MER Article Iraq Reconstruction Tracker “War began last week,” said the New York Times on March 23, 2003. “Reconstruction starts this week.” In fact, the Bush administration had been soliciting proposals to “reconstruct” war-torn Iraq before dropping the first bomb, and before asking the UN Security Council to authorize military action. Between January 31 and Adam Horowitz, Elizabeth Rosenberg, Anthony Alessandrini • 6 min read
MER Article World Oil Markets and the Invasion of Iraq George W. Bush's regime-changing war in Iraq is widely seen as an oil war -- a grab for the second-largest petroleum reserves in the world. In the minds of many, this interpretation was confirmed when the United States pressed for, and secured, a UN resolution giving the US-British Raad Alkadiri, Fareed Mohamedi • 22 min read
MER Article The Worldly Roots of Religiosity in Post-Saddam Iraq April 9, 2003 will go down in Iraqi history as the day of the fall. Barely two days after the anniversary of the founding of the Ba‘th party, and 21 days after the US-led invasion of Iraq began, the battle Saddam Hussein dubbed the Mother of All Decisive Battles Faleh A. Jabar • 18 min read
MER Article Western Saharan Deadlock The Moroccan occupation since 1975 of Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony, is in violation of UN Security Council resolutions on the right of the Sahrawi people to self-determination. The conflict remains unresolved despite the existence of a UN Settlement Plan (1991) and the Houston Accords of 1997, brokered by Karima Benabdallah-Gambier, Yahia Zoubir • 11 min read
MER Article Basic Needs vs. Swimming Pools Severe drought conditions, only recently ameliorated by heavy winter rains, and the current hostilities have exacerbated the fundamental inequality in division of the scarce water resources of Israel-Palestine between Israelis and Palestinians. Water is becoming a weapon of war aimed at quelling Pal Alwyn Rouyer • 16 min read
MER Article From the Editor (Summer 2003) Two months after the welcome demise of Saddam Hussein’s regime, it has become customary to say that the US won the war and is losing the peace in Iraq. This formulation, coined to describe US neglect of Afghanistan following the fall of the Taliban, gives the Bush administration too much credit. The The Editors • 3 min read
MER Article Editor's Picks (Spring 2003) Ahmad, Aisha and Roger Boase. Pashtun Tales: From the Pakistan-Afghan Frontier (London: Saqi Books, 2003). Alem, Raja. Fatma: A Novel of Arabia (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2002). Alnasrawi, Abbas. Iraq’s Burdens: Oil, Sanctions and Underdevelopment (Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2002). B (Author not identified) • 1 min read
MER Article Letters (Spring 2003) PALESTINIAN DEBATE Lori Allen is to be congratulated for tackling head on the thorny issue of uses and abuses of violence in the Arab-Israeli conflict (“Palestinians Debate ‘Polite’ Resistance to Occupation,” MER 225). But she has missed the mark in crucial areas. (Author not identified) • 7 min read
MER Article Last Efforts of Iran's Reformers Student demonstrations in December 2002 revealed yet again the depth of public sentiment favoring political and economic reform in Iran. But the loose coalition of reformists under the leadership of President Mohammad Khatami has been unable to harness this “reserve power of revolution” to push its Ali Rezaei • 17 min read
MER Article Advice and Dissent in Kuwait In sharp contrast to the diplomatic ineptitude that has characterized the Anglo-American march to war against Iraq, military preparations have been systematic, extensive and inexorable. As the military buildup has progressed through the autumn and winter of 2002 and into the succeeding spring, the f Mary Ann Tétreault • 10 min read
MER Article Unsettling the Authorities Nowhere has the belittling designation “the Arab street” been more overused than in descriptions of Egypt, the most populous and politically central Arab state. Egypt’s richly textured history of political opposition, one of the lon¬gest in the region, is inevitably reduced to images of livid young men brandishing Mona El-Ghobashy • 18 min read
MER Article Boycott Fever in Jordan Sipping coffee in downtown Amman, a friend just returned from a three-week stay on a scholarship in the United States surprised me by saying, “I don’t know if I should smoke.” Had she fallen victim to the American anti-smoking frenzy? Not exactly, she continued: “You know, I’m boycotting American pr Sa'eda Kilani • 10 min read
