Special Abu Muqawama Q&A: Six Questions for Deb Amos

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March 5, 2010 | Posted by Abu Muqawama - 12:53pm | 85 Comments

Today we have a special interview with NPR's Deborah Amos. Deb is a longtime reader of this blog and an even longer-time student and observer of the Arabic-speaking world. I asked her to discuss, for the benefit of the readership, her quite lovely new book on Iraqi refugees and some of the regional dynamics set in motion by the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

1. Let me start off by saying that I really enjoyed this book. For a journalist who has spent most of her time in radio and television, you are an exceptionally eloquent writer. But I want to talk about the tone with which you wrote your book as opposed to your diction. It strikes me that you can write a critical essay on the Arabic-speaking world with contempt, or you can write an equally critical essay on the Arabic-speaking world with compassion. I can't help but notice that at the same time Max Rodenbeck has been taking Lee Smith to task for apparently doing the former, you have done the latter.* But then, you have spent most of your professional life working in or on the Middle East, haven't you? Your love for the cultures and peoples of the region shines through your narrative, and even when you pass judgment, you pass it with a high degree of sympathy and self-awareness. Tell us a bit about how you first came to the Arabic-speaking world and how your long engagement with the region set the stage for this book.

Thank you for recognizing that broadcast journalists can write complex sentences. In some ways, this book represents a long journey. I first arrived in the Arabic speaking world in 1982. I landed at the port of Jounieh to report on the Israeli invasion of Lebanon. My first image of a Middle East war zone was a woman water skiing off the waters of Christian east Beirut as Israeli jets were pounding Muslim West Beirut. It was my first lesson in sectarian fault lines. I also had the best meals of my life that summer; it is Beirut, after all. Over the next three decades I reported from almost every corner of the Middle East. Iraq had been off-limits in Saddam’s time. I could get a visa to travel there, but it was illegal for Iraqi’s to talk to foreigners. When I arrived in Baghdad in 2003 I could talk to everybody. They all had plenty to say and in some ways that opening conversation in this formerly closed country set the stage for this book.

2. I want to ask you about the Iraqi refugee crisis in just a minute, but your book is about more than that. As eloquent as I found the prose inside the cover of your book, the title is a rather blunt, inelegant "Eclipse of the Sunnis". On the other hand, maybe that title says all that needs to be said. Is that the theme of this book? Are we seeing a seismic shift in power relations in the Arabic-speaking world? And how can that be so when Sunni Muslims still constitute such an overwhelming majority of the Arabic-speaking peoples?

When I first started writing the book I had a different title in mind. I was interested in the experience of exile and I wanted to use the opening line from a poem by Dante that expressed the pain of political banishment. “You shall leave everything you love most,” wrote Dante and it seemed to capture the complicated emotions of Iraqis who hated Saddam but were deeply tied to their culture and community. The title changed as I understood that the sectarian cleansing in Iraq had a wider implication. The majority of exiles and refugees are Sunni Arabs. Baghdad has had a demographic shift that is historic and seismic. Baghdad is now a Shiite capital which has an impact on the way power relations work in the country. Iraq’s Shiites won the sectarian war, the Sunnis lost. However, Iraq is not an island. As you correctly point out, Sunni Muslims still constitute an overwhelming majority in the region. Iraq’s Sunni neighbors see the resolution of the exile crisis as an indicator of Iraqi’s identity. An eclipse implies a phase. There will be no stability in Iraq until there is political reconciliation and power sharing. To quote an Iraqi political analyst, “The Kurds are only 20% of the population without a friend in the region, and they’ve managed to destabilize Iraq for 80 years. The Sunnis have friends in almost every neighboring capital.”

