City of Brass

(as prepared for delivery; while Obama gave the speech, he was repeatedly interrupted by a heckler, Medea Benjamin of Code Pink) It’s an honor to return to the National Defense University. Here, at Fort McNair, Americans have served in uniform since 1791– standing guard in the early days of the Republic, and contemplating the future…

I came across a lengthy excerpt online from the book, “The Next Hundred Years: A Forecast for the 21st Century” by George Friedman and found it quite insightful. I say this as someone who probably is indeed an American barbarian by the definition of the passage; I do believe that there do exist uniquely American…

This is a khukuri, a curved Nepalese-style blade issued as standard equipment to members of the Gurkha, which are famed Nepali units of the Indian Army (and the British Army of India before Independence): In 2010, a retired Indian Gurkha soldier, Bishnu Shrestha, was sitting on a train, when 40 dacoits (bandits) boarded the train…

This is one of those great stories that often gets overlooked by the mainstream press and deliberately ignored by the Islamophobes: With only just over thirty members and an extravagant Grade II listed Moorish building, the tiny Jewish community of Bradford have for many years been in despair about their finances – until the local…

From today’s press conference: 8:15 AM PT: Bill Plante of CBS asks about the Guantanamo hunger strike. Obama says he still wants to close it. “It’s not necessary to keep America safe. It’s expensive. It’s inefficient. It hurts us” with allies and the global community. “Now, Congress has determined that they won’t let us close…

To summarize what is known at this time, the main suspects for the Boston marathon bombing are two brothers who immigrated from Chechnya to America years ago and have grown up here. How they became radicalied, and what their motive was still remains unknown, but their method is best described as “open-source” lone-wolf terrorism –…

Just wanted to share these two moving images – the first, from two women in Kabul: and the second, two boys in Iraq: Next time you hear or read the Islamophobes’ claim that muslims “dance in the streets” when there is tragedy in America, remember these images. Sources: Afghans send sympathy and love to Boston,…

Yesterday I posted some facts about a young Saudi national, a student on scholarship, who was injured in the marathon bombings but was “tackled” by another bystander for appearing “suspicious”. Today comes word that he has been cleared of all suspicion. https://twitter.com/BostonGlobe/status/324218614427308032 That is good news for him, but unlike the other victims of the…

UPDATE: the Saudi national has been cleared of all charges by police. For the American public, the horrific images out of Boston yesterday were far more explicit than images from warzones and conflicts around the world. This attack was not the deadliest ion American soil, but equal in malicious, evil intention: to strike at the…

Happy Easter to my Christian friends! Fundamentally, Easter is the day that Christians celebrate the resurrection of Christ. As I’ve noted before, in Islam there is no direct analogue to Easter, but there are some very important points of agreement. The Qur’an specifically discusses the crucifixion of Jesus AS in a few verses, 4:157-9: And…

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