My new blog

Three months after announcing my retirement, I have decided to reenter the blogosphere at my new blog,  War_and_Peace.
War and Peace will be very similar to MediaShack although the blog will not  focus on the Middle East, although some of the weekly 2-4 posts will likely be on the region.  In general, the blog will focus on [...]

Coming November 1

An Announcement

Walking Off Into the Sunset

MediaShack readers,
The time has come for me to announce my retirement from the blogosphere.
I no longer have the motivation to consistently write good posts  on the Middle East.  Rather than let the quality slip,  I will be walking away from the blog, Michael Jordan style.
A special thanks goes out to all those who contributed to MediaShack [...]

Greatest Book on American Politics Ever Written?

I’ve been away from blogging for a few days, but  I want to highlight a book I’ve been reading:  Democracy_In_America by Alexis de Tocqueville.  I am not exaggerating when I say that this is one of the best books I’ve ever read.   Tocqueville was a French aristocrat of the early 1800s who understood that the anciens regime of [...]

New Arabic Slang Dictionary

For students/ professors of Arabic, here’s a new on-line Arabic_slang_dictionary that’s worth checking out:
One man who was fed up with constantly asking or hearing “wait, what does that mean?” is Abdullah Arif, a 23-year-old Saudi Arabian graduate living in Dubai, who decided to do something about it.
That was last summer. In March he set about [...]

Good book

I read a good book over the weekend that’s super relevant to many of the issues at play in Afghanistan.  It’s called My_Battle_of_Algiers by Ted Morgan.  Check it out, it’s well worth the read.

Interesting Interview

Yousri Fouda, a former top  al-Jazeera journalist, has an interesting_interview with a Jordanian paper explaining his new project — working for an independent station in Egypt.

Why not Buy and Burn?

Professor Walt on the new_US_strategy of taking out Afghan drug dealers:
 So first we expanded our forces in Afghanistan. Then we took on the challenge of prison reform there (ignoring the fact that America’s own prison system is a national disgrace). And yesterday we learned that U.S. armed forces are putting suspected Afghan drug dealers on a [...]

Moving towards the “Third Way?”

Here’s an interesting al-Jazeera_discussion between two Pakistani scholars on the  implications of Taliban leader Beit Allah Mahsood’s death.  One important point focused on the two approaches/ schools of thought within the Pakistani and Afghan Taliban:
1) The “Moderates:”   Focuses strictly on fighting US/ NATO occupation forces in Afghanistan
2) The “Extremists:”  In addition to fighting the US, expands the fight to [...]

As good as it gets….

Just watched “Atonement.”  Watch  the trailer  here.  Outstanding movie!

Afghanistan: The Third Way

A wise reader asks:
Where does some one articulate the “third” strategy in Afghanistan in any detail? I know the two strategies of COIN and Withdrawal have lots of problems, but I want to hear more about the alternative. Can the US establish some sort of deterrence by being able to escalate and deescalate the conflict [...]

Excellent Journalism

This is an outstanding Arabic language article on the recently killed Pakistani Taliban leader Beitullah Mahsud.  
The author (as far as I know) rarely writes on Afghanistan and lives in Egypt, yet still puts together a top notch piece.  He did something shocking that I rarely see in English-language coverage of Af-Pak: he actually picked up the phone and [...]

Has anything changed?

[Go  to Part Two if you already follow COIN/ Strategy debates in Afghanistan]
Part One:
Some readers may not be aware of this, but  the US is now fighting  ”Population Centric Warfare” in Afghanistan,  not the “Enemy Centric Warfare” that people normally associate with military operations. The difference between the two is the difference between “killing people and breaking S***” on [...]

When the Tactical Trumps the Strategic: Bad Stuff Happens

Watched  Kingdom_of_Heaven recently.  It really got me thinking about that all critical division between the tactical and the strategic domains, and how  keeping the former  subordinate to the latter has been a challenge for just about every nation  that’s ever existed.
What do we mean by these two terms?  For me,  the strategic is simply the  ”Big Picture End-Goal” or more simply “The Ends.”  [...]

The Pattern Continues II

Two weeks ago  I noted that we need to start considering Salafi cleric  Abu Mohamed Al- Maqdasi of Jordan  part of the region_wide_trend of Islamist extremists trying to develop new ways to deal with society that don’t include violence.   Now we have to officially add the Libyan Armed Fighting Group to this list.  From Asharq_Al_Awsat:
London, Asharq Al-Awsat- Talks began around two years [...]

Iraqi Withdrawal: Sooner vs Later

The NY_Times_asks six high-profile Military Experts for their opinion on recent calls for  accelerated_withdrawal from Iraq.   I find noteworthy that five of the six, employing Military/ National Security Theory and Logic, argue that withdrawal should proceed slower rather than faster, basically rejecting the “Time to Go Home” memo.
Fair enough.  But I really wish that the Times had [...]

Unputdownable Status

 This doesn’t have anything to do with the Middle East, but readers looking for good stuff to read  should check out  A_Tree_Grows_In_Brooklyn.  Simply put, this is one of the best novels I have ever read ( not coincidentally it’s considered one of the best in American history).  It’s the extremely inspiring story of a poor family [...]

“Time to Go Home”

From The_New_York_Times: 
WASHINGTON — A senior American military adviser in Baghdad has concluded in an unusually blunt memo that the Iraqi forces suffer from deeply entrenched deficiencies but are now capable of protecting the Iraqi government, and that it is time “for the U.S. to declare victory and go home.”
Prepared by Col. Timothy R. Reese, an [...]

The Book Must Not Be Dismissed

CNN reports_on_the_Taliban’s_new_book that I’ve been talking_about the last couple of days.  I’m really struck by these dismissive comments from a US Military spokesperson:
Lt. Cmdr. Christine Sidenstricker, U.S. military spokeswoman in Kabul, said it was notable that the document is intended to be “prescriptive on how the bad guys are supposed to conduct themselves.”
“Their day to day actions contradict [...]

Taliban Making a Power Play Inside Afghan Government

Remember,  US strategy in Afghanistan is to convince the Afghani people that they should side with the pro-US government and not the Taliban.  It’s an old-school competition for hearts and minds — kind of like a high-school student council election.  US wins if the Afghanis choose the pro-US Central government, and looses if they choose [...]