are small, intimate images of Leibovitz's partner, the late writer Susan Sontag, on a trip to Venice, and a series of four simple images of Leibovitz's parents' morning routine in their kitchen. I sat in front of the the wall and watched people's reactions. Most people were drawn to the Depp print and repulsed by the Rwanda print. One woman walked up to the Rwanda print, gasped, snapped to attention, and scampered away. The personal photos, being much smaller, required closer inspection. The arrangement struck me somehow. This is life, or at least how it is presented to us: while people are being butchered in some far off place, a woman makes coffee for her husband, people go on vacation, and the press tries to wave celebrity in front of us as an ideal. I even have to give Leibovitz credit for her celebrity work, which isn't really of interest to me. There was a photo of a shirtless Mick Jagger sitting alone on a bed, staring at something outside the frame, that managed to convey a sort of vulnerability that one doesn't normally associate with Jagger. My favorites were a photo of the slot canyon at Petra opening onto the site, a bright crack in the dark rock walls leading your eyes into the image, with Sontag standing in silhouette at the entrance for scale; the fallen bicycle of a boy killed by a mortar in Sarajevo, his blood arced across the pavement conveying the brevity and fragility of life as well as the brutality of war; a bold, high contrast image in close-up of a pregnant woman's belly with the father's hands resting on the woman's belly in the form of a heart and the woman's arms cradling his. The exhibit closes September 2, so if you're in or around Atlanta, be sure to catch it.

Sadly, the U.S. is losing one of its most important publications of record. Who will cover Batboy, the alien members of the U.S. Congress, Bigfoot and Satan now? And what of their vital reporting on religious issues? Om-Taromeet and I used to buy issues to read aloud on long road trips, an unparalleled form of entertainment. Be sure to check out This Week in History.

Salaam.