Asia Times - The Middle East

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valign="top" width="510"> <table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr> <td width="64%" valign="top"><font class="subhead"><strong class="head">Middle East</strong></font></td> <td width="36%"> <table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr> <td height="51" align="middle" valign="center"> <div align="right"><font class="time"><strong> <script language="javascript"> function showDate(){ var monthArray=["Jan", "Feb", "Mar", "Apr", "May", "Jun", "Jul", "Aug", "Sep", "Oct", "Nov", "Dec"] var days=["Sunday", "Monday", "Tuesday", "Wednesday", "Thursday", "Friday", "Saturday"] var d=new Date(); var month=d.getMonth() var day=d.getDate() var year=d.getYear() // document.write("Today is " + days[d.getDay()] + "<BR>") document.write(monthArray[month]) document.write(" ") document.write(day) document.write(", ") if(d.getYear()<2000){document.write(year+1900)} if(d.getYear()>2000){document.write(year)} } </script> <script language="javascript">showDate()</script> </strong></font> </div> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table> <table width="100%" border="0" align="left" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <tr> <td width="65%" valign="top"> <table width="100%" border="0" align="left" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <tr> <td width="65%" valign="top"> <table width="308" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr> <td width="308"><font color="#000000"><font size="2"><font color="#ff0000"><font color="#000000"><font color="#ff0000"><font color="#000000"><font color="#ff0000"><font color="#000000"><font color="#ff0000"><font color="#000000"><font color="#ff0000"><font color="#000000"><font color="#ff0000"><font color="#000000"><font color="#ff0000"><font color="#000000"><font color="#ff0000"><font color="#000000"> <p><font color="#ff0000"><font color="#000000"><font color="#ff0000"><font color="#000000"><font color="#ff0000"><font color="#000000"><font color="#ff0000"><font color="#000000"><font color="#ff0000"><font color="#000000"><font color="#ff0000"><font color="#000000"><font size="2"><font color="#ff0000"><font color="#000000"><a href="/web/20030801082120/http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/EH01Ak02.html "><strong>US bartering arms for soldiers for Iraq</strong></a><br> The United States is trying to "buy" foreign troops - offering weapons and increased military aid to countries - to bolster the fledgling multinational force in Baghdad and relieve the pressure on the US military in the war-ravaged country. <font color="#999999" size="1">(Jul 31, '03)<br><br></font><a href="/web/20030801082120/http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/EH01Ak01.html"><strong>Swing voters, politicians: 'Dubya duped us'</strong></a><br>Independent voters and members of Congress continue to question President George W Bush's war in Iraq, with senators - including Republicans - attacking the administration for misleading the public, classifying portions of the report on intelligence failures leading up to the September 11 attacks and not disclosing its estimates of the cost of occupying Iraq. - <strong>Jim Lobe <font color="#999999" size="1">(Jul 31, '03)</font></strong><br><br><img hspace="0" src="/web/20030801082120im_/http://www.atimes.com/atimes//images/bestofbe4[1].gif" border="0"><br><br><a href="/web/20030801082120/http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/EG31Ak01.html"><strong>US turns its sights back on Syria</strong></a><br>United States-Syria hostilities have been on a see-saw ride this year. Washington is once again heating up its war of words against Damascus, having apparently put Iran into the "too-hard basket" for now. But Syria is hitting back, asking why Saddam Hussein's sons were killed and not captured.  - <strong>Hooman Peimani </strong> <font color="#999999" size="1">(Jul 30, '03)</font><br><br><a href="/web/20030801082120/http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/EG31Ak03.html"><strong>Sons' killings change little in Iraq</strong></a><br>The deaths of Saddam Hussein's sons have failed to quell the violence against US troops in Iraq. Not a single guerrilla fighter has been captured. The Iraqi fighters appear to have organized well before Iraq's "liberation", and they enjoy considerable support from locals. All these factors suggest that the US is facing a challenge that will not go away easily. - <b>B Raman <font color="#999999" size="1">(Jul 30, '03)</font><br></b><br><font color="#ff0000"><strong>COMMENTARY</strong></font> <br><a href="/web/20030801082120/http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/EG31Ak02.html "><strong>Treating the symptoms instead of the cause</strong></a><br>The "roadmap" to peace in the Middle East will not bring lasting peace to the region. Nor will any other attempts that fail to treat all parties as equals and take into account the millennia that have shaped the region and its peoples' history. -<b> K Gajendra Singh</b> <font color="#999999" size="1">(Jul 30, '03)</font> <br><br><a href="/web/20030801082120/http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/EG31Ak04.html"><strong>Gulf Arabs: Window of opportunity for reform</strong></a><br>The US-led war on Iraq has changed the balance of power in the Persian Gulf region, which may spur Gulf nations to address their domestic and security challenges - or face socio-economic problems that might become as critical as those of much poorer societies in the developing world. <font color="#999999" size="1">(Jul 30, '03)</font><br><br><a href="/web/20030801082120/http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/EG30Ak02.html"><strong>Anti-US resistance spreads through Iraq</strong></a><br>As attacks on US targets increase in central Iraq, a terror network has established itself in the north, and in the south a firebrand imam and would-be <i>mehdi</i> is stirring up the hitherto subdued Shi'ite community. - <b>Syed Saleem Shahzad <font color="#999999" size="1">(Jul 29, '03)</font></b><br><br><a href="/web/20030801082120/http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/EG30Ak01.html "><strong>WMD threats as political football</strong></a> <br> Trumpeting nuclear threats where none exist (Iraq) and downplaying nuclear programs where the threats are all too genuine (India and Pakistan), all for the sake of political points on the domestic front, would seem the height of folly, yet the Bush and Blair administrations play this dangerous game - abetted by US media - as a matter of policy. <font color="#999999" size="1">(Jul 29, '03)</font> <br><br><a href="/web/20030801082120/http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/EG29Ak01.html"><strong>Behind the scenes of the Iran-Canada rift</strong></a><br>The murder of a Canadian-Iranian photojournalist while in Iranian custody is the ostensible reason for the sudden chill in formerly cordial relations between Ottawa and Tehran. However, there are grounds for suspecting that other factors are at work. - <b>Hooman Peimani <font color="#999999" size="1">(Jul 28, '03)</font></b> <br><br><a href="/web/20030801082120/http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/EG29Ak02.html"><strong>A voice of sanity amid Iraq's chaos<br></strong></a>From the vacuum that is today's Iraq, there are signs of a slowly but steadily emerging political agenda. <b>Syed Saleem Shahzad</b> speaks to the man at the forefront of this process. <font color="#999999" size="1">(Jul 28, '03)</font><br><br><a href="/web/20030801082120/http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/EG29Ak03.html"><strong>Turks, Kurds and the US-Turkish relationship</strong></a> <br> With the possibility increasing that the Turkish military will occupy parts of northern Iraq because no other allied forces are around to do it, prewar fears of ethnic Kurdish-Turkish conflict could still come true.  <b>- Robert M Cutler</b> <font color="#999999" size="1">(Jul 28, '03)</font><br><br></font></font><a href="/web/20030801082120/http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/EG23Ak02.html"><strong>Turkish-US tensions cast dark clouds</strong></a> <br> In the relative calm that is Iraqi Kurdistan, the last thing that is needed is discord between the US and Turkey over the region. Yet this is exactly what happened with the US seizure of a number of Turkish soldiers. - <strong>K Gajendra Singh </strong> <font color="#999999" size="1"><strong>(Jul 22, '03)<br></strong> </font></font> </font></font></font></font> </font></font></font></font> </font></font></font></font><font color="#ff0000"><font color="#000000"><font color="#ff0000"><font color="#000000"><font color="#ff0000"><font color="#000000"><font color="#ff0000"><font color="#000000"><font color="#ff0000"><font color="#000000"><font color="#ff0000"><font