3. About a year ago, The Gamble by Tom Ricks came out and seemed to have as many detractors as admirers. I was one of the people who liked it, taking it for what it was, largely because I knew it was just one of many books that would be written about the events known as the "Surge" and that other books would soon be published telling the story of Iraq from the perspective of grunts, insurgents, and ordinary Iraqis. Tom Ricks has told me that he himself looks forward to reading those books. I think your book is, in some ways, a "Surge" book in that it speaks to the effects the war and especially the U.S.-led offensive of 2007 has had on ordinary Iraqis -- and especially those who came to be refugees. What do you think about the idea that your book -- meant to be a broader narrative of the region -- is in some ways also a book about the Iraq War and the Surge?

While the “Surge” is not the major focus of the book, I write about the Iraq war and the events that surround the surge from an Iraqi point of view. I felt it was a view missing from the war literature. I couldn’t be on the ground in Baghdad in 2007, but I was in Damascus during the troop build up. There were more Iraqis fleeing the country in 2007 than had left in 2006. In Damascus, the UN refugee center was packed each day. By interviewing the newcomers I could document the explosion of sectarian cleansing that took place as additional U.S. moved into Baghdad neighborhoods. For many Iraqis, the price of the surge was quite high and some are still paying. Tactically, the surge contributed to the dramatic drop in violence, strategically, the surge failed to spark a political reconciliation in Iraq. Which means the refugee crisis could be with us for some time to come.

4. You write, in your chapter on Lebanon, how the Palestinian refugee problem in that country is proof positive of what happens when refugee crises go unresolved. What do you see as the long-term effects of the Iraqi refugee crisis on the region?

First, I want to talk about important indicators. I believe the March 7th parliamentary elections will play a role in the refugee crisis. The outcome will determine whether there are wide spread returns. The Iraqi election commission expects that more than 160 thousand Iraqis to vote in the voting centers across Syria. Arab League poll watchers are going to be dispatched to monitor the vote. The refugee neighborhoods are papered with campaign posters and Iraq’s Sunni politicians are courting the exile vote including Tarek al Hashimi, Iraq’s Vice President. This is an unprecedented event. The exiles are part of a ‘virtual’ Iraq that exists beyond the borders. The election outcome could determine whether Iraqis remain in exile, a destabilizing population in the region, or return home. They will be watching for the signals of power-sharing and what the vote reveals about the strength of the sectarian fault lines.

5. What concrete steps should policy-makers -- U.S., international, regional, Iraqi -- take to address the refugee crisis?

A few years ago, when I started interviewing refugees and NGO’s in the region, a U.N. official estimated there would be about 100 thousand Iraqis that would not go back. The number has probably grown larger since then, but the list reflects the legacy of the past few years: those too traumatized to return, religious minorities still threatened, female headed households, and Iraqis who worked for the U.S. military. While the U.S. resettlement program has made great strides, the specific program for military translators is a failure. The number of Iraqis granted special visas is dismally low. The program needs some serious attention. As for the larger picture, donor fatigue is hampering UN programs that support refugees. The International community still has a role to play in funding programs in Jordan and Syria. The latest U.S. government report portrays an Iraqi population that has no hope of employment or integration in exile; their children are largely outside the education system. This is not good news for Iraq’s future. The Iraqi government’s policy towards exiles and the internally displaced seems to be one of willful neglect. The Obama administration must use any remaining clout to get the next Iraqi government to focus attention on this population.

6. I usually end these interviews with a booze-related question, asking my interviewees to name their five favorite bars in their far-flung corners of the globe. Your book, though, reflects your love affair with the cuisine of the Middle East. You're always writing about food, and although I think we've dined together a couple of times, I remember with especial fondness a big dinner we enjoyed at Abdul Wahab al-Inglizi in Beirut with Leena, Oliver and several others. What, then, are your five favorite restaurants in the Arabic-speaking world? And your answers don't have to be all haute cuisine experiences -- what are the best places, for example, for fuul or kabob?

