Broken Bangles: Life, Stories, Thoughts

  Lebanon: A Reminder Israel has begun to send missiles, bombs, and foot soldiers to Lebanon in the name of destroying Hezbollah. The US is also expected to step in if the conflict worsens. One would wonder why America has been obsessed with the Middle East. The answers are complex and related to how economically powerful countries thrive for world dominance. Lebanon has a unique place in history as the first country in the Middle East to experience a US military action.  This is the story of how the Middle East became a battleground for America. The first step was taken in Lebanon. The year was 1958. The Beginning of the US Military Action in Lebanon and the Eisenhower Doctrine A summer in Lebanon half a century back, the beachgoers of Lebanon’s capital, Beirut, saw a curious sight. Boats after boats of US Marines began to arrive on the shores of Beirut. Bruce Riedel, the author of the book, ‘Beirut 1958: How America’s Wars in the Middle East Began’ (2019), writes that t...

  A Case For Refugees We have been witnessing a right-wing surge against accepting refugees. The latest in a series of refugee-related decisions, and the gravest of all rather, Donald Trump and his team have begun random deportations of "illegal" migrants in the name of his 'America first' policy. Yet, the reality constantly signals that all countries must revise their refugee policies generously and prepare to take in as many refugees as possible if we still claim our share of humanity. Understandably, people are afraid of their country taking in refugees in hundreds and thousands. The fear that a huge influx of people outside their cultures into a country might destroy its financial security, reduce their job opportunities, and change the familiar social fabric is real.  This fear fails to consider our long cultural history of accepting people from outside cultures.  Our ancestors, wherever their homeland was, shifted from one place and settled in another for many r...