Jim Henley has a few words about Michael Ledeen’s latest call to invade Iran. [Via tex]. This is a link to Brooding Persian‘s reaction to the same article posted on May 19. I recommend you read Ledeen, ledeen and us while there.
Juan Cole recommends a new blogger who is Syria-centric. The most recent post “How Washington can win Syria” has a familiar, nasty ring to it. Yet another pundit who waxes rhetorical on how best to force U.S. policies down the throats of “rogue regimes” while remaining completely deaf, dumb, and blind to the terrorist acts of the imposer.
Oh yes, Orientalism is alive and well. I’m repelled whenever it rears its ugly head.
“Remember,” Patai’s father told the boy, “you shook hands with the greatest Orientalist alive.” It was the start of a lifelong infatuation. “When it comes to the Arabs,” he wrote, “I must admit to an incurable romanticism.”
That Lee Smith would characterise this statement as proof Patai was “a keen and sympathetic observer of Arab society” tells me everything I need to know about Smith’s sensibilities. If there were any doubts, Smith gratuitously sums it up in the closing statement.
Arabs need only subjugate themselves to Anglocentrism and the world would find steady purchase on its axis. Daring to quarrel with this overriding principle vindicates Orientalists and their historically vicious pattern of framing every debate within the context of their pre-ordained stereotypes.
Saira Shah’s “Death in Gaza”, a documentary currently receiving some recognition, has been the subject of recent posts by Rafah Rambles. This is as good a place as any to start.