Author: Dilip

I'm a scholar, writer and teacher; and my blog is designed for intellectual exploration. It carries no advertisements and requires no cash subscription

‘The US should be held accountable’: Guantánamo survivor on the war on terror’s failure

“Tyrants in the Middle East, they took it as an example of the bad they can do. Now, in China with the Uyghurs, in Saudi Arabia and Yemen and Egypt, [they think they can] take people and just indefinitely detain, torture, kill and beat them simply by saying ‘they are extremists’. They say, if our boss [America] can do it,… Read More ‘The US should be held accountable’: Guantánamo survivor on the war on terror’s failure

Dilip

John Dower: How Americans Remember (and Forget) Their Wars / Simon Jenkins: It has taken 20 years to prove the invasion of Afghanistan was totally unnecessary

Some years ago, a newspaper article credited a European visitor with the wry observation that Americans are charming because they have such short memories. When it comes to the nation’s wars, however, he was not entirely on target. Americans embrace military histories of the heroic “band of [American] brothers” sort, especially involving World War II.… Read More John Dower: How Americans Remember (and Forget) Their Wars / Simon Jenkins: It has taken 20 years to prove the invasion of Afghanistan was totally unnecessary

Dilip

Simon Leys: AN EMPIRE OF UGLINESS (extract from The Hall of Uselessness, 2013)

An Empire of Ugliness (from The Hall of Uselessness: Collected Essays, pp 31-42)   EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY literature developed the new literary genre of the epistolary novel; I wonder if it would not be legitimate for me to propose now a new form of book review, the epistolary criticism, in which arguments are developed through an exchange of letters… Read More Simon Leys: AN EMPIRE OF UGLINESS (extract from The Hall of Uselessness, 2013)

Dilip

Gautam Mukhopadhaya: What Kabul means in Delhi

Three questions loom uppermost in the minds of observers in India. First, what accounts for the near-total capitulation of the 300,000-350,000 US and NATO trained and equipped Afghan Army and Police forces, the ANDSF, without much of a fight barring a few honourable exceptions in Lashkargah, Herat and Taloqan, against lightly armed insurgents estimated to… Read More Gautam Mukhopadhaya: What Kabul means in Delhi

Dilip

Major Danny Sjursen, US Army (retd) – A Life and Nation Transformed: 20 Years from the War on Terror

Being a member of the US Army wasn’t all that dangerous before America set off on its quixotic post-9/11 adventures. This was no longer the case when I was serving at the height of both “surges” to nowhere-but-failure in 2007 (Iraq) and 2011 (Afghanistan). During a 2007 spent driving down Baghdad’s bomb-laden streets and dallying around… Read More Major Danny Sjursen, US Army (retd) – A Life and Nation Transformed: 20 Years from the War on Terror

Dilip

Ramachandra Guha: महान गांधीवादी की स्मृति, गांधी जी के सचिव महादेव देसाई की कहानी / Remembering the Greatest Gandhian

महात्मा गांधी के सचिव महादेव देसाई का 15 अगस्त, 1942 को निधन हो गया। अपने अंतिम दिनों में जब गांधी को एक ओर हिंदू-मुसलमान तनाव को दूर करने और दूसरी ओर नेहरू और पटेल की बढ़ती दूरियों को कम करने के प्रयास करने पड़ रहे थे, तब उन्होंने कहा था कि महादेव होते तो यह… Read More Ramachandra Guha: महान गांधीवादी की स्मृति, गांधी जी के सचिव महादेव देसाई की कहानी / Remembering the Greatest Gandhian

Dilip

The International Journal of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies. Special issue on the COVID-19 pandemic

The International Journal of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies special issue on the COVID-19 pandemic comprises articles from across the globe, encompassing psychoanalytic perspectives from Europe, Asia and North and South America. Click here to read the issue for free. The issue features Ira Brenner’s new paper: ‘Disinformation, disease, and Donald Trump’. Issue Information Pages: 107-108 – First Published: 22 June 2021 Abstract … Read More The International Journal of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies. Special issue on the COVID-19 pandemic

Dilip

Revolution turns sour: Nicaragua continues its brazen crackdown. By Tom Phillips

It has been a fortnight since Georgiana Aguirre-Sacasa last heard from her elderly father: a terse WhatsApp message in which Nicaragua’s former foreign minister said border guards had stopped him leaving the country and seized his passport, and that he was on his way home. “What??” she replied from her home in Denver, Colorado. “Why???”… Read More Revolution turns sour: Nicaragua continues its brazen crackdown. By Tom Phillips

Dilip

Siddhartha Deb: The unravelling of a conspiracy: were the 16 charged with plotting to kill India’s prime minister framed? / Sudhir Chandra: More than a Judicial Murder

In April 2018, a large group of policemen arrived at the Delhi flat of Rona Wilson, a 47-year-old human rights activist. They had travelled from Pune in the western state of Maharashtra, and appeared, accompanied by Delhi police officials, at Wilson’s single-room flat at 6am. For the next eight hours, they scoured the modest premises, searching the… Read More Siddhartha Deb: The unravelling of a conspiracy: were the 16 charged with plotting to kill India’s prime minister framed? / Sudhir Chandra: More than a Judicial Murder

Dilip