Middle East Tapestry

A changed pattern - Unlike the Cold War period, when the United States and her allies focused on the dangers posed by the former Soviet Union, the focus is now on multiple dangers in the Middle East.
A rich tapestry - As with Russia, it has been very easy to lose sight of the truth about the people and places ther region. In reality the Middle East is a very special area of the world, with a rich blending of culture, history, varied faiths, beautiful lands and intriguing styles.
A mixed picture - And the Middle East is also in very big trouble. Contrast the opening picture I have chosen today and the images I have used to illustrate recent posts about the mid-east: a caution light, storm clouds, a burned-out car hulk, yellow roadside signs, the march of dark-clad women and children, an empty man's shoe, and a pale moon in a dark sky.
A few loose threads - The tapestry of the region is very complicated, to say the least. Today's post is a follow up to yesterday's S/Sw post , were I linked to a number of different stories, all under the general headline of "Generals warn of possible civil war in Iraq." The rest of the blogosphere has had interesting things to say about the news. Following are a few little items in no particular order.

Catching Kos' flying lint- sometimed the Daily Kos blog moves so fast that good posts get lost before we can all enjoy them. Here is a very clever one,

• Daily Kos - diarist "SteinL" posted "The Metrics of Time - Friedman Units, JustAroundtheCorners, etc." It begins,

  There is clearly a need for us to create fixed measures for the approximations that politicians, pundits and bureaucrats apply with impunity, whenever there's a need to "set timeframes" towards a goal.
  If not, much confusion will ensue.
  For this reason, I have taken it upon myself, in the spirit of the Academicians who defined the meter, to cast light upon the murkiness we have been visited with.
  One man's "imminent victory" clearly is another man's "never ending morass", and this simply won't do.

• Kos posted a little gem containing the 2/12/03 Pentagon prediction that the Iraq war would last six months. I also include this useful Kos-post, "Rumsfeld pulls a Lieberman," that refutes Rumsfeld's come-back to Senator Clinton that he "never painted a rosy picture" about Iraq.

Torn threads - This is another headline adding to my previous S/Sw post on the violence in Iraq: "Six Marines Charged in Iraq Assault Case." To quote,

Six U.S. Marines were charged with assault late on Thursday in connection with
suspected assaults on several Iraqi civilians in Hamdania, days before the
alleged kidnapping and murder of an Iraqi civilian there.

The final thread- is yet to be woven completing the current mid-eastern news tapestry. Many of us are ready for the pattern to return to its more natural one - of classic and intricate beauty, and of warmth that will block out the cold winds of war.
Tags: Middle East Bush Rumsfeld Iraq Terrorism War Pentagon Daily Kos military

My "creative post" today at Southwest Blogger is about the process of writing.