The Arizona Butte in northern Arizona. From National Geographic.
Baghdad Residents Mourn Departure of Former Enemy from Der Spiegel [of Germany in English]
"US combat troops are withdrawing from Iraq, where terrorist attacks are once again part of everyday life. The Iraqi population is suddenly mourning the departure of the once-hated occupiers, as fears of a civil war grow."
Trying to Buck Odds, Obama Takes On 3 Big Mideast Tasks (David Sanger) from the New York Times
"President Obama is attempting a triple play this week that eluded his predecessors over the past two decades: simultaneous progress on the most vexing and violent problems in the Middle East — Israeli-Palestinian peace, Iraq and Iran — in hopes of creating a virtuous cycle in a region prone to downward spirals."
You Ain't Seen This Before (Thomas Friedman) from the New York Times
"President Obama is embarking on something I’ve never seen before — taking on two Missions Impossible at the same time. That is, a simultaneous effort to heal the two most bitter divides in the Middle East: the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the Shiite-Sunni conflict centered in Iraq. Give him his due. The guy’s got audacity."
Obama's Mideast Workhorse: Mitchell's Surprising Success from Time Magazine
"But while it is always safest to bet against the Middle East peace process, Mitchell's critics might want to take another look at his performance, not least because it may say something about the chances for progress now that the two sides are talking."
What's On Obama's Next Page? (E.J. Dionne) from the Washington Post
"The result was a series of balancing acts that, while a bit ungainly, held the promise of lifting Obama's standing with middle-of-the-road voters who may have begun to lose faith."
If FDR Had Been Elected in 1930 (Michael Tomasky) from the Guardian [of the UK]
"Wolf's real point is that Obama marked himself for failure from the start because the stimulus wasn't big enough. He mounts the economic case for such and makes it well, and suggests that Obama failed because he didn't do that. But the column completely ignores the fact that there's this thing called Congress."
Why the Belief that Obama is Muslim? (Sharon Begley) from Newsweek
"To the many theories about why so many Americans say they think President Obama is Muslim, add this one: the growing number of celebrations about being white."
AK-Sen: Lisa Murkowski Loses, Do Dems Sense Opportunity? (Chris Cilizza) from the Washington Post
"Democrats nationally will use Murkowski's defeat as yet more evidence of the tea party movement's growing power within the GOP. (Miller ran with the backing of national tea party groups.) It remains to be seen, however, whether the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee will spend anything more than rhetorical fire on the Alaska race this fall."
WHITE HOUSE NUGGET!!
Churchill out, Martin Luther King in: First glimpse at President Obama's revamped and thoroughly modern Oval Office from the Daily Mail [of the UK]
"After18 months as President, Barack Obama has finally put his own stamp on The Oval Office. And if the results are anything to go by, he is hoping for a golden era in the White House."
BOOKS NUGGET!!
Doctors Heed Call for Books for Afghanistan from the New York Times
"Nearly three decades of war and religious extremism have devastated medical libraries and crippled the educational system for doctors, nurses and other health professionals. Factions of the Taliban, which ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001, singled out medical texts for destruction, military medical personnel say, because anatomical depictions of the human body were considered blasphemous."
CULTURE BOOK NUGGET!!
Righteous and Wrong from the New York Review of Books
"Managing or “domesticating” Islam is a challenge for Western policymakers, as it was in the nineteenth century."
A set of really interesting books is reviewed here.
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