Friday, November 19, 2004
Inside Iraq
This book doesn't live up to it's subtitle, "The History, the People, and the Modern Conflicts of the World's Least Understood Land," but it is informative and gives you a flavor for the country. I would have liked to seen contributions by Iraqis. Western academics and journalists aren't needed to explain foreign things to Americans. Many peoples understand and know how to relate to our culture, