Word: mansourism
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...Impasse? I was interested to read "The dying of the light," about how Mansour went from being Baghdad's glitziest neighborhood to one of its most dangerous [May 28]. It seems impossible for any side to win the war in Iraq. If the fighting were about land or money, maybe it would be easier for the U.N. or powerful nations to intervene and negotiate a settlement. But this war is about dominance and will. The Western countries involved have the technology and firepower, while the jihadists have the manpower and a willingness to die. I don't see how President...
...featuring Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the former Dutch parliamentarian and human rights activist whose 2004 film, "Submission," detailing mistreatment of Muslim women in the Netherlands, triggered the murder of its director, Theo Van Gogh. Despite the fact that Hirsi Ali was set to appear with several other panelists, including Ahmed Mansour, a leading scholar and defender of Islam, many students, including members of the Harvard Islamic Society, objected to the event because they found Hirsi Ali’s politics offensive. Fearful of riling minority interests, the Harvard Foundation bowed to these complaints and canceled its endorsement. That the supposed caretaker...
Still, the U.S. may at last be seeing signs of progress. Compared with the streets last fall, residents tell me, a relative calm has returned to Mansour. Fewer bodies are being found every day, and it is no longer routine to see gunmen shouldering rocket launchers in the street. One reason the violence has subsided, of course, is that many of the neighborhoods that saw the bloodiest sectarian cleansing are no longer mixed...
Even under the most hopeful scenarios, it's doubtful that Mansour and places like it will ever be the same. Pulling out of Kuehl's headquarters, our humvee drives through several inches of dark green sludge that has been seeping out of a broken sewage pipe for a week. We turn toward the center of Mansour, driving along a familiar set of railroad tracks. Looking across the gravel berms, I can see our old street. I see the empty corner where a group of brothers used to grill giant splayed carp, called masgouf, over open coals every evening. Down farther...
...route Poison, heading to the base, the soldiers are venting their fear by ticking off a litany of ordinary objects that might be hiding a bomb. "Man, I hate this road," says one. It's hard to love a place that can get you killed. The tragedy of Mansour is that there once was a time when hope wasn't so elusive...