Just curious on how prevalent is drip irrigation technology in the Middle East …. And if it’s not then how do we get them there ?

Apologies in advance as I’m not on Reddit all that much, but to my knowledge, there isn’t a r/offmychest or r/vent for all things Middle East politics, so I’m posting my rant/discussion here out of sheer ignorance of more suitable subs. However, if there’s a better sub to express my thoughts in the following text, I’d really appreciate the guidance!

As we finally uncover just how nefarious Assad’s regime in Syria was, both with the freeing of political prisoners from Sednaya and the excavating of mass graves whose scale NGOs and media organizations have only been able to compare to the graves found in the death camps of the holocaust, many of us are hopeful putting this chapter of human depravity behind us.

However, before we fully turn the page and focus on what future lies ahead for Syria and for the Middle East, failing to hold those that manufactured consent accountable will only create a permission structure for those who failed us to fail upwards.

Despite abysmal support from Americans polled, neocons in western media that once cheered on, or even directed, the War on Terror are some of the most revered journalists in legacy media outlets. Instead of championing a war effort reviled the world over being a career ender, the opposite has occurred: Iraq war cheerleaders hold power at every seat in American discourse, not just the media, but in the pentagon, the congress, and and are revered cultural icons who figures like Trump listen to for guidance.

To avoid a repeat of history, not just world leaders and politicians, but journalists (at least among the anti-imperialist media that even operate in the West, like the Grayzone and the Electronic Intifada) should be able to pass a basic litmus test to maintain any legitimacy in coverage of the Middle East. The test is as follows:

1. Did you ever provide any manufactured consent for Israel’s bombing campaign in Gaza, Lebanon, Iran, or Syria?

2. Did you ever support MBS’s bombing campaign in Yemen?

3. Did you ever provide interference for Assad’s, Russia’s, the IRGC’s, or Hezbollah’s efforts to decimate civilian populations to thwart the Syrian opposition (excluding the Islamic State)?

Most of anti-imperialists’ published works make for an easy answer of “no” to the first two question, but strangely, when it comes to the systematic war crimes, such as persecution and extermination of the Syrian people, some anti-imperialists have expressed little to no empathy for the lives of Syrians. This should be automatically disqualifying for anyone whose focus, political or journalistic, is improving the lives of “Arabs.”

It’s time for the world to unite in our rejection of a decades-long apology tour of Assad… and no one should demand any future Syrian government collaborate with the war criminals that slaughtered their people without so much as an apology from Iran or Hezbollah. All the good they’ve done in deterring Israel doesn’t give them salvation for the bad they done in Syria.

https://x.com/matthewkassel/status/1870110889627791452?s=46&t=yYjq44e-cxjh4V4RVrYtgQ

Not sure if this is allowed with rule 5 but here goes:

Growing up in the West, I was surrounded by Arabs from all over, so I got to experience a bit of everything when it came to food. I grew up eating Palestinian, Syrian, Lebanese, Egyptian, Yemeni, Moroccan, Tunisian, and, of course, Libyan dishes. Now, being of mixed Arab heritage and married to my wife, who’s Middle Eastern with Arabic roots, we cook a mix of different Arabic cuisines almost every day.

I’d love to share some of our favorite recipes and see what dishes others are making. Honestly, we should make this a thing—imagine a community where we can share recipes and celebrate the diversity of Arab cuisine. Hopefully this can catch on

https://x.com/a24/status/1868642584857362495?s=46&t=yYjq44e-cxjh4V4RVrYtgQ