Iran’s Stockholm syndrome?
Activists involved in Iran’s Green Movement have become more and more disappointed in the years since 2009’s controversial presidential election. The government remains largely repressive and recently elected president Rouhani is criticized for “lacking a serious plan for political change.” An Iranian sociologist observes an ongoing phenomenon in Iran he describes as “identification with the aggressor,” in which the government reaches out to people who have become disenchanted with politics. In an Iran-sized political Stockholm syndrome, neither the government nor the people end up threatening one another.
Source: Tehran Bureau
Loving the lens: ‘American Sniper’ as movie and event
‘American Sniper,’ the latest film from Hollywood veteran Clint Eastwood, plays into outdated motifs of machismo that made sense in decades past yet don’t make sense within the context of the vastly complex American invasion of Iraq. The film follows the experience of American sniper Chris Kyle’s tours in Iraq and thus presents a dangerously narrow interpretation of the conflict. Kyle’s victims simply become objects to be targeted, and are denied a real narrative outside of the frame of a sniper’s scope.
Source: Jadaliyya
Lebanon a nation incapable of governing itself
Ten years ago the Syrian regime announced that it would finally end its 29-year occupation of Lebanon, which had lasted since the latter’s bloody civil war. Demonstrations flared up in the aftermath of the withdrawal and developed into the pro-Syrian March 8 bloc and the opposing March 14 bloc. March 14’s supporters dreamed of both a functional democracy and economic prosperity. Ten years on, that dream is becoming ever more distant in the face of a fractious and dysfunctional government and growing national debt.
Source: Michael Karam for the National
