Behind the Headlines

     This page has nothing to do with cooking. It is a collection of articles that we have found on the web that supplement the news we read.
     We, and others we talk to, seem to feel these days that we often are not hearing the whole story from the media. Why this is, we don't know, perhaps a branch of Political Silence.
      We do know that from time to time we learn something on the Web that elucidates the news reports we read. We share these herewith, sparing you hours browsing the Internet.

After the War
Stanley Kurtz, City Journal, Winter 2003, Vol. 13, No.1
     Some are saying that in a post-war Iraq the US will impose democracy, and that this will quickly spread like wildfire through the Middle East. Stanley Kurtz shines a realistic, historical light on this fantasy.
     He first dispels the myth about Japan where, some are saying, "we entered a country as alien and anti-democratic as any Middle Eastern dictatorship, militarily imposed a liberal constitution, and brought the public around to democracy almost overnight . . ."
     This just isn’t so. Stanley Kurtz provides a summary of Japanese history detailing how the nation "drew on a long, if imperfect, democratic tradition."
     But nothing comparable exists in "Iraq or any Arab country." Arab Muslim societies remain "un-modern and un-democratic not just in their attitudes toward political authority and law but also in their social organization." Traditional kinship ties remain key, as he shows, even in relatively modernized Egypt.
     So what can be done? The author cites India as a possible model. He takes us through 150 years of British rule while a democracy, although an imperfect one, developed.
     Can the US replicate this in a shorter time, achieving on purpose what the British did by accident? Not impossible, but not likely, either. The author’s main appeal is that the US faces a "sobering choice," and we "need to make it with our eyes open."
     A must read.       www.city-journal.org, select issue vol.13, no.1.

Odds of Iraq War
Slate is currently posting daily odds for a war against Iraq. See www.slate.com, then search for Saddameter. These were 85% January 31, up from 69% earlier in the month and 75% in late December 02. The site gives a daily summary of events influencing the odds.

. . . more on Iraq . . .

Why is Bush Popular?
Peggy Noonan Explains
www.opinionjournal.com, Search peggy noonan. Find Human, But Not to a Fault 1/6/03.
In another column she states what she thinks Bush should have done in his State of the Union address 1/28/03. Search as above, Find 1/27/03, Just the Facts . . .

Israelis & Palestinians: What Went Wrong?
Amos Elan, 12/19/02, New York Review
     Amos Elan attempts to answer this question with a thoughtful history of Zionist and Israeli leadership.
     He begins with Theodor Herzl, the founder of modern Zionism, who died in 1904. It seems that the early Zionist leaders were aware of the uniqueness of their enterprise, "colonizing without a mother country and without the support of state power." They were generally cautious. Ben Gurion, after the 1948 war, "resisted the urgings of brash, young generals to seize the rest of the country, later known as the West Bank . . ."
     The Israeli victory in the 1967 war was the "great watershed." Moshe Dayan emerged as an "adored victor in a glorious war." Things have progressed badly since, with stalemate today.
       www.nybooks.com, then archives, then search by year 2002, select 12/19/02. Near bottom of list.

Afghanistan Year-Ender 2002 -
Tenuous Nation Building
UN Editors, 1/20/03 IRINnews.org
     This reviews the year 2002.
     For starters, security does not exist outside Kabul. In addition, security has different meanings. "When the US military talks about it, they are talking about the number of attacks by Taliban and al-Qaeda on them and on the government forces," says Barnett Rubin. "Of course, other people mean the security of the Afghan people."
     Then, decades of war have left the country with no infrastructure, no legal system, no health system, no education system, no banking system. "So far much has not been done in this regard," says Helena Malikyar, who left a comfortable life in New York to work full time in the country. "This is unfortunate and a big mistake on the part of anyone who has a stake in Afghanistan’s stability."
     Still, there is qualified optimism among some. Rubin himself would "never have predicted what happened [up to] now." Yet he and others agree that the future remains unclear.
     www.irinnews.org, then Archive, then search for Afghanistan January 2003.

. . . more on Afghanistan . . .