Thanks for letting me off the hook on the booze question. I’m not much of a bar girl, but I have done my share of sampling Arak around the region. However, the cuisines of the Middle East are my favorite topic. I would have to place Abdul Wahab al-Inglizi at the top of the list because I’ve spent many enjoyable evenings there, including the dinner you mention. Many of my favorite dinner memories include the company as much as the food. A meal at al-Mayass, an Armenian restaurant in Ashrafieh, a Beirut neighborhood, was all the more remarkable because Sami Zubaida, the “cuisine sociologist,“ was a guest. There is no better place to eat Ful than Abu Abdo’s in Aleppo, Syria. The restaurant is a “hole in the wall”, serving ful for more than 70 years. The dash of Aleppo pepper makes it all worthwhile. And while I’m on this great food city, I have to nominate a meal at Aleppo’s private food club located above Yasmeen d’Alep Hotel. You have to make friend with a member to get an invitation, but you have 600 people to choose from. And finally, the kabob. This is sure to get me in deep trouble, but I nominate the Iraqi kabob as the finest in the region. Iraqi refugees have opened more than a dozen restaurants in Damascus. My favorite is Qassim al Kassam Abdul Guss. You’ve pointed out a much better translation than the one I used in my book, “slave of grilled lamb,” which says all you need to know about the Iraqi obsession with grilled meat.

Thanks, Deb! Interested readers can buy her book here.

*I have not yet read Lee's book, I should say, so I cannot pass judgment on it. I plan on reading it, though, and will ask Lee to do a similar Q&A for the blog if the readership is interested and Lee is willing.

Books, Middle East

85 comments

Comment by Joe loves Cougars on March 5, 2010 - 1:24pm

Deborah Amos is hot. Please

Deborah Amos is hot.

Please interview Jamie Tarabay next (preferably with pictures posted).

And where the hell is Jennifer Eccleston? I haven't seen her since the run up to the war.

Comment by Matt on March 5, 2010 - 3:07pm

Deb makes me so hot. I had

Deb makes me so hot. I had a few pics of her in Kabul. We all loved her there.

Comment by g.d. on March 5, 2010 - 3:38pm

Questions for Deb Amos: In

Questions for Deb Amos:

In your opinion, was the Shia-Sunni split among Iraqis there before the invasion, or did it come about largely as a result of the U.S. invasion and the tactics used during the early years of the occupation - for example, setting up all-Sunni or all-Shia police groups?

NPR had an interesting run on this in 2007:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7332087

"The Origins of the Shia-Sunni Split
by Mike Shuster"

For comparison, it's clear that New York City has distinct Jewish, Catholic and Protestant groups, but you don't see armed camps battling each other the way you do in Beruit.

Isn't it somewhat the case that as conditions slide towards chaos, people link up into groups for self-protection - and then the press calls it a clash of cultures...

However, I hear that the Iraqi refugees are a cohesive group outside their country - they put aside any Shia-Sunni differences. Is that true?

Comment by Kratos on March 5, 2010 - 4:43pm

All this focus on Shia and

All this focus on Shia and Sunni, it makes me wonder why no one is talking about the Kurds.

Was reading this article today. AM when do you think Kurdistan will evolve into its own separate country and walk away from the rubble of Iraq? I would say things are already set in motion.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7238114.stm

New flags keep popping up everywhere.

Comment by Send Spank Mags to Helmand, the Troops need to Whack Off-Bad on March 5, 2010 - 5:57pm

For comparison, it's clear

For comparison, it's clear that New York City has distinct Jewish, Catholic and Protestant groups, but you don't see armed camps battling each other the way you do in Beruit.

g.d.,

You should watch "Gangs of New York":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcty-Vw77R8

Comment by Visitor on March 5, 2010 - 11:54pm

Here's a memory hole

Here's a memory hole retrieval from 2007, Simon Tisdall the Guardian:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/oct/05/iraq.international

The impotence of the Baghdad government, and the willingness of tribal chiefs and provincial and municipal-level leaders to take charge of their security, budgets and social programmes, is encouraging talk of partition - or at least devolution of power beyond that envisaged in Iraq's federal constitution...

Nevertheless, elections progress... Someone ask Joe Biden about this again:

This has not gone unnoticed among US legislators and policymakers such as Democrat senator Joe Biden, who have long argued for Bosnia style, ethnically based partition. Mr Biden won Senate approval last week for a non-binding measure urging Iraq's division into Sunni, Shia and Kurd regions.

