eatbees blog

This article calls into question the “liberal consensus” that we are moving, slowly but surely, toward a future of greater democracy, prosperity, and freedom around the world. The consequence, the author says, is a return to tribalization (extreme nationalism) whether in Europe, Asia, or the Middle East.

Today I found myself, not for the first time, arguing with a friend whether the U.S. under Bush was “sincere” in its desire to bring democracy to the Middle East. I went back to an April 2003 article by Josh Marshall, in which he lays out the grand vision neoconservatives had at the time, improbable as it was, in the first days of the war in Iraq.

Links and excerpts from my internet reading of 15 July 2013.

Links and excerpts from my internet reading of 04 July 2013.

If Obama sees his job as preserving the legitimacy of failed institutions above all else, I wish he would spare us the high-flown rhetoric and betrayals of hope.

“Lurking in Egypt’s police and intelligence files are mountains of materials on significant human rights abuses…. In some of these cases, the United States government knew what was going on or had agents in the room.”

“At the time described in this book, in fact, to put a Congolese to work or to get him to work, it was necessary to use a stick. Today, in certain environments, to send children or adults into the fields, it is necessary to do it with strong measures.”

Maybe Benjamin Netanyahu is disrespecting Barack Obama in part because he is black?

“The message couldn’t be plainer: Israel’s intransigence could cost American lives.”

Did Obama “court” Iran not because he wanted a deal, but as a gesture designed to fail? Did he set out merely to show the world that he was being reasonable, that he offered his hand and Iran refused?