And it’s smart of them to do so.  Considering how slanted media coverage of the war is, at least they’re putting some more truth out there.  CNN whined that it was “one-sidedly upbeat.”  Well, I saw some things on there that didn’t seem so upbeat to me.  But to a channel like CNN any good news mixed with the bad would be one-sidely upbeat.  CNN seemed to religiously follow the adage that “no news is good news.”  But, whatever.

 It’s time for the U.S. military to join the Web 2.0.  A Youtube channel is great, but they have to rescind this new OPSEC regulation on milblogs.  New OPSEC = FUBAR + SNAFU + WTF.

Via the Utube Blog.

Here is a segment run on Qatar a few years ago. I looked for it online, and couldn’t find it, so I borrowed the video tape from my Arabic teacher and uploaded it to Youtube. It’s a very, very informative video, about good things that are happening in the Middle East (what’s this? good news?!)

Anyway, enjoy!

First of all, this is both really cool, and really weird:

But I do wonder what the Navy could do with something like this.  Would it lead to more sophisticated anti-submarine warfare and listening devices?  What about secret communications (having fiber optic attached to the end that goes down, so it would snake to the ocean floor after the ‘flip’?

I would be curious to know. I wonder if the folks over at DoD have even THOUGHT about it.

I purchased three new books today,
America’s Secret War by George Friedman, of which I have already read most of, but just never have owned a copy of my own. Friedman is the found of Stratfor (for Strategic Forecasting), a quasi, shadow CIA in the private sector. The website, Stratfor.com, is a great resource. To get full access, there’s a steep subscription fee of $40, but the free stuff that is there is definitely worth a peek. Keep this place in mind, because they are very important, will continue to be very important. They also have free podcasts, so go subscribe. It’ll be worth your while.

Nine Parts of Desire by Geraldine Brooks, another book that I have already read a part of. It’s a good introduction to the debates about/amongst Muslim women for those unfamiliar with the issues, but is by no means conclusive. If you want to get to the heart of the matter, frankly you must read from Muslim feminists themselves, works that have been very underrepresented in terms of being translated and published here.

Scheherazade Goes West by Fatema Mernissi. I just finished reading Mernissi’s book Dreams of Trespass: Tales of a Harem Girlhood, and absolutely fell in love with it. Review to follow on that book as well. I read it for my Muslim Women class and to find something by the same author got me quite excited.

Anyway, I’ll review all of these books later. I was tempted to buy so much more, but, being a poor college student and all, I restrained myself. I suppose that’s why I love blogs and free internet here on campus, new media makes it so that I am never running out of things to read!

A new military command for Africa.  About damn time, too.  Just as the article says, it’s becoming a more and more important region.  They’re keeping Egypt as part of CENTCOM as part of the Middle East, but frankly…  Though I think the rest of Africa should be unified into one command, instead of split between USPACOM, CENTCOM, and EUCOM, I still believe that other nations considered part of the Middle East, such as Morrocco and Tunisia, should remain a part of CENTCOM as well as Egypt.

Ryan Henry said that the Bush administration believed Africa needed more attention.  Understatement of the year, perhaps, but I guess forming a seperate command for Africa is a start.

Hopefully this will lead to good things for Darfur?