Why Care About USA's Big Picture In Middle East?

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Failure To Heed The Signs of Middle East Tension May Lead To Nightmare Morning News

Dreams and Shadows, by Robin Wright, is a welcome counterpoint to the labyrinth of news from the Middle East.

This book, and her earlier work, Sacred Rage, straightens some of the hairpin mental gymnastics usually encountered when I try to follow the news cycle out of the land of Arabs and Jews. Wright's grasp of the unique shadows surrounding Arab and Jewish cultures provides important context for readers who want more than the drumbeat of suicide-bomb reports. I haven't yet read her newest book, Rock The Casbah, but it's on the top of my reading list.

In the headlines and news stories aimed at simplifying the incomprehensible, how are we to learn of dignified Iranians among the powerful but inconsistent voices of religious leaders? How are we to prepare our children and grandchildren for a "small world" where murderers cloak themselves in religious fundamentalism? I sense that the shocking technological and cultural changes during my lifetime will be peanuts compared to those that will confront today's children.

(photo credit ishmaelo/flickr.com)

Easy to Read. A Great Overview of Real People, Their Dreams & History.

Dreams and Shadows: The Future of the Middle East

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Learning to see events at home and in the Middle East since September 11, 2001 pushes me to look at the big picture. Robin Wright's book helps me see it from the vantage point of real people.

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"All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity.

But the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes, to make it possible." T. E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia)

Sites That Keep Tabs On the Big Picture of the Middle East in the 21st Century

Expecting A Nuke From Israel?
The world needs to be much tougher on Iran, but an Israeli attack would still be a disaster
Crude Oil, Rude Awakening
Where has all the diesel gone?
The Pyramids Are Closed Today
What to do when the pyramids are closed.

Trends and Influences among Islam, Jews, Christians.

Each Islamic country, with discrete identities and histories, is a building block for the future.

Jerusalem's Church of all Nations

"All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity. But the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes, to make it possible." This was said by T. E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) in his "Seven Pillars of Wisdom."

If the outspokenness of those today who defend human rights in repressive regimes reflects Lawrence's philosophy about the forces of light and darkness in the Mid-East, there is reason for hope.

Dreams and Shadows digs below the surface to humanize the Palestinians, Israelis, Egyptians, Lebanese, Syrians, Iraqis, Iranians, Kurds, Morrocans.

As the author relates detailed accounts of people and events, organized in chapters devoted each to separate countries, one begins to wonder if old suspicions about motivation aren't more like fairy tales contrived to explain bumps in the night. In the way Wright reveals that hoary desire - independence - in the most surprising places, I began to see how modernization may influence our attitudes toward this part of the world.

Wright's interviews, some recurring over decades, with men in the Middle East who wield enormous and usually subversive powers require an astonishing bravery on her part. Her knowledge of the often illiterate context and the mysteries of recent powers to shake the West to its core, delivers the one-more-page experience of reading a novel.

Robin Wright says, in 1983, she stood and watched where friends were recovered after the "first Muslim suicide bomber against an American target." It was Beirut, one of the areas of the Middle East, which I find mysterious and confusing. Wright breaks down its history and brings to life its most shrouded participants.

Fill the blanks in your mind....

Books about the Mid-East

Opening up a political system takes lifetimes and, more often that not, wars and other sacrifices.
Emily Dickinson said, "Revolution is the Pod/Systems rattle from/When the Winds of Will are stirred..."

Writers like Robin Wright generate literary foundations for us to examine radicals and religious zealots that want to "revolutionize the West."
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Experience the American Journey through our country's visual heritage

Historical recording provided by the National Archives of the United States

Focus on the Middle East - Big Picture Telementary. The exotic Middle East, from India to the eastern end of Africa, plays the featured role in this week's chapter of THE BIG PICTURE. Culled from over 15,000 feet of film made exclusively for THE BIG PICTURE, the program will describe how American Army Military Assistance Groups help train the soldiers of Ethiopia, Iraq, Iran and Pakistan. Military Missions, or Aid Groups, started in Latin America in 1926. Today's Military Missions (known as MAAGs--short for, Military Assistance Advisory Group) have evolved from models established in Greece and Turkey in 1949. MAAGs are designed to provide a direct link between the United States and its friends abroad who are in need of American know-how and skill in training their own soldiers. The members of a U.S. Army MAAG not only help train other nation's troops but also extend technical advice on the use of modern equipment. The Middle East, in the headlines of the newspaper you read this morning, is particularly in need of American Army MAAGs. The Middle East is the crossroads of the world, linking Europe, Asia and Africa. Air routes depend on refueling bases in the Middle East. The oil reserves of the area are estimated to include 50% of the world's total. One hundred million people dwell in the Middle East. They must learn to protect themselves from Communist domination. THE BIG PICTURE's documentary, "Focus on the Middle East," was photographed where it happened, by Capt. Gaetano Faillace, famed World War II combat cameraman.

The content summary for this DVD is adapted from an historical description provided by the government agency or donor at the time of production release. This product is manufactured on demand using DVD-R recordable media. Amazon.com's standard return policy will apply.

The Big Picture - Focus on the Middle East

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This historical recording from the National Archives may contain variations in audio and video quality based on the limitations of the original source material.

Videos Show the Beauty and Song of Middle East

Feelings and Beauty in Sight and Sound

U2 One - Lebanon and Middle East War Tribute
by boosted67 | video info

98 ratings | 34,794 views
curated content from YouTube

Robin Wright

"Award-winning journalist and author Robin Wright has reported from more than 130 countries on six continents for The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Sunday Times of London, CBS News and The Christian Science Monitor. She has also written for The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, The New York Times, The Times (London), The Guardian (London), The International Herald Tribune and many others.

