Baghdad
Recreating Baghdad’s Lost Literary Street

Recreating Baghdad’s Lost Literary Street

Named for a tenth-century poet and revolutionary who lived in what is now Iraq, Al-Mutanabbi Street in Baghdad was the center of the city’s intellectual and literary life. It was home to booksellers, stationery stores, antiquarian bookstores, and cafes as famous for the ideas that flowed freely as for their pungent coffee.

read more

The Cultural Assassinations of Baghdad

When the American tanks had completed their task breaking down the gates of the Art Museum, the first person to reach the main gallery, which was filled with hundreds of paintings by contemporary artists, was—unfortunately—a thief.

read more

Annotate This… President Bush’s Sept 13 Speech to the Nation on Iraq

Instead of charting a new direction for U.S. policy in Iraq, President Bush’s speech to the nation last evening was an impassioned plea to the American public to stay the course. But much of Bush’s argument for staying the course was based on spin instead of reality. In this edition of Annotate This… Stephen Zunes and Erik Leaver analyze Bush’s statements and offer an alternative interpretation of the situation on the ground.

read more

Bush’s SOTU: Annotated

President George Bush gave his 2007 State of the Union address on January 23. While the speech covered many domestic issues, Bush also laid out his foreign policy approach to Iraq, Iran, terrorism, and democracy promotion. Excerpts from the president’s speech are in italics; my comments follow.

read more

Bush to Iraq: More War

In his popular weekly radio and subsequent television quiz show, “You Bet Your Life,” Groucho Marx featured the ““magic word.”” If a contestant happened to utter it during the course of the show, he or she would instantly receive $25 or $50 or some other, inflation-adjusted amount.

read more