John Shelton Lawrence (see his books here) introduced me to a very interesting website today. It's called Watching America, and it compiles (and when necessary translates) articles from foreign periodicals about the US and US-relevant issues. It's a good corrective to the American media, which is mostly insular and self-serving.
George Bush lives in an information bubble, but it is also true that to some degree all Americans live in a bubble—more permeable than Bush's, perhaps, but still a space that contains a limited amount of filtered information about the world. And that information is particularly distorted when it deals with America's image, especially in this era of bully-boy diplomacy and preemptive war.
Here's a short sample of articles now on Watching America:
- Kak Aso Kurdi, "Three 'Wasted Years' On, the Breakup of Iraq the 'Most Judicious Solution'," 8/28, Kurdish Media, Iraq (includes Kurdish map above):
After three wasted years, the number of coalition deaths has exceeded more than 2,845. Approximately 100,000 mostly innocent Iraqi civilians have been killed. These war statistics are unbiased and are conservative in terms of Iraqi deaths. The rate of unemployment, inflation and crime has skyrocketed to alarming levels; Iraq's infrastructure has been totally paralyzed; and worst of all, sectarian and ethnic violence is on the rise. Iraq has become fertile ground for international terrorist groups.
Despite the allocation of huge financial resources for the reconstruction of Iraq, except for "new" ruins and remains, nothing has been accomplished. Reconstruction cannot thrive without enduring peace and stability. The fate and future of Iraq remains very much on doubt, and every day the outlook becomes more disconcerting.…
Most military strategists and political experts assess that it will not be possible to contain the calamitous civil war that is now underway. The more that the United States remains firm that it is obliged to maintain its presence, the more affliction, insecurity and mayhem the Iraq people have to look forward to.
At present, the definitive and most judicious solution would be the disintegration of Iraq into three different entities: a Kurdish state in the north, a Sunni state in the center and a Shiite state in the south. To prevent the further waste of innocent lives and to put and end [sic] the pain and suffering, Iraq must ultimately be divided up … and the sooner, the better.
- Interview with Salman Rushdie, "Terror Is Glamor," 8/28, Der Spiegel, Germany:
Rushdie: I'm no friend of Tony Blair's and I consider the Middle East policies of the United States and the UK fatal. There are always reasons for criticism, also for outrage. But there's one thing we must all be clear about: terrorism is not the pursuit of legitimate goals by some sort of illegitimate means. Whatever the murderers may be trying to achieve, creating a better world certainly isn't one of their goals. Instead they are out to murder innocent people. If the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, for example, were to be miraculously solved from one day to the next, I believe we wouldn't see any fewer attacks.…
Terror is glamour -- not only, but also. I am firmly convinced that there's something like a fascination with death among suicide bombers. Many are influenced by the misdirected image of a kind of magic that is inherent in these insane acts. The suicide bomber's imagination leads him to believe in a brilliant act of heroism, when in fact he is simply blowing himself up pointlessly and taking other peoples lives. There's one thing you mustn't forget here: the victims terrorized by radical Muslims are mostly other Muslims.…
I hadn't thought it possible that the Bush administration would go about setting up the machinery of an authoritarian state.…
Spiegel: Has it done that?
Rushdie: Oh yes.…
Spiegel: So are Bush and Blair going too far?
Rushdie: This is the problem with politicians who by nature tend towards being authoritarian: When they are given the chance, they go too far. We have to watch out there. I find it deeply depressing that the Anglo-American politics and Arab politics are currently corroborating each other -- that is: their worst prejudices. Take a look at Iraq, at Lebanon. There is no just side in either conflict. But at the same time we need moral clarity, something I have often missed recently in many liberally minded people -- and I myself am liberal. We need clarity about what is right and wrong, the willingness to defend our values with clear words and to actually call the guilty persons guilty.
- "American Inconsistency 'a Tragedy of the Highest Order'," editorial, 8/28, The Daily Star, Lebanon
From the perspective of many Lebanese, being America's friend carries precious few benefits. Prime Minister Fouad Siniora has done his utmost to respect American wishes on a variety of fronts, only to be sent away empty-handed when he has asked for anything in return. American policy vis-a-vis the devastating war with Israel was no more than a highly purified version of this formula, with Washington repeatedly claiming that it was concerned about the stability of Siniora's government, but simultaneously helping the Jewish state to mete out more and deadlier punishment.
Especially in this part of the world and particularly for a tiny country like Lebanon, the absence of effective support means no support at all. The presence, meanwhile, of active and enthusiastic support - diplomatic, economic, and military - for a powerful invader is difficult to see as anything other than unabashed betrayal.…
The current situation in Lebanon is just the latest episode in a long-running horror show of American inconsistency, and the Lebanese need look no further than Palestine for another recent case: the collective punishment and economic strangulation of a people who dared elect a government that defied Washington's diktats.
And that's the news from outside the bubble.