"Wright's foreign tours include five years in the Middle East, two years in Europe, seven years in Africa, and several years as a roving correspondent in those areas as well as Latin America and Asia. She has covered a dozen wars and several revolutions. She is now diplomatic correspondent for The Washington Post."

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No One Knows Better Than Robin Wright

- how to see the good, the bad and the unpredictable in the Mideast

Rock the Casbah: Rage and Rebellion Across the Islamic World

Amazon Price: $9.42 (as of 02/17/2012)Buy Now

If you want to know more about the circumstances and conditions leading up to the Arab revolutions don't miss this book!

NO LACK OF OPINIONS AND POINTS OF VIEW

Tell me what book(s) you like about the Middle East.

What title not shown here that you'd like reviewed?

Dirty Wars: Britain's Collusion with Radical Islam by Mark Curtis

Dirty Wars: Britain's Collusion with Radical Islam by Mark Curtis

Penetrating history of the British government's sponsorship more...0 points

Radical Islam's War Against Israel, Christianity and the West by Richard Booker

Radical Islam's War Against Israel, Christianity and the West by Richard Booker

In a simple, readable format, here is book that an more...0 points

Stealth Jihad: How Radical Islam is Subverting America without Guns or Bombs by Robert Spencer

Stealth Jihad: How Radical Islam is Subverting America without Guns or Bombs by Robert Spencer

Most terrorism experts agree: it is not "if" more...0 points

Taken Hostage: The Iran Hostage Crisis and America's First Encounter with Radical Islam (Politics and Society in Twentieth Century America) by David Farber

Taken Hostage: The Iran Hostage Crisis and America's First Encounter with Radical Islam (Politics and Society in Twentieth Century America) by David Farber

On November 4, 1979, Iranian militants stormed the more...0 points

Tajikistan in the New Central Asia: Geopolitics, Great Power Rivalry and Radical Islam (International Library of Central Asia Studies) by Lena Jonson

Tajikistan in the New Central Asia: Geopolitics, Great Power Rivalry and Radical Islam (International Library of Central Asia Studies) by Lena Jonson

Central Asia has become the battleground for the m more...0 points

Change is also taking place in the United States, where new respect and admiration is building for everyday Iranians.

Want to know what they are saying?

Mid-East journalism

I find reading Middle East newspapers and magazines sometimes enlightening in the details and assumptions. Discouraging, at times. But, at a minimum, they provide insights lacking in less informed accounts. However, they don't come close to the benefit of books when I want help to read between the lines.

Al-Ahram Weekly
Daily Star (Beirut)
Dawn (Karachi)
Debka.com
Ha'aretz
The Iranian
Iraq Resource Center
Israel Insider
Al Jazeera
Jerusalem Post
Jordan Times
Jane's Defense
Middle East MRI
Pentagon
Stars & Stripes
Tehran Times
Turkish Daily News
Turkish Press
Zaman (Turkey)

Photographs of Middle East Hot Spots, Iran, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Morroco, Lebanon

Windows on the World's Struggle for Freedom

The Queers at Middle East Upstairs by weeklydig
The Queers at Middle East Upstairs by weeklydig
The Queers at Middle East Upstairs by weeklydig
The Queers at Middle East Upstairs by weeklydig
The Queers at Middle East Upstairs by weeklydig
automatically generated by Flickr

Muslims, Jews, Christians

Jewish People: Story of Survival

Amazon Price: $11.99 (as of 02/17/2012)Buy Now

Children of the Gaza Strip

DARE TO CARE- even a little

The Palestine Children's Relief Fund is a registered non-political, non-profit, 501(c)3 tax-exempt organization that was established in 1991 by concerned people in the U.S. to address the medical and humanitarian crisis facing Palestinian youths in the Middle East. It has since expanded to help suffering children from other Middle Eastern nations, based only on their medical needs. The P.C.R.F. helps to locate free medical care for children from the Middle East who are unable to get the necessary and specialized treatment in their homeland.

The main objective of the P.C.R.F. is to identify and treat every child in the Middle East in need of specialized surgery not available to them locally. We locate, sponsor and run volunteer medical missions to the Middle East in adult and pediatric cardiac surgery, pediatric cardiology, plastic and reconstructive surgery, maxillofacial surgery, pediatric urology, ophthalmology, vascular surgery, pediatric orthopedic surgery, occupational therapy, and other specialties. We also locate abroad free medical care for children who cannot be adequately treated in the Middle East. The P.C.R.F. is the main organization regularly sending injured and sick Arab children to North America, the Middle East and Europe for free care that is not available to them there. Since 1991 over 800 children have been or currently are being treated outside of the Middle East through the P.C.R.F.

The P.C.R.F. also helps to improve the quality of medical care in the Middle East by sending medical equipment and supplies to the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The P.C.R.F. has also trained Palestinian surgeons so they can treat patients there and has sent American medical personnel to the region to treat difficult cases and train medical personnel in country.

The P.C.R.F. currently has several injured or sick Arab children in the U.S., the Middle East or Europe being treated for free. We are also working to locate free medical care for many more injured and sick children from Palestine, Lebanon and Iraq. We rely on the kindness of many volunteers throughout the U.S. who act as host families, volunteers and donors, enabling us to continue our humanitarian relief work.
-excerpted from a wonderful online place to be: Go there
http://www.pcrf.net/who/who.html

Which statement captures your thoughts?: "The Arabs, Jews, Palestinians are too remote and too scary. And, BORING!"

"I know Earth is 'getting smaller.' and I want to know what the future will be like."

Which of the above quotes best speaks your mind? Neither? Say, what.....?

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LoKackl

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Rock the Casbah

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I'm ordering this today.

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