MER Article From the Editors (Winter 2004) One has to wonder what whimsical bard in the bowels of the Pentagon conceived the name Operation Phantom Fury for the second Marine invasion of the Iraqi city of Falluja in early November. Was it a reference to the screams of bloodied, bereaved or homeless Iraqis that have been broadcast The Editors • 3 min read
Current Analysis Hypocrisy Doesn't Win Arab Friends A prominent liberal Arab journalist who strongly supported the war in Iraq, has a long record of outspoken opposition to Islamic extremism, and has a deep appreciation for American values recently told me that he has never been more depressed or more alienated from the United States. Why? He was abs Marc Lynch • 3 min read
Current Analysis The Politics of Slaughter in Sudan One day in the summer of 2004, more than 400 armed members of the janjaweed militia attacked the western Sudanese village of Donki Dereisa. They killed 150 civilians, including six young children, aged 3 to 14, who were captured during the assault and burned alive later that day, according to Dan Connell • 11 min read
Current Analysis Afghanistan's Presidential Elections Less than a month before George W. Bush's second bid for the White House, his protégé and partner in post-Taliban Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, faces an election that both men hope will not only establish the legitimacy of Karzai's presidency but also prove the Bush administration's claim that the war- M. Nazif Shahrani • 9 min read
Current Analysis Fahrenheit 9/11 Plays Cairo The cinema was crowded but not full when, at the end of August, Michael Moore’s documentary Fahrenheit 9/11 opened in a theater in Cairo's leafy southern suburb of Maadi. An audience made up of expatriate employees of UN agencies and well-heeled Egyptians snickered at each of Garay Menicucci • 6 min read
MER Article Silent Battalions of Democracy Sheikh Majid al-Azzawi was one proud Iraqi. His office, surrounded by sandbags, barbed wire and tall concrete walls, looked more like a military base than an administrative building. But even the pitch-black darkness that swirled in the corridors most of the day did not dampen al-Azzawi’s spirits. “We are Herbert Docena • 21 min read
MER Article Castles Built of Sand: US Governance and Exit Strategies in Iraq Speaking to the American Enterprise Institute on February 26, 2003, George W. Bush invoked the examples of Germany and Japan to underline that, the United States would leave behind in Iraq "an atmosphere of safety, in which responsible, reform-minded local leaders could build lasting institutions of freedom." After Christoph Wilcke • 23 min read
MER Article From the Editors (Fall 2004) It is not hard to understand why the judiciously written and copiously footnoted report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States debuted to widespread acclaim in July 2004. Coming as it did amid the febrile US presidential campaign season, the report rode the quadrennial wave of Deborah J. Gerner, Chris Toensing, The Editors • 10 min read
Current Analysis The Gaza Strip: From Bad to Worse To say that things are getting worse in Gaza, one of the poorest places on Earth, is a bit like saying it is getting hotter in hell. But over the past few years, things have gotten significantly worse in this sliver of Palestinian territory along the Mediterranean Sea—with alarming implications for Maren Milligan • 2 min read
Current Analysis Middle East Reform: Right Idea, Wrong Plan Democratic reforms in the Middle East and North Africa are both warranted and wanted—not only among the leaders who gathered earlier this month on Sea Island for the G8 Summit but also by the majority of the region’s citizens. While there is little agreement on what form change should take, the mos Maren Milligan, Jillian Schwedler • 3 min read
Current Analysis The Imperial Lament Niall Ferguson, Colossus: The Price of America’s Empire (New York: Penguin Press, 2004). There is something refreshing about British historian Niall Ferguson’s argument “not merely that the United States is an empire, but that it has always been an empire.” For a certain kind of American liberal, t Joel Beinin • 18 min read
MER Article A Bloody Stupid War When a war breaks out people say, “It’s too stupid; it can’t last long.” But though a war may well be “too stupid,” that doesn’t prevent its lasting. Stupidity has a knack of getting its way; as we should see if we were not always so much wrapped up in ourselves. -- Albert Camus, The Plague Moustafa Bayoumi • 27 min read