Why the silence? One reason could be that the Shia portion of Iraq might suddenly become an Iranian ally, not a U.S. or Saudi ally. Huh... didn't think of that... Ooooh.

Revelation? Well, see Robert Baer, on this 2000 meeting with Feith:

Listening to Feith, I wondered why he wasn't more skeptical of Chalabi, a lifelong exile who hadn't seen Baghdad since he was a child. More to the point, I wondered why Feith wasn't more suspicious about Chalabi's ties to Iran. In the nineties, Chalabi had traveled through Tehran to get into Kurdish northern Iraq. He also had unexplained ties to Iran's hard-line Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, one reason the Clinton administration dropped contact with him.

I pointed this out to Feith, telling how in 1994 and 1995, Chalabi had turned over Iraqi National Congress houses and cars to Iranian intelligence, which then used them to stage the assassinations of Iranian dissidents living in the part of Iraq Saddam controlled. Didn't this sound suspicious to Feith? And that wasn't to mention Iran's long-term interests in Iraq, with or without Chalabi. I wondered why Feith couldn't draw the obvious parallels between Iraq and Lebanon, which Iran was then effectively annexing.

The longer Feith didn't respond, the more I wondered whether he thought I was making all this up, trying for some inexplicable reason to undermine Chalabi. I told Feith that if George Bush won the presidency, he'd be in a position to confirm everything I'd just told him.

At that Feith stood abruptly and thanked me for my visit. “Ahmed Chalabi will be a wonderful leader of Iraq,” he said firmly, before showing me out and closing the door behind me - Pages 17-18, The Devil We Know: Dealing With The New Iranian Superpower

Was Chalabi really an Iranian agent? How much of the "WMD information" came via the INC, and how eager were Rumsfeld and Cheney to see the CIA give it the stamp of approval?

Comment by Kratos @ Visitor - 10:54pm on March 6, 2010 - 6:39am

Was Chalabi really an

Was Chalabi really an Iranian agent? Baer said in his book "See no Evil" that he was a "double". Certain former officials are open about his activities in the media / press and people have spent a great deal of money and time giving him this shadowy image. Chalabi has received assistance from the United States in the past and always seem to make it into the news / media. Why has the US media spun up his image so much? Is Chalabi a human shell-game? Yes, because he can gain access to certain people / information and he does this very well. But, who does his information benefit? Perhaps only himself, since he's been unemployed for a long time.

The other questions you asked are rather old, odd and trivial. It really doesn't matter if they were eager.... its done and over with. Alas, Chalabi has since fallen from his perch once more and in today's news (see below link) he is the villain once again. There seems to be a lot of unemployed politicians in Iraq...how are they supporting themselves and their families? Does anyone know?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/26/AR201002...

========================================================================================

Back in 04/05 these four men came to the United States for the - State of the Union Address.

1) Hoshyar Zebari Minister of Foreign Affairs of Iraq.
2) Sayyed Abdul Aziz al-Hakim Iraqi theologian and politician and the leader of Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq.
3) Ahmed Abdel Hadi Chalabi. Politician and interim oil minister in Iraq.
4) Adnan Muzahim Amin al-Pachachi an Iraqi politician and Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1965 to 1967

All four were running (at the time) for President of Iraq. Since then, al-Hakim died from cancer in 2007. Pachachi has fallen off the radar and doesn't seem to have a job, but he has been recently seen in the news.

http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/iraqelection2010/2010/03/201034953015...

Nothing has been added to Pachachi Wikipedia webpage since 2007. A glaring news article I read from CounterPunch journalist - Andrew (changed your name) Cockburn commented on the IGC: "I think one person who deserves credit is Adnan Pachachi. From the beginning when they moved into Baghdad and seized nice houses, he was the only one that insisted on paying rent. He has always exhibited integrity." - My question is, why doesn't this guy have a job in the Iraqi government... if he's so honest? Hummm.... probably because of this comment. - “The vast majority of Iraqis are not involved in sectarian violence, they want to live in peace. Militias act in the name of a sect. I blame this on the occupying power, which established a system based on division.”