color="#000000"><font size="2"> <font color="#999999" size="1"><font face="Arial" color="#000000" size="2"><font face="Arial" color="#000000" size="2"><br></font></font> </font></font> </font><font color="#000000"><font size="2"><font color="#ff0000"><strong>DANCES WITH BEARS</strong></font> <br><a href="/web/20030801082120/http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/EG22Ak02.html"><strong>Perfidious Albion and the lying American</strong></a><br> Just as happened in the early stages of the Vietnam war, the little lies over Iraq are turning into big ones. And like the British defense expert who took his life last week rather than live with the deceit, there will be more casualties. - </font></font><strong><font size="2"><font color="#000000">John Helmer <font color="#999999" size="1">(Jul 21, '03)</font></font><br><br></font></strong><font color="#000000"><font size="2"><font color="#ff0000"><strong>COMMENTARY</strong></font><br></font><a href="/web/20030801082120/http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/EG22Ak05.html"><strong><font size="2">The consequences of invasion</font></strong></a><br><font size="2">The way things are going in Iraq, the United States is heading for another Vietnam, or even worse, a Chechnya-type situation in which it will become bogged down in a long, bloody struggle. So what's the plan now? <font color="#999999" size="1">(Jul 21, '03)</font></font></font></font></font></font> </font></font></font></font> </font></font></font></font> </font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font> </font></font></font></font></font></font></p> </td> </tr> </table> <p> </p> </td> <td width="35%" valign="top"> <table width="184" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr> <td align="middle" valign="center"> <p><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20030801082120/http://www.atimes.com/atimes/search.asp" target="_blank"><img style="WIDTH: 190px; HEIGHT: 69px" height="69" hspace="0" src="/web/20030801082120im_/http://www.atimes.com/atimes//images/search-2.gif" width="186" border="0"></a><br> <img height="5" src="/web/20030801082120im_/http://www.atimes.com/images/f_images/1pix.gif" width="1"> <img height="5" src="/web/20030801082120im_/http://www.atimes.com/images/f_images/1pix.gif" width="1"> <img height="5" src="/web/20030801082120im_/http://www.atimes.com/images/f_images/1pix.gif" width="1"> <br> <table class="" id="table1" style="WIDTH: 191px; HEIGHT: 207px" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3" width="191" align="center" border="2"> <tr> <td class="" valign="top" bordercolor="navy" align="left" bgcolor="linen" height="0"><strong><font color="#ff0000" size="2"><font color="navy">THE AMERICAN EMPIRE</font><br> </font></strong> <br> A series by <strong>Francesco Sisci</strong> <font color="#999999" size="1">(Oct, '02)<img align="right" border="0" hspace="1" src="/web/20030801082120im_/http://www.atimes.com/atimes/images/emperor.gif" vspace="1"> <br> <br> </font><img hspace="0" src="/web/20030801082120im_/http://www.atimes.com/atimes//images/arrow.gif" border="0"><a href="/web/20030801082120/http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/DJ16Ak01.html"><font size="2">Part 1: Reluctant hegemon</font></a><br> <img hspace="0" src="/web/20030801082120im_/http://www.atimes.com/atimes//images/arrow.gif" border="0"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20030801082120/http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/DJ17Ak04.html "><font size="2">Part 2: Righteous king</font></a><br> <img hspace="0" src="/web/20030801082120im_/http://www.atimes.com/atimes//images/arrow.gif" border="0"><a href="/web/20030801082120/http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/DJ18Ak02.html"><font size="2">Part 3: The fear within</font></a><br> <img hspace="0" src="/web/20030801082120im_/http://www.atimes.com/atimes//images/arrow.gif" border="0"><font style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #faf0e6" size="2"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20030801082120/http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/EE27Aa01.html">Part 4: The obvious emperor</a></font></td> </tr> </table> <img height="5" src="/web/20030801082120im_/http://www.atimes.com/images/f_images/1pix.gif" width="1">  </p> </td> </tr> </table> <table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr> <td><img height="5" 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