Persiflage & Paroxysm

“War is not a polite recreation, but the vilest thing in life, and we ought to understand that and not play at war. We ought to accept it sternly and solemnly as a fearful necessity. It all comes to this: have done with lying, and if it's war, then its war and not a game, or else warfare is simply the favourite pastime of the idle and frivolous. … The military is the most honoured calling. And what is war, what is needed for success in war, what are the morals of the military world? The object of warfare is murder; the means employed in warfare—spying, treachery, and the encouragement of it, the ruin of a country, the plundering of its inhabitants and robbery for the maintenance of the army, trickery and lying, which are called military strategy; the morals of the military class—absence of all independence, that is, discipline, idleness, ignorance, cruelty, debauchery, and drunkenness. And in spite of all that, it is the highest class, respected by every one. All so...

I have struggled over the past months to come out with a position on Hezbollah’s actions in Syria . I say struggled because I have long held a firm conviction that Hezbollah remains the last active fighting force engaged in direct combat with the illegal State of Israel. As the son of a Palestinian father I clung on to the hope that some day Hezbollah would form the vanguard of an army that would liberate Palestine . How naïve one can be, even while chiding others for their own naïve beliefs. Alas, this is the human condition: selective blindness. To turn a blind eye to the Hizb’s activities within Syria was easier before the bodies started coming home. The simple villagers give the returning Shaheed a hero’s welcome; it’s almost a celebration, after all their son died defending Shiite holy places. Unfortunately there are no such holy places in Al-Qusayr and Aleppo , unless the Hizb is referring to the regime itself and to its defense and protection as being a sacred duty. That co...

What makes a beautiful city? It’s not a sandstone house with red tiled roof, its not a narrow street with quaint shops on either side, its not a piece of iron balustrade or hand crafted moldings or marble facades, none of these things make a city beautiful. These things make certain neighborhoods aesthetically pleasing to the human eye, they make a building look nice, but what makes a city beautiful is the machinery of the city, the seamless interaction between its various components. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not suggesting that heritage and aesthetics are not important, not at all, but a city is neither a work of art nor a living museum, nor should we aspire to make it one or the other. When planning a city from scratch, the first function that needs to be planned for is livability, how will the residents of this city live within this urban space, how will they interact with one another, trade with one another? Think of Beirut , it’s a city that grew haphazardly from a very smal...

All civilian airliners are essentially gambling with the lives of their passengers by flying over Syria, its that simple. What ever the motive, the high cost of alternative routes, politics, passenger convenience, all are worthless when set against the tens of lives that could be lost should one of these missiles hit a commercial jet. Some so-called experts will tell you that the regime has no cause to hit airliners and that rebels do not have such sophisticated weapon systems that can strike aircraft flying at 30,000 feet. I challenge that assertion with a YouTube video uploaded by rebels in January that shows Syrian rebel fighters capturing two SA 8 surface to air missile launch platforms. Now for those who are unaware of what an SA 8 missile launch platform is, it is an armoured vehicle with six enclosed launchers mounted on its back. It has a radar system that can acquire a target at a distance of 30km and track it over 20km. The launchers can be loaded with the 9M33 ...