Lastly, Hoshyar Zebari has been the Foreign Minster of Iraq since 2003. He is one of the "great oaks" in the Iraqi Government who has ridden out the storm for as long as I can remember. That being said, Zebari has the shortest biography (with outdated information) of any Minister of Foreign Affairs, for any foreign government on the Internet.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoshyar_Zebari

And on this list, Iraq doesn't even seem to have a Minister of Foreign Affairs. I guess Zebari doesn't exist?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afghan_Ministry_of_Foreign_Affairs

This made me laugh out loud while eating breakfast this morning, because in comparison to Zalmay Rasul the Foreign Minister of Afghanistan, Zebari could be the FM for the Planet Pluto.

Just think about it. Zebari is arguably the 2nd or 3rd most powerful person in Iraq and no one seems to care who he is. I find this to be very sad. Wikipedia the greatest free encyclopedia in the world has a larger bio on Takeru Kobayashi than Zebari. Where are our priorities America? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takeru_Kobayashi

=====================================================================================

In other news, large amounts of oil in Kurdistan, Iraq seems to be flowing well.... I wonder how much money the rest of Iraq will see?

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/kurdistan-a-lot-of-oil...

Comment by Kratos on March 6, 2010 - 7:30am

AM and Deb, Thank you for

AM and Deb,

Thank you for the insightful information / interview. I enjoyed it. Thank you. Keep up your excellent work. Both of you.

Special - "K".

Comment by Visitor on March 6, 2010 - 8:29am

Thanks for this great

Thanks for this great interview. My first thought after reading this was future jihad recruits. As I read the literature, it seems that second generation immigrants/refugees are most susceptible to recruiting efforts. This would seem like a large and motivated pool from which to recruit. They would not be refugees if not for the U.S. invasion of Iraq. I guess I will have to buy the book, but would be interested in how much the refugees seem to hold the US vs the Shia as responsible for their situation.

Steve

Comment by Visitor on March 6, 2010 - 10:56am

The Obama administration

The Obama administration must use any remaining clout to get the next Iraqi government to focus attention on this population.

Why is it that the US has the need to tell these people what to do? The US went into Iraq to get rid of Saddam and ended up doing a Democracy.

Shouldn't Iraq be left to make it's own future? One of the reasons these people resent the US is cause we get into their business.

PS...Here in the states we have about as many ideas as we have people. Everyone wants to help someone somewhere else in the world. Guess that is part of being a good neighbor. Seems to be more exciting to help someone in a foreign country rather than the guy down the street........

Wish our bank account was as grand as our ideas.

Nice book....maybe the next one can be on the "Eclipse of the American Indian" or maybe "Eclipse of the American Dream"

Comment by g.d. on March 6, 2010 - 12:45pm

Gangs of New York - it takes

Gangs of New York - it takes a few decades of history and slops it all together for dramatic effect. That's the perfect example, though - if you get peace in Beirut, the different groups start to peacefully co-exist, especially if the economy is doing well.

On this WMD comment: The other questions you asked are rather old, odd and trivial. It really doesn't matter if they were eager.... its done and over with.

No need for a British-style inquiry in Congress into the sources of the Iraqi WMD "intelligence"? Over and done with? Really?

Here's one of the more direct and unbiased analysis of the current Iraqi situation:

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/middle-east/100305/iraq-oil

DUBAI, U.A.E. — The two outside interests with the most at stake in Iraq’s parliamentary election on Sunday are the U.S. military and the major international oil companies. Both are hoping the vote will yield a decisive result and produce a reasonably strong government, allowing American troops to exit and the oil companies to enter.

Listen - doesn't this have the ring of truth in it?

