Yossi Verter After the collapse of the Camp David talks in 2000, Yasser Arafat put in a phone call to U.S. President Bill Clinton. “You are a great man,” Arafat said. “The hell I am,” Clinton said he responded. “I’m a colossal failure, and you made me one.” He was neither the first nor the… Read More Trump’s Message to Netanyahu Is Loud and Clear: You’re Fired!
NB: Dr Mobarak Haider is a historian, writer and public intellectual. Here he writes about a very public tragedy. His capacity to speak unpleasant truths about his own society is to be appreciated. DS First posted February 05, 2013 War is a tragedy but a society at war with itself and everything around, with no objective… Read More Mobarak Haider: A society at war with itself
As drones and missiles shoot across borders, it’s worth thinking of Pahalgam as a cautionary tale. The final destination of majoritarianism is the complete dehumanisation of the Other Mukul Kesavan The residents’ association’s WhatsApp group was alive with information about mock drills and blackouts. This was gleaned from notices sent to condominiums in distant Gurgaon… Read More Noises off
Mawadda Iskandar / The Cradle In a major recalibration of its year-long Red Sea military campaign, the US has agreed to a ceasefire with Yemen’s Ansarallah-aligned armed forces, brokered by Oman. After months of escalating attacks under the guise of “protecting international shipping,” Washington now finds itself calling time on a conflict it launched – but failed… Read More US Ceasefire in Yemen: Retreat Masquerading as Restraint
Praveen Swami The new political movements do not seek secession. They demand a nation ruled not by generals, but by its constitution. Their grievances have not made them enemies of Pakistan. Nationalism continues to be a powerful force… A genuinely democratic Pakistan, however, would be one where the generals’ jihadist proxies no longer enjoy state… Read More General Munir is losing a far more fateful war within Pakistan / Arif Jamal on the Pakistan military and it’s misuse of Islam (2022)
Its impact on Pakistan’s citizens is an important issue, but not the only one. At stake are India’s water sharing agreements with Nepal and Bangladesh. Bharat Bhushan Despite public enthusiasm in India about the Indus Waters Treaty being held in abeyance, the move is strategically flawed, and will have adverse consequences for India in the region.… Read More Weaponising Indus Waters Treaty is a strategic mistake
For vast numbers of Americans, disproportionately young, the monstrous warfare overseen by Presidents Johnson and Nixon caused the scales to fall from their eyes about the character of U.S. leadership. And like President Donald Trump now, President Joe Biden showed that nice-sounding rhetoric could serve as a tidy cover story for choosing to enable nonstop horrors without… Read More How the Vietnam and Gaza Wars Shattered Young Illusions About US Leaders
In the end, traditional liberal values are what Lindsay and Pluckrose are plumping for…. They conclude with a set of proposals for rethinking concepts such as ‘justice’ and ‘equity’, along lines allegedly more harmonious with reason, proof, logic, evidence, individuality, and choice, and less encumbered by group-think and by obscurantist, inflammatory collectivist rhetoric. Less propaganda,… Read More Cynical Theories
A wise and wonderfully enjoyable book on the enduring power of stupidity. “Paul made possible the transformation of the Gospels’ beautiful moral ideal into an anti-intellectual ideology that was enshrined permanently in the Christian scriptures and has since passed into our secular societies. That ideology has attracted a certain sort of mind ever since –… Read More Ignorance and Bliss: On Wanting Not to Know
NB: It is disgraceful that innocent students should pay a price for terrorist actions of others. Is there any evidence that Kashmiri Muslim students in cities and campuses outside the Kashmir Valley are responsible for the crimes of others? Is not security in Kashmir the responsibility of the Central Government? Upon whose shoulders should rest… Read More Prayagraj to Himachal, Kashmiri Muslims forced to leave college, home. Many slept at airports
After the truth-shower 