The other Battel of baghdad

[salim]

An article on arab suadi internet magazin Elaph about how much the US army is spending on translation, had draw my attention to a very important issue..The article

 

http://www.elaph.com/ElaphWeb/ElaphWriter/2006/10/182418.htm

Is in Arabic that claims that it reachs $6 billion a year.. I have no comment on the figure but wanted to high ligh the issue of translation.

 

During the middel ages , translation of the greek works in Plilosophy had a huge impact on the Muslim and Arab scholar thinking and then to open a new era for the human understanding to the world, specially with the retranslation of the Muslim works to the then backward Europe. That translation that many scholars today consider as critical in the reform and enlightening of Europ.

 

Then came the French occupation to Egypt during the eighteen century with the new era of re translation of the French works to Arabic and what the early egyptian reformers translated .. These translation that established the foundation for the new Arab muslim reforming efforts over the last two centuries.

 

I remember the Soviet union emppassy in baghdad distribute free coppies of translated works by the russian writers in the seventees.

 

I would just ask if it is possible to have a very small percentage of this big ammount of money , say 2% , to support translators from English to Arabic.. How much lifes can we safe by enlightening the Arab mind that is under very heavy siege of middel ages scholar works..There are many projects by USA in the effort of breaking that siege , specally that of establishing Al hurra tv. But still in Iraq the book is the most peower full tool. It is well known say in middel east that say " Egypt writes, lebanon prints, Iraq read" !!

 

Is there any way that we can push for such project?

[Mutergem]

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/02/us/politics/02poll.html

 

With Election Driven by Iraq, Voters Want New Approach

 

By ADAM NAGOURNEY and MEGAN THEE

Published: November 2, 2006

WASHINGTON, Nov. 1 — A substantial majority of Americans expect Democrats to reduce or end American military involvement in Iraq if they win control of Congress next Tuesday and say Republicans will maintain or increase troop levels to try to win the war if they hold on to power on Capitol Hill, according to the final New York Times/CBS News poll before the midterm election.

Go to Election GuideMore Politics News News From Congressional QuarterlyThe poll showed that 29 percent of Americans approve of the way President Bush is managing the war, matching the lowest mark of his presidency. Nearly 70 percent said Mr. Bush did not have a plan to end the war, and 80 percent said Mr. Bush’s latest effort to rally public support for the conflict amounted to a change in language but not policy.

 

The poll underlined the extent to which the war has framed the midterm elections. Americans cited Iraq as the most important issue affecting their vote, and majorities of Republicans and Democrats said they wanted a change in approach. Twenty percent said they thought the United States was winning in Iraq, down from a high this year of 36 percent in January.

 

Even beyond the war, the Times/CBS News poll, like most other polls this fall, contained worrisome indicators for Republicans as they go into the final days of a campaign in which many are bracing for a loss of seats in both the House and the Senate.

 

In a year when there are many close races, Democrats were more enthusiastic than Republicans about voting and more likely to say they would support their party’s candidates, although Republicans were slightly more likely to say they would actually vote.

 

Fifty percent of independent voters, a closely watched segment of the electorate in such polarized times, said they intended to vote for the Democratic candidate, versus 23 who said they would vote for a Republican.

 

Among registered voters, 33 percent said they planned to support Republicans, and 52 percent said they would vote for Democrats.

 

As a rule, generic questions like those, while providing broad insights into the national mood, are often imprecise as a predictor of the outcome of hundreds of Congressional races, where local issues and personalities can shape the result.

 

Voters said neither Democrats nor Republicans had offered a plan for governing should they win on Tuesday, the poll found.

 

Yet Americans have some clear notions of how government may change if Democrats win control of Congress.

 

Beyond a quicker exit from Iraq, respondents said they thought a Democratic-led Congress would be more likely to increase the minimum wage, hold down rapidly rising health and prescription drug costs, improve the economy and — as Republicans have said frequently in these closing days of the campaign — raise taxes.

 

By a slight margin, more respondents said the threat of terrorism would increase under Republicans than said it would increase under Democrats.

 

Notwithstanding the clear expectation among members of both parties that a Democratic-led Congress would produce a change in Iraq policy, it was not clear how much influence that might have on Mr. Bush, who as commander in chief would retain the final say.

 

 

In addition, while Democrats have coalesced around a general position of finding a way to reduce or end American involvement in Iraq, there is substantial disagreement among Democratic Congressional leaders and candidates about exactly how to accomplish that.

 

Nearly 75 percent of respondents, including 67 percent of Republicans and 92 percent of Democrats, said they expected that Americans troops would be taken out of Iraq more swiftly under a Democratic-led Congress.

 

Forty-one percent of respondents said they expected that troop levels would decrease if Democrats won control, while 40 percent said the party would seek to remove all troops. Forty-one percent said they expected troop levels to remain the same if Republicans won, while 29 percent said they thought the United States would send more troops if the Republicans continued to control Congress.

 

Those findings cut across party lines, but the poll found that Democrats were more likely to say Republicans would increase American troop strength while Republicans were more likely to say Democrats would remove all troops.

 

Follow-up interviews found clear expectations about the policies each party would pursue in Iraq, even if there was disagreement about which course was correct.