Ramzy Baroud - The Japan Times

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Ramzy Baroud

For Ramzy Baroud's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:

COMMENTARY

Feb 27, 2012

U.S. flirts with risky cold war in warm waters

On two occasions in my life I found myself living close to the South China Sea. The sea became my escape from life's pressing responsibilities. There is no escaping the fact that the serene waters are now also grounds for a nascent but real new cold war.

COMMENTARY

Jan 30, 2012

U.S. claims to be pushing reform of U.N. bodies, but campaign smacks of intrigue, shady politics

The country that has long been known to abuse its powers and privileges in the United Nations is now leading a campaign to reform the same organization. While U.N. reforms are welcomed, if not demanded, by many of its member states, there is little reason to believe the recent U.S. crusade is actually genuine.

COMMENTARY

Dec 1, 2011

The Arab Spring's intellectual divide

The so-called Arab Spring is creating an intellectual divide that threatens any sensible understanding of the turmoil engulfing several Arab countries.

COMMENTARY

Nov 22, 2011

Syrian uprising victimized

Syrians continue to be victimized, not only in violent clashes with the Syrian military, but also by regional and international players with various agendas.

COMMENTARY

Oct 27, 2011

Iraq war's lessons lost on U.S.

In a White House Statement on Oct. 21, U.S. President Barack Obama pledged that his country would finally withdraw forces from Iraq. "After nearly nine years, America's war in Iraq will be over," he said.

COMMENTARY

Oct 19, 2011

A decade of Afghan tragedy

On July 1, 2002, the United States bombed an Afghan wedding in the small village of Deh Rawud. Located to the north of Kandahar, the village seemed fortified by the region's many mountains. For a few hours, its people thought they were safe from a war they had never invited. They celebrated, and as customs go, fired intermittently into the air. The joyous occasion however, turned into an orgy of blood. The U.S. Air Force reportedly used a B-52 bomber and an AC-130 gunship in a battle against imagined terrorists. According to Afghan authorities, 40 people were killed and 100 wounded. As expected, the U.S. military refused to apologize.

COMMENTARY / World

Sep 1, 2011

Libya's next fight: the West

At a press conference in Tripoli on Aug. 26, a statement read aloud by top Libyan rebel commander Abdel Hakim Belhadj was reassuring. Just a few months ago, disorganized and leaderless rebel fighters seemed to have little chance at ousting Libyan dictator Moammar Ghadhafi and his unruly sons.

COMMENTARY

Aug 2, 2011

Arab revolutions unable to waken media to revolutionary discourse

When President Ali Abdullah Saleh tried desperately to quell Yemen's popular uprising, he appealed to tribalism, customs and traditions. All his efforts evidently failed, and the revolution continued unabated.

COMMENTARY

Jul 7, 2011

Yemen continues to inspire amid great odds

The Yemeni people are unrelenting in their demands for democracy. Millions continue to stage rallies across their country in a display of will that is proving the most robust out of all the Arab revolutions. The Yemenis face great challenges, including the political vacillation of their country's opposition, and the United States' military and strategic interests in Yemen.

COMMENTARY

Jul 4, 2011

U.S. policy sidelines Gaza

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has made a series of stern and fiery statements recently, giving the impression that war is somehow upon us once again.

COMMENTARY

Jun 16, 2011

Gaza border opening little more than rhetoric

CAIRO — For most Palestinians, leaving Gaza through Egypt is as exasperating a process as entering it. Governed by political and cultural sensitivities, most Palestinian officials and public figures refrain from criticizing the way Palestinians are treated at the Rafah border.

COMMENTARY

Jun 6, 2011

A Gaza refugee camp revisited

"Do you remember Mahmoud?" asked Abu Nidal, my neighbor from nearly 20 years ago, when I lived in Gaza.

COMMENTARY

Mar 27, 2011

Hamas must sell a new vision

SEATTLE — "Now it is time to naturalize the flow of history," wrote Ahmet Davutoglu, Turkey's minister of foreign affairs in the March 16 edition of The Guardian.

COMMENTARY

Mar 14, 2011

Neocon 'shock and awe': the rise of redefined Arabs

SEATTLE — A pervading sense of awe seems to be engulfing Arab societies. What is under way in the Arab world is greater than simply revolution in a political or economic sense. It is, in fact, shifting the very self-definition of what it means to be Arab, both individually and collectively.

COMMENTARY

Jan 29, 2011

The task awaiting Tunisia

SEATTLE — Hunger strikes. These were the last resort for Tunisian activists as they fought against a brutal and highly oppressive regime. Prior to the ousting of Zineal-Abidine Ben Ali by an unprecedented people's uprising on Jan. 14, there seemed to be no end in sight to the regime's wide-ranging human rights violations. Over time, these became a relegated segment of evening news across the Arab world. Even hunger strikes, shocking at first, became a routing event.

COMMENTARY

Jan 23, 2011

Beyond the protests in another 'Arab regime'

SEATTLE — When faced with problems, most authoritarian regimes maintain a policy of rigidity when the appropriate response should be flexibility, political wisdom and concessions. In this way, authoritarian leaders can control their populations to serve the interests of a few individuals and political and military elites. The policy can, however, usher in a regime's downfall, for populations can only be oppressed, controlled and punished to a point.

COMMENTARY

Jan 16, 2011

Political biases trash lauded Ph.D. research

SEATTLE — Deepak Tripathi's most recent book, "Breeding Ground: Afghanistan and the Origins of Islamist Terrorism" (Potomac Books) raises several issues, both within and outside of its content. It is based on research for a doctoral dissertation that did not qualify.

COMMENTARY

Jan 9, 2011

Palestinians revisit their hopes and failures

SEATTLE — When the late Palestinian President Yasser Arafat read the Declaration of the Palestinian Independence just over 22 years ago, Palestinians everywhere were enthralled. They hung on his every word during the Palestinian National Council session in Algeria on Nov. 15, 1988. The council members incessantly applauded and chanted in the name of Palestine, freedom, the people and much more.

COMMENTARY

Dec 5, 2010

How low will Obama go to appease Israel?

SEATTLE — The Middle East policies of U.S. President Barack Obama may well prove the most detrimental yet, surpassing even the rightwing policies of President George W. Bush.

COMMENTARY

Nov 11, 2010

Iraqi Christians: also victims of the invasion

On Sunday, Oct. 31, when a group of militants seized a church in Baghdad, killing and wounding scores of Iraqi Christians, it signaled yet another episode of unimaginable horror in the country since the U.S. invasion of March 2003. Every group of Iraqis has faced terrible devastation as a result of this war, the magnitude of which is only now beginning to be discovered.

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