Michael J. Totten's Blog, page 49

Get Ready for the Next War

In March of 2001, the Taliban used anti-aircraft guns, anti-tank missiles, artillery cannons, and dynamite to obliterate enormous ancient Buddha statues carved into the cliffsides at Bamiyan. The statues were monuments to heresy, the Taliban said, and therefore must be destroyed.

I’ll never forget how a friend of mine in Oregon reacted. “We have to invade,” he said.

I thought he was nuts. Invade a country in the ass-end of nowhere over cultural vandalism?

“If they’ll destroy harmless statues,” h...

Oliver Stone Botches History -- Again

Ron Radosh managed to see Oliver Stone’s new documentary before it premieres on Showtime later this month, and it doesn’t look pretty. I haven’t seen it yet. And I’m pretty sure after reading this review that I am not going to bother.

Two years ago, Oliver Stone announced that he was preparing to make a documentary about recent American history. It premieres on the CBS-owned cable network Showtime on November 12. TitledOliver Stone’s Untold History of the United States, it is written by Stone...

A Quick Election Note

Nobody in my hometown of Portland, Oregon wants to put a Romney/Ryan sign in their yard. But I haven’t seen a single Obama/Biden sign either. One holdout in my neighborhood has an old Obama sign without Biden’s name, but that’s it. Granted, I'm not driving around looking for them, I'm just going about my regular life.

This one, however, was just spotted in Portland.

It’s hard to say how much the Benghazi incident will affect the outcome of the election, or if it will even affect the election at...

Al Qaeda's African Hell

Paul Hyacinthe Mben is a brave man. He’s a journalist who lives in Bamako, Mali’s capital, and ventured north into the portion of the country recently lopped off by Al Qaeda fighters who lord over it like fanatical dungeon wardens. Der Spiegel sent him. His first-person narrative dispatch is your required reading today.

Here is but a taste:

Gao, a city of 100,000 people, has become a lifeless place since the Islamists took over. It was once a stopping point for tourists traveling to Timbuktu, b...

Hurricane Sandy

I don’t have to tell you that the big story this week is Hurricane Sandy blowing and flooding the hell out of the East Coast. I have a lot of friends on the East Coast—and this magazine is based on the East Coast—but I’m on the West Coast and have nothing to say aside from the fact that I hope everyone is okay and the damage is not too extensive.

The best source of information I’ve found anywhere is Brendan Loy’s Weather Nerd blog at PJ Media. Even if you live far away like I do, and even if y...

Reviewed in the Ottawa Citizen

Veteran Canadian journo Terry Glavin pens an epic essay for the Ottawa Citizen about the rupturing violence from Tunis to Kabul and everywhere in between that doubles as a book review of Is This Your First War? by Michael Petrou, Arab Spring Dreams by Sohrab Ahmari and Nasser Weddady, and my own new book, Where the West Ends.

Here is what he said about Where the West Ends:

There is such a thing as “the West,” and Michael Totten explores its frontiers and the confounding landscapes beyond in Whe...

The Islamist Threat Isn't Going Away

My latest column appeared in the Wall Street Journal. It's behind the pay wall and is reprinted here with permission.

President Barack Obama and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney wrapped up their trilogy of presidential debates on Monday this week and spent most of the evening arguing foreign policy. Each demonstrated a reasonable grasp of how the world works and only sharply disagreed with his opponent on the margins and in the details. But they both seem to think, 11 years after 9/11...

Two Hours

Reuters claims to be in possession of three emails that, if authentic, should put to rest once and for all how long it took for the White House and State Department to learn that the terrorist attack in the Libyan city of Benghazi last month was, in fact, a terrorist attack.

No one else in America found that one a head-scratcher, but we’ll leave that aside for the time being.

Officials at the White House and State Department were advised two hours after attackers assaulted the U.S. diplomatic m...

About That Debate

Since I have a blog and write about foreign policy, and since Barack Obama and Mitt Romney just had a debate about foreign policy, I feel like I should post a more or less instant snap analysis. Forgive me, but I’m not going to do that. Instead, I’m working on something that will take a little bit longer and needs to be written carefully.

I will say, though, that both did a bit better than I expected. I groaned a few times, but I never felt the urge to yell at the TV.

LINKAGE

Here are some links to stories around the world. Cross-posted at Instapundit.

THE REAL HOUSEWIVES of the Middle East. Also starring Hillary Clinton and Ri Sol Ju of North Korea.

QADDAFI'S SON KILLED in Libya fighting.

SYRIA'S BASHAR AL-ASSAD BANS GENETICALLY MODIFIED FOODS: “The law is meant ‘to preserve the health of human beings, animals, vegetables and the environment.’” He used to do a good job mimicking the prejudices of silly Westerners and saying exactly what they wanted to hear, but no o...