Although the U.S. government does not like to mix guns and oil, the two are inextricably linked in Sunday’s vote. If Iraq is deemed safe and stable enough for foreign oil companies to start operations in Iraq, it is likely that the Obama administration will be able to keep its promise to withdraw all combat troops by the end of August. Current planning calls for about 50,000 troops to remain in Iraq after the deadline as non-combat advisors and trainers and to help with civilian projects. They are expected to stay through 2011.

Over and done with? Hardly. A little examination of how we got into this mess won't hurt, will it? Just to make sure no neocon lightbulbs decide to try something like this again?

Comment by Kratos @ g.d. on March 7, 2010 - 6:01am

A little examination? O.K.

A little examination? O.K. sure G.D.. I'm assuming you would like to use Mr. Waxman from the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Congress, since he and his his gang are in charge of terrorizing people like Rumsfeld and Cheney from one end of Pennsylvania Avenue to the other with something resembling Monty Python's Spanish Inquisition. ............This should be entertaining.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tym0MObFpTI

Evidently, G.D. believes all you have to do is whisper Rumsfeld and Cheney's name, when suddenly out of nowhere, Waxman and his two main sidekicks Dennis Kucinich and (D. Ohio) and Steve Lynch (D. MA) burst through the cloakroom door declaring: "No one ever expects the Waxman Inquisition!" Waxman than shouts: "our chief weapon is surprise, surprise and fear, our two weapons are fear and surprise and ruthless efficiency, our three weapons are fear and surprise, ruthless efficiency and an almost fanatical devotion to Charles Duelfer. I mean our four weapons...oh never mind."

"OVER AND DONE WITH, indeed."

Comment by Visitor on March 7, 2010 - 8:49am

Actually, I think you guys

Actually, I think you guys are getting too close to the source......

Take a ride on the Green Line and ask one of the less fortunate if you can swap lives for a month. Kinda like what Londonstani did in London. If that is not enough......I will set you up with a guy I know that did warrant recovery in the south Chicago projects. His team would shimmy up the stairwells in the "hood" in full SWAT battle dress and would meet children that thought he was Mr Roger's of PBS fame. They were not shocked, just another day in the.......

The team leader, wearing civies, was mugged at knife point in a Chicago park. Once the mugger figured out he was in a gun fight he took off. All the Chicago cop, who was standing 50 ft away and saw he whole thing, did was asked team leader if it was legal for him to have the gun. No ID's were given. Team leader say "yes" and walked away shaking his head asking, " what the F.... just happened here?". Just another day in the ......

You guys do not have to leave the good ole' US of A to get your stories and book material.

PS....If that does not get your ticket punched.....we will send you to the SW border towns as an illegal immigrant or DEA agent.

Comment by Elf been in da hood too... on March 7, 2010 - 1:17pm

Community Organizer

Community Organizer Visitor,

The less fortunate can stop eating our tax dollars, start working, maybe stay in the *free* school until he gets a degree, stop spending his cash on North Face clothes, a pimped out ride (nicer often than any I had until I worked in the hood, saw the truth, and said fuck basic transportation), drugs, alcohol. As far as the kids - marry dat ho, stay out of jail so their are no warrants, raise the kids. Instead of them being raised by cast aside women and their fellow wolves. Of course this would mean accepting responsibility.

Not that it wasn't most stinky and filthy in the projects. Yeah. Try and fucking make it to the bathroom to piss and shit and to the *free* trash removal with the garbage. Granted you'd have to walk a few more steps. Make the effort. Do it for the children.

Everything I saw of London and read tells me the same story, as does the story of the "less fortunate" in Dublin.

Mind you now that the governing class -statists all - have dropped the mask and have the middle class firmly in their sights - now they really will be less fortunate, instead of making horrible choices and expecting the rest of us to pay for them, because now the option of working their way out will be closed off. And the Hood, Projects, Trailer Parks and Estates are headed for...the Favela. Which if you haven't heard - is being walled off. It's already been a free fire zone for the police for years, right? Wonder what happens after the walls go up? Wonder what happens here when we go broke and the middle class vanishes? There are no more IMF bailouts or TARP to be had my dears. They are down to hyperinflation as their last option now, and it's not working.

