Michael J. Totten's Blog, page 47

Notes on the Syrian Revolution from Marrakech

MARRAKECH – I'm in Marrakech, Morocco, attending the fourth meeting of the Friends of Syria gathering. One international delegation after another is taking to the podium and announcing where its capital stands on the bloodiest conflict to slam into the Levant since the Lebanese civil war.

I'm in the press room with hundreds people, almost all of them Arab journalists and most of them men. I hear a smattering of French spoken here and there, and it's the lingua franca of Morocco, but almost ev...

Extraordinary Devastation

Egypt's Mohamed Morsi was forced to rescind parts of his earlier decree that gave himself unchecked powers. Turns out he's a little too fat for the Egypthian python to swallow. He and everyone else who thinks power grabs are a good idea ought to take a good hard look at this slideshow from Syria and see what can happen to a country when a repressive dictatorship refuses to yield. The last photograph in that series is especially shocking.

Interviewed by Lee Smith

Lee Smith over at the Weekly Standard interviewed me about my new book, Where the West Ends.

LEE SMITH: How is Where the West Ends different from your first book?

MICHAEL TOTTEN:Some of it is war correspondence—in particular the section on the Caucasus that takes place during Russia’s invasion of Georgia—but most of the book is more like a road movie.

My best friend and I took a road trip to Iraq from Turkey on a lark, for instance, and the book opens with that. It was by far the most unpleasant...

Heading Back Into the Field

I planned on going to Libya this month, but the government hasn’t approved my visa yet and I can’t get in without it. The process is supposed to take a week, give or take, and I applied six weeks ago. Libya doesn’t seem to have much of a government at the moment, so I’m heading to Morocco while I wait for something to finally happen in Tripoli.

I have some meetings lined up the Moroccan capital, I’m heading to the disputed Western Sahara region down the west coast of Africa, and I’ve been invi...

Ghosts from Rwanda and the Congo

Susan Rice is still facing a storm of criticism about her preposterous comments following the terrorist attack in Benghazi a few months ago, and now she’s coming under fire for her performance in Sub-Saharan Africa during the Clinton administration.

Few Americans pay much attention to Sub-Saharan Africa, and Rice’s record there is old news at this point, but Jason Stearns’ new piece in Foreign Policy magazine is bound to incluence some decision-makers in Washington about whether or not she rep...

Now in More Stores

My new book, Where the West Ends, is now available at the Kobo store for those of you with a Kobo e-book reader. It’s also available on iTunes for those of you who buy your books there.

It’s also available from Barnes and Noble, of course, and you can get a trade paperback copy or an e-book for your Kindle from Amazon.com.

Egypt's Morsi Proclaims Himself Pharaoh

Almost two years after Egyptian strongman Hosni Mubarak was removed from power, Cairo’s Tahrir Square is still an epicenter of protest and violence. It’s an epicenter of protest and violence because Egypt is again ruled by a man who has declared himself dictator. The country’s new president, Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party, announced that “constitutional declarations, decisions and laws issued by the president are final and not subject to appeal.”

He’s alrea...

My Kickstarter Project Has Funded

I can’t do field work abroad without finding ways to cover travel and operating expenses, so last month I launched a Kickstarter project to pay for a trip to Libya. And I’m happy to report that it has successfully funded. I even managed to raise more money than I asked for. Thanks very much to everyone who is helping me out here.

And I want to publicly thank the terrific folks at Basis Technology who pledged such a generous donation that they are now the official sponsors of my trip.

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I also wan...

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to my American readers!

Old School Terrorism Returns to Israel

A bus just exploded in Tel Aviv. Various Palestinian terrorist organization praised the attacks, as did the mosques in Gaza.

Meanwhile, Egypt brokered a cease-fire between between Israel and Hamas that should go into effect today. We'll see if it holds.