Bush's Napoleon complex
Writing in the Nation, historian Juan Cole sees uncanny parallels between George W Bush's invasion of Iraq and Napoleon's invasion of Egypt. "For both Bush and Bonaparte," Cole writes, "the genteel diction of liberation, rights, and prosperity served to obscure or justify a major invasion and occupation of a Middle Eastern land, involving the unleashing of slaughter and terror against its people. Military action would leave towns destroyed, families displaced, and countless dead.
"Given the ongoing carnage in Iraq, President Bush's boast that, with ‘new tactics and precision weapons, we can achieve military objectives without directing violence against civilians,' now seems not just hollow but macabre. The equation of a foreign military occupation with liberty and prosperity is, in the cold light of day, no less bizarre than the promise of war with virtually no civilian casualties."
Iranian friction
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Sign up for toD's daily security briefings by clicking hereEight Iranians, including two diplomats, were detained but soon released by US forces in Baghdad. Tehran has long complained about the frequent detention of its citizens in Iraq, while Washington accuses Iran of abetting separatists and other armed groups in the strife-torn nation.
Speaking before representatives of the American Legion - a veterans' association - George W Bush argued that should the United States vacate Iraq, it would leave west Asia vulnerable to the nuclear-armed assertions of Iran.
Curfew in Karbala
The Iraqi government has imposed a curfew on the holy city of Karbala, which has been racked by fighting in recent days. The curfew, coupled with the six month freeze on its activities declared by Moktada al Sadr's Mahdi Army, should calm the holy city, site of an ongoing religious festival which has drawn hundreds of thousands of pilgrims.
Watery justice
openDemocracy writer Aziz Huq argues that justice has been "denied" by Alberto Gonzales' resignation from his post as Attorney-General.
Lieutenant Colonel Steven Jordan was cleared of charges that he mistreated prisoners at the notorious Abu Ghraib facility in Iraq, but was found guilty of discussing the case with others.
Six days after three British troops were killed by US "friendly fire" in Afghanistan, British officials have revealed that Washington has refused to allow any of its officers or soldiers to appear at inquests into the deaths of the UK servicemen.
Shadow in the valley
Eurasianet parses through the suggestions - and denials - that jihadist groups, namely the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, are gaining in strength in the Ferghana Valley.
The aftermath of the Hyderabad blasts
Forty-one people have died so far as a result of blasts in the Lumbini Park and Gokul Chat areas of the southern Indian city of Hyderabad on Saturday. Police believe the bombings to be the work of Pakistan-based outfit Lakshar-e-Toiba.
Top ranking state and police officials received warnings of the impending blasts five days prior to the bombings but failed to act on the intelligence.
Saga ends as Gul wins presidency
A long-running political saga in Turkey comes to an end as Abdullah Gul, the current foreign minister, was finally confirmed as the next president by the Turkish parliament. Members of the secularist opposition had relentlessly opposed his candidacy on the grounds that his avowed faith would erode the deeply a-religious pillars of the nation. Opposition resistance to Gul forced early parliamentary elections that were won in a landslide by the ruling "moderate Islamist" AK party. Read the reaction of the Turkish press in Today's Zaman.
Teacher slain in Pattani
Kesine Timthep, a schoolteacher in the southern Thai province of Pattani, was shot dead by gunmen on motorcycles yesterday. Over the weekend, five other schools were targeted by arsonists. Islamist insurgents in the south of the country have taken to attacking schools and schoolteachers.
Rebel leader arrested in exile
Jose Maria Sison, founder of the Communist Party of the Philippines and its armed wing the New People's Army (NPA), was arrested by Dutch police in the city of Utrecht. Filipino armed forces are now bracing for reprisal attacks by NPA fighters.
Fact finding mission to Ogaden
The United Nations is sending a fact-finding team to the ethnic Somali Ethiopian region of Ogaden, where dissidents claim to be facing a brutal government crackdown. Ethiopia yesterday expelled six Norwegian envoys from within its borders for allegedly "pampering" insurgent groups in the country.
