MER Article Monumental Disrespect Somewhere in east Baghdad there is a brick wall bearing the names of the Iraqi soldiers who died in the Iraq-Iran war, launched by the regime of Saddam Hussein in September 1980. There is no reliable tally of the casualties to date, but the number of dead is estimated to Sinan Antoon • 7 min read
MER Article "Iraq Is Not a Lost Battle" Isam al-Khafaji, a contributing editor of Middle East Report, is an Iraqi social scientist. As a young faculty member and a left-wing intellectual, he was forced to leave Iraq in 1978 during campaigns of forced Baathification in higher education and repression of the left. Between that year and the fall Paul Aarts • 11 min read
MER Article Multiplier Effect Despite continual White House assurances in 2002 and early 2003 that “war is a last resort,” the key advocates of invasion in Washington gave a good deal of forethought to the US-led war with Iraq. The Iraq hawks had been considering the military option for years. the option became feasible Sarah J Graham-Brown • 24 min read
MER Article Afghan Women and Girls Still Held Hostage When asked what she desired most for Afghanistan’s future, “Nadia,” a Kabul university student, didn’t hesitate. “First, we wish the girls who live in the provinces would have schools -- not just grades one through five at most. Second, we wish that they would collect all the guns Zama Coursen-Neff • 11 min read
MER Article Peace in Sudan When negotiations in July 2002 at Machakos, Kenya between the Islamist government of Sudan and rebels of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) produced a "framework agreement" of shared ideas on the future of the country, Assistant Secretary of State Walter Kansteiner touted the possibility of Dan Connell • 12 min read
MER Article From the Editor (Fall 2003) August 2003 was a cruel month. Parties still unknown detonated a car bomb outside the Jordanian embassy in Baghdad, killing 17 Iraqis. Two weeks later, an unclaimed truck bomb devastated the UN headquarters in the Iraqi capital, killing 23 people, including UN Special Representative Sergio Vieira de Mello. On the The Editors • 4 min read
MER Article Editor's Picks (Summer 2003) Adonis. An Introduction to Arab Poetics (London: Saqi Books, 2003). Ali, Kamran Asdar. Planning the Family in Egypt: New Bodies, New Selves (Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 2002). American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee. Report on Hate Crimes and Discrimination Against Arab Americans: The Post-September 11 Backlash (Washington, DC, 2003). Aruri, Naseer. (Author not identified) • 1 min read
MER Article Baghdad Diaries, Then and Now Rosemary O’Brien, ed. Gertrude Bell: The Arabian Diaries, 1913-1914 (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2000). Nuha al-Radi, Baghdad Diaries (London: Saqi Books, 1998). Paul Rich, ed. Arab War Lords and Iraqi Star Gazers: Gertrude Bell’s The Arab of Mesopotamia (Lincoln, NE: Authors Choice Press, 2001). Since the 1991 Salah Hassan • 7 min read
MER Article Voices from Turkey's Southeast Emerging through the clouds at 15,000 feet, the wheat-colored landscape below looked bone-dry, although the previous week’s snow had made roads in the southeastern Turkish towns of Batman and Siirt impassable. Fortunately for Turkey’s governing Justice and Development Party (AKP), an early taste of spring had warmed Marcie J Patton • 11 min read
MER Article High Stakes for Iran As neo-conservatives inside and outside the Pentagon step up their rhetoric against the Islamic Republic of Iran, internal polarization in Iran also seems to be reaching a breaking point. Hardliners in the Iranian regime have managed effectively to block most significant attempts at reforming governance over the past four years. Kaveh Ehsani • 12 min read
