Category Archives: United States

Saddam and his Enemies

Review of Samuel Helfont, Iraq Against the World: Saddam, America, and the Post-Cold War Order (Oxford University Press, 2023)  On the morning of February 13, 1991, two U.S. Air Force GBU-27 smart bombs demolished ‘Public Shelter No. 25’ in the … Continue reading

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Archives of Pain: Kanan Makiya and the Politics of Iraq

That’s the hope I still have for Iraq — that it can rediscover its destiny as a richly various and pluralistic society, a meeting ground of all sorts of creeds and groupings. That’s the hope that sustains me. Kanan Makiya, … Continue reading

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‘Everyone Middle East is here’: The British in Iraq

The real difficulty here is that we don’t know exactly what we intend to do in this country. Can you persuade people to take your side when you are not sure in the end whether you’ll be there to take … Continue reading

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On Marvin Gaye’s ‘Midnight Love’

In February 1981, Marvin Gaye moved to the seaside town of Ostend in Belgium, as a guest of the concert promoter Freddy Cousaert. This was a rescue mission for Cousaert, as well as an unmissable opportunity: a fan of Gaye, … Continue reading

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The Queen of Condé Nast

I: Condé Nasties On the surface, Anna Wintour took public humiliation well. It was easier when The Devil Wears Prada was just a book, even if it was a New York Times bestseller and progenitor of an entire literary micro-genre, the “Boss Betrayal” roman à clef. Lauren … Continue reading

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American Carnage: Sarah Palin’s Revolution

  I: Family  Sarah Palin was like a comet zooming across the American sky — out of Alaska, a blazing vision of the republic’s future. In the thick of this current political era, it is worth re-watching the first national … Continue reading

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