Heavy Reading for the Weekend

Abu Muqawama has two offerings for you. One is from MERIA Journal, where Jonathan Spyer has a solid article on the 2006 war between Israel and Hizbollah. Abu Muqawama doesn't quite buy the bit at the end where Spyer tries to convince us that "the 2006 war must be understood as a single campaign within a broader Middle Eastern conflict, between pro-Western and democratic states on the one hand, and an alliance of Islamist and Arab nationalist forces on the other." That's just silly. The American-led fight against Sunni transnational terrorists has about as much in common with the fight between Israel and (Shia) Hizbollah as Scotland's hapless rugby team has with the All Blacks of New Zealand. And don't even get Abu Muqawama started on the cheek you need to lump Arab nationalism in with Islamism. But that shouldn't take much away from what is, overall, a very nice piece. (Thanks, Timur)

Second, Nir Rosen -- who obviously hates freedom -- has sent Abu Muqawama his latest article in Rolling Stone that is, well, a little cynical about this "awakening" that has taken place among the Sunnis of Iraq. Nir chooses to end his article with this quote from a member of the Iraqi National Police:

Will they accept Sunnis back to Shiite areas and Shiites back to Sunni areas? If someone kills your brother, can you forget his killer?

Depressing indeed, but there's hardly anything David Petraeus and all the troops in the world can do about that dilemma.

And speaking of Scotland's hapless rugby squad, Abu Muqawama is now off to go watch them fall to their third loss in this year's Six Nations series. If France embarrass England later tonight, though, Abu Muqawama will sleep well.