Bertologue

Can Iraq take care of itself? We all love the idea of an Iraq that can take care of itself and live in peace. Obama is talking about leaving Iraq because of the great advances the Iraqi military has made in learning how to defend themselves and said so at the annual convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars . Secretary of Defense Gates mentioned that the security situation will lead to the early withdrawal of US troops . Iraqi President Nouri al-Maliki was so eager to convince the world that the security situation was being handled by the Iraqis that he removed all security barricades within the Green Zone after telling US troops to slink back to their bases and stay there. Jamal Hashim applauded this utopian bliss in an article written on the 19th of August. It seemed that the politicians and reporters were shrouded with the collective delusion of stalwartness. On that same day bombs blew through the deception of the politically driven but collectively ignorant. With their di...

Well – I have been gone… again… I am sure anyone reading this is completely shocked that I would be traveling. I am such a home-body that almost never strays away from my front stoop… Ok, that may not be exactly truthworthy. I may even be a little of the opposite. Once again I have traveled to Iraq, but this time I was not gallivanting around the North chatting with locals and placing myself in completely safe villages that caused others to have coronaries. Nope – this time I was sent there by the company I work for. They paid for the trip and I got to have the great privilege of staying in fortified structures, traveling by armored vehicle and military air-craft. My meals were taken in gargantuan dinning facilities with hundreds of soldiers and contractors eating American food and not worrying about diarrhea. All-in-all it was a standard boring trip. Hmmm… maybe my old way of touring has caused me to not find FOBing to be a real form of foreign-service. As I did go overseas wi...

I understand the concept of religion being the "biggest cause of terrorism" but I feel that this is misrepresented. I do agree that religion is the biggest excuse for terrorism, but I am not sure that it is the cause. In Encyclopedia of Wars -by Charles Phillips (Author), Alan Axelrod (Author): there are a total of 1,763 wars listed of which 123 are listed as religious wars. The State Departments lists 42 terrorist entities of which 21 have religious leanings and 14 are specifically religious ( http://www.state.gov/s/ct/rls/fs/37191.htm ). Until the 1970's terrorist activity in the United States was mainly politically aimed (communist, leftist, fascist, and other ists…) with clear political agendas. In the 70's we started to see an increase in the number of terrorist groups that were associated with a religious or nationalist agenda but these attacks were political and not religious. Members of this group were the PLO, Jewish Defense League, and others. We stil...

Terrorism and Extortion are very similar in action but where they differ the most is with intended results. Extortion : Using violence or the threat of violence to create an environment where actions toward the victim lead to the victim giving the perpetrator(s) something of value . Terrorism : Using violence of the threat of violence to create an environment where actions towards the victim lead to society giving the perpetrator(s) something of value . When defining terrorism it is pertinent to first set what parameters the definition is adhered to. If we took a general definition of terrorism and said that it is simply the act of generating fear to elicit the desired response of the issuer then we can say all governments engage in terrorism to control the activities of their populace. Threat of going to jail unless you meet social norms would fit into this definition of terrorism. The same could be said about having a strong military imposing the will of a country upon another co...

Turkey has a collected interest in the war in Iraq not just stemming from multiple sources not of which the least is Turkish dependence on Iraqi oil to survive, and the desire for Neo-Ottomans to take Northern Iraq for their own. Since Turkey was made a nation after WWI they have had a desire to regain their old Ottoman glory. The Turks have forced the Turkish language on people living within their borders, and have made deals with local countries allowing them to conduct cross-border operations that enabled them to set up military outposts outside of Turkey. During many of my visits to Turkey I have always found humor in how Turks will claim all things good from the Ottoman empire to be Turkish, but whenever the “bad-portions” are brought up those are quickly explained away as being European-Ottoman problems and having nothing to do with Modern Day Turkey. I guess there is a serious desire to have their cake and eat-it-too. Neo-Ottomans are the Turks that feel a desire to regain some ...

Recently I had the privilege to read an article by Dr. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis that compared the Kurdish Ashayish to al Qaeda. To me this was a very interesting article because I have always viewed them as diametrically opposed institutions. If you do not know what the Ashayish or al Qaeda is then let me start with that. According to their own website Al-Qaeda's objectives include the end of foreign influence in Muslim countries and the creation of a new Islamic caliphate. The name Al-Qaeda quite literally means camp and was created in Afghanistan when the Sunni Muslims were creating training bases for the mujahedeen (holy warriors) to fight against the Russians. These camps were created by the House of Saud and were funded in part by the US State Department (these actions were recently made into a movie called “Charlie Wilson’s War”). The Ashayish are the security forces of the officially recognized Kurdish Regional Government of Iraq. The Ashayish were created as th...

Ok – I have not posted for the longest time. While I was working in Iraq I started to work in areas that I really could not post about. The many things I learned while working in those areas has enriched me in many ways … and I hope I am now a better person for it. Life now finds me living in Washington DC. I am working for a defense contractor and I am using the many things I learned while living in Iraq. Already I have been able to use the experience and first-hand knowledge that I have to help guide the company along a more logical path in Near East relations. I hope I can only help. The blog that you are used to may be changing. I usually talk about places I have been or things I have seen… I am going to change that up a little bit. My job currently has me sitting in an “arm-chair-quarterback” position so I figured I would use that. I see so many things in the news that are happening around the world and I have a very different take on some of these issues because I have se...