War Stuff

David Warren has an excellent piece on the Battle for Fallujah and what people would call the "Easter Offensive" if it wasn't offensive to someone or the other.

This, I think, is the best summary of the current crisis in Iraq:

But this "uprising" -- which has emphatically not been joined by the Shia masses -- is that enemy's best shot. The good news is that they came out shooting now, rather than waiting until after the handover of power to the Iraqi provisional government on June 30th. They have exposed themselves, at a time when the full strength of U.S. and allied military power can be applied to them. The break-out could alas have been prevented if the Americans had been more ruthless, earlier. There will be a lot of bloodshed putting it down over the next few weeks, and anger over civilians caught in the crossfire. But no time can be wasted now, nor punches pulled.

The now seemingly perennial New York Times Sunday Magazine contributor and object of the Doc's almost girlish affection, that is, Professor Niall Ferguson, has an interesting essay in the NYTSM entitled "Eurabia?" Ferguson begins with a quote from Gibbon, his musings on what would have happened if the Arab armies had won at Poitiers in 732. Gibbon's conclusion was that the Koran would have been the subject of study in Oxford, and minarets would be features of the Oxford skyline, not steeples. Feruguson then surveys the growing strength of radical and moderate Islam in Europe, and concludes:

...it is hard not to be reminded of Gibbon -- especially now that his old university's Center for Islamic Studies has almost completed work on its new premises. In addition to the traditional Oxford quadrangle, the building is expected to feature ''a prayer hall with traditional dome and minaret tower.''

When I first glimpsed a model of that minaret, I confess, the phrase that sprang to mind was indeed ''decline and fall.''