Cutting a deal with some Baathist general may have been the call

Hey! Look what's going on in Egypt right now: tens of thousands of Islamists are organizing (peacefully) in Tahrir square in Cairo. More importantly, they are getting ready for a democratic election, and are showing their support and unity and face to the public.

Now . . . remember Iraq. Just think if we (the US and Brittan) cut a deal with some Baathist general and kept the Iraqi military apparatus together. Could we have seen a similar thing in Iraq as we see in Egypt today: the old regimes military providing general security, while elections are held, promoting slow change, the return of exiles, and a chance for political parties to compete with ideas, not guns?

Maybe I'm just out to lunch here.

Rory Stewart: "What are we doing in Afghanistan?"

For those who don't know about the TED talks, well, they are really great. It's perhaps one of those small things that breed public intellectualism in the good old US of A. And why not? Ideas are something that is healthy for a democracy . . . especially one as powerful as this one: America.

So check out Rory Stewart. I should also say that Stewart and his book, The Places In Between, was highly influential in my thinking about surfing from Israel to Lebanon. He popularized the notion of going into the world, not as some adventure-junky stunt, but from intellectual curiosity, and the desire to see things for yourself. Stewart walked across Afghanistan just after the Taliban fell.

Muslims & Jews in San Francisco - can a CIRCUMCISION BAN bring them together?

I was just in San Francisco and ONLY in San Francisco can you find a public issue that brings the Muslims and Jews together . . . this: a proposed CIRCUMCISION BAN. Watch below: