AlJazeera's English language website has finally opened. This is the Arab news site that scooped the US news media on a weekly basis during the war last spring. The US Government supposedly blocked the website from getting through to readers in America. Now it seems well setup to provide us with another perspective on world news.

If you actually want to know what is happening in the Middle East and not just be fed fairy tales by Fox News, then there are several websites to check. Two of my favorites are the Russian site that was always a week ahead of CNN during the war and still gives excellent battle news, and one by a professor of Islamic studies at a major university, Juan Cole. I have these book marked and check them once a day when possible. And then there is the popular blog Talking Points Memo by Josh Marshall which is checked daily by most national reporters in the US.

The US is rapidly getting into serious trouble in the Middle East. After you watch a segment of Fox News, check these sites to learn how distorted Fox actually is. After a few weeks you will understand why we Americans stumble from one crisis to another, getting mad at the rest of the world and not understanding why things go so wrong for us good guys.