Word: iraq
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...communist fries!' " as an angry crowd demonstrated in front of a French megastore in China. From tilting against the U.S. in 2003 to challenging China now, is France becoming the world's default Don Quixote? Five years ago Paris flamboyantly opposed the war of the American "hyperpower" in Iraq; now it opposes human-rights violations committed in Tibet by tomorrow's superpower, China. The parallel undeniably flatters the French ego, since it suggests the supremacy of ethics over realpolitik in French diplomacy. But the reality is slightly more complex...
...opposing the U.S. over Iraq, France was too direct: undeniably right in content, but probably wrong in style. Americans, deeply wounded by the shock of 9/11, felt betrayed by their old and passionately difficult ally. Today, in contrast, France's positions toward China draw offense through their very lack of clarity. The murkiness reflects France's contradictions and renders France - the first Western country to open a dialogue with communist China in the early '60s - particularly vulnerable to China's pressures. Nicolas Sarkozy, France's new President, seems caught between his desire to show that he is not the prisoner...
...taking this trend and turning it into a cause. The Bagdad University T-shirts that have been appearing on campus amidst the ever-present Harvard paraphernalia aren’t just style statements—they’re a step towards improving higher education in Iraq. Since December 2007, Jafar has been designing and marketing the shirts, creating the Web site www.rallyforiraq.com in addition to using flyers and a Facebook group. While the arch-shaped logo of the shirt may look simple, it was designed to evoke the spirit of open-mindedness and possibility for improvement that is crucial...
Defense Secretary Robert Gates's announcement Wednesday promoting General David Petraeus from his current post running the war in Iraq to head up U.S. Central Command triggered both political and military unease. That response may be inevitable, coming on the downside of an unpopular war and in the waning months of the tenure of the unpopular President who launched...
Lack of professionalism is only one of the problems plaguing Iraq's floundering forces. More troublesome is their heavily sectarian composition. Throughout southern Iraq, members of the police and army are pulled largely from the Badr Brigade - a militia tied to a Shi'ite political party, the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, which is the chief rival of Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army. A number of MPs in Baghdad even suspect that Maliki's Basra assault was a poorly disguised government campaign to wipe out Sadr's base of popularity before local elections in October. That...