“an endless war without boundaries, no limitation on time or geography”
February 20, 2018 7:55 AM Subscribe
That is one heck of an informative article. If it is indicative of the level of writing at africasacountry.com, I will have to visit the site regularly. Thanks for posting!
The progression of events described over the past couple decades in northern Africa could be easily transposed to 1970s-80s South America, by simply substituting "communism" for "terrorism."
posted by booksarelame at 3:26 PM on February 20, 2018 [2 favorites]
The progression of events described over the past couple decades in northern Africa could be easily transposed to 1970s-80s South America, by simply substituting "communism" for "terrorism."
posted by booksarelame at 3:26 PM on February 20, 2018 [2 favorites]
One of the things that always hits me hardest about African "counterterrorism" discourse is that the people on every side of the English-language part of the conversation, regardless of their politics, tend to use the same sources. In this ostensibly left-leaning article criticizing the woeful misunderstandings of the NYT regarding a complex issue, we hear of Lindsey Graham, Robert Kaplan, the ICG, and various nameless state department officials, then Douglas Porch and Max Weber.
What we don't hear is the voice of any African on the topic. A lot of what journalism exists in the region--and certainly much of the debate surrounding it--is being done in French and Arabic, and we have to assume that a subject expert from a small liberal arts school in New York might be getting his information from some of these sources, but his sources are the Guardian, the Atlantic, etc.
Not to detract from a necessary critique of US interventionism, but it bugs me.
posted by aspersioncast at 5:15 AM on February 21, 2018 [3 favorites]
What we don't hear is the voice of any African on the topic. A lot of what journalism exists in the region--and certainly much of the debate surrounding it--is being done in French and Arabic, and we have to assume that a subject expert from a small liberal arts school in New York might be getting his information from some of these sources, but his sources are the Guardian, the Atlantic, etc.
Not to detract from a necessary critique of US interventionism, but it bugs me.
posted by aspersioncast at 5:15 AM on February 21, 2018 [3 favorites]
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posted by clawsoon at 9:34 AM on February 20, 2018 [9 favorites]