Mort Report: Non-Prophet Journalism // Covid 19: A Cri du Coeur From a Doctor-Diplomat Who Knows

Mort Report is a labor of love by old-style correspondents with lifetimes on the road and young ones with fresh eyes. Our philosophy is simple: we report at first hand with analysis based on non-alternative fact, not opinion.  If we get something wrong, we fix it. https://www.mortreport.org/ Covid 19 – A Cri du Coeur From a… Read More Mort Report: Non-Prophet Journalism // Covid 19: A Cri du Coeur From a Doctor-Diplomat Who Knows

Dilip

Mariam Veiszadeh: As an Afghan Australian, I watch in despair as the west cuts and runs / Afghanistan – “We Tried to Tell You” / Polly Toynbee: The Taliban’s victory in Afghanistan has laid bare the magnitude of western hubris

The anger and hurt many of us feel is palpable as the reality is that the Taliban would have not risen to have such power and influence, had they not had initial backing from western forces. Combined with a complex multitude of ethnic factions, a power vacuum, an already largely corrupt government weakened further by… Read More Mariam Veiszadeh: As an Afghan Australian, I watch in despair as the west cuts and runs / Afghanistan – “We Tried to Tell You” / Polly Toynbee: The Taliban’s victory in Afghanistan has laid bare the magnitude of western hubris

Dilip

‘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