You won't be missed. Enjoy the Favela. It's the bottom quad of the "X shaped Recovery". Which if you notice - means where you end up in the X is where you stay.....

Comment by Fnord on March 7, 2010 - 2:16pm

Elf. May I suggest that to

Elf. May I suggest that to turn that tendency around, you take a look at the current number of US prisoners and the conditions they are subjected too at young age?

Comment by Elf has bigger fish to fry on March 7, 2010 - 3:37pm

Hey they caught the AQ

Hey they caught the AQ Joo...Adam Ghadan.

Andrew...did you put on weight ;-) ??

Comment by Elf responds on March 7, 2010 - 3:42pm

Fnord, they are "subjected"

Fnord, they are "subjected" to the exact progressive fix of having their parents bad habits subsidized by me - real name Tex Paierr - having the worst tendencies glorified by a progressive Pop culture, being told it's not their fault, passed through a school system illiterate because we don't want to damage self esteem, and above all else having community organizers tell them it's someone else's (whites, the Police, the Jews, the Bankers, Corporate America, prosperous Asians, or if they are white the Blacks and the Jews, or if Hispanic it's the whites, Blacks, and Jews) - someone else's fault.

The worst condition they are subjected to is Mommy's bad judgment in choosing "Daddy" and then they are born into it.

A Daddy, asswhuppins, being told the worlds not fair and doesn't owe you "justice", stay in school, get a job and respect the police are the best medicine sometimes. Yes, it's not fair that they are getting all the opposite. Maybe the asswhuppins.

Comment by Malcolm X on March 7, 2010 - 7:12pm

I agree with Elf. Niggas do

I agree with Elf.

Niggas do be trippin'.

We should conduct a mixture of Enemy centric and Pop centric COIN on our own black community too, before they suck us dry.

We can get the Gays to Clear, Hold and Build, then paint the houses in festive colours, while planting flowers along the sidewalks. Gays are our secret weapon to places like Anacostia, South Chicago, South Central LA and New Orleans.

Then we can collect these black refugees after displacement and send them all to Afghanistan, where they can teach them hip hop and how to properly bling bling themselves. I'm sure they'll stand up an ACORN there too, to promote laziness and teach people how to leach off the government. But surprise, surprise, it's the Afghan government. LOL!

But then we'll have to figure out a way to get rid of the Gays. Again, I offer Afghanistan as the solution.

CNAS, make this policy.

Comment by Bubba likes his womens Beautiful and Smart on March 7, 2010 - 7:25pm

Sarah Palin and Carrie

Sarah Palin and Carrie Prejean for 2012.

Hannah Giles for Secretary of State.

Keep Robert Gates for DoD.

Comment by Visitor by another name on March 8, 2010 - 6:28am

Hmmm....AM is missing for

Hmmm....AM is missing for days, and it now appears that the AQ Joo captured in Karachi may not be Adam Ghadan.

If he doesn't show up for work, send Londonstani in on a rescue mission. AM was probably playing cricket with the wrong peeps, got snarky and ended up in some confused rendition farce.

Comment by g.d. on March 8, 2010 - 7:50am

Kratos: No, you'd probably

Kratos: No, you'd probably want the special prosecutor's office revived and reinstated to avoid the appearance of political bias - maybe Ken Starr is available?

Here are some of the main questions for Cheney & Rummy:

1) Did you pressure the CIA to rubber-stamp the "WMD intelligence" produced by bogus sources like Curveball, the INC, Chalabi, etc.? (Let's call in a few of the CIA analysts who resigned and ask them what they think)

2) Did you deliberately invent false claims, such as the anthrax attacks were linked to Saddam, or the 9/11 attacks were linked to Saddam, in order to gain public support for a war in Iraq?

3) There are claims that the central reason the torture program was implemented was to force Al Qaeda detainees to admit to (or invent) ties to Saddam's Iraq. Is this true?

4) Just how much corruption, fraud and naked greed was involved in the Iraqi Reconstruction Program run by your CPA?

That would be a good place to start an Iraq War inquiry, dontcha think?

Comment by Oldpilot on March 10, 2010 - 6:43am

I think one of the

I think one of the unbreakable rules of interviewing is that the questions should be shorter than the answers. Blue skies! -- Dan Ford

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Comment by Visitor on September 25, 2010 - 11:05am

I use The Family Way, by

I use The Family Way, by Debbie Amos, and it's about learning.nice work,
Regards,
Dirt Devil Vision

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Comment by Leon dravid on November 30, 2010 - 11:08am

Deb is a longtime reader of

Deb is a longtime reader of this blog and an even longer-time student and observer of the Arabic-speaking world. The benefit of the readership, quite lovely new book on Iraqi refugees and some of the regional dynamics set in motion by the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.
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Comment by Veenz on December 2, 2010 - 7:56am

Let’s find a new way of

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Comment by Pearl on December 2, 2010 - 8:03am

The number has probably grown

The number has probably grown larger since then, but the list reflects the legacy of the past few years: those too traumatized to return, religious minorities still threatened, female headed households, and Iraqis who worked for the U.S. military. While the U.S. resettlement program has made great strides, the specific program for military translators is a failure. The number of Iraqis granted special visas is dismally low.
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Comment by rizwan on December 2, 2010 - 4:21pm

Thank you for recognizing

Comment by Park on December 3, 2010 - 3:13pm

this book represents a long

this book represents a long journey. I first arrived in the Arabic speaking world in 1982. I landed at the port of Jounieh to report on the Israeli invasion of Lebanon.
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Comment by Brett Lee on December 4, 2010 - 5:49am

I picked up the paper this

I picked up the paper this morning to see that Bing West has written a fantastic review of Matt Gallagher's new book, Kaboom, for the Wall Street Journal. I think you all know by now how much I loved this book and how much I am encouraging readers of this blog to buy it. I liked Kaboom so much, in fact, that I forced Matt to answer some questions.
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Comment by Bowden on December 4, 2010 - 7:36am

For a journalist who has

For a journalist who has spent most of her time in radio and television, you are an exceptionally eloquent writer. But I want to talk about the tone with which you wrote your book as opposed to your diction. It strikes me that you can write a critical essay on the Arabic-speaking world with contempt, or you can write an equally critical essay on the Arabic-speaking world with compassion.
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Comment by Patty on December 6, 2010 - 2:36pm

My first image of a Middle

My first image of a Middle East war zone was a woman water skiing off the waters of Christian east Beirut as Israeli jets were pounding Muslim West Beirut. It was my first lesson in sectarian fault lines. I also had the best meals of my life that summer; it is Beirut, after all. Over the next three decades I reported from almost every corner of the Middle East. Iraq had been off-limits in Saddam’s time. I could get a visa to travel there, but it was illegal for Iraqi’s to talk to foreigners. When I arrived in Baghdad in 2003 I could talk to everybody.
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Comment by Fabio on December 11, 2010 - 5:02am

Exum revealed himself to be

Exum revealed himself to be the founder of the blog Abu Muqawama.It was followed by many notable students and practitioners of counterinsurgency in the military, academia and the media. It has also been referred to as Small Wars Journal's "rogue cousin" partially due to the large overlap in topics and participants, and due to its ability to initiate discussion about topics that are not yet appropriate for the more professional forum. Pehari

Comment by JohnDouglas on December 17, 2010 - 7:17am

The number has probably grown

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At some point progressives will realize that the representatives within the Democratic Party are neither prepared to nor capable of protecting the middle and working classes from the savagery of the Republicans. And if we want to protect the few gains left to us by the stalwarts of the party we are going to have to break away and form our own party — a party willing to stand and fight for the things we believe in. The Democrats have neither the conviction nor the guile to combat or countervail the Republicans.
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Comment by Sir Walter on March 6, 2011 - 1:29am

Abu Muqawama: Post

Special Abu Muqawama Q&A: Six Questions for Deb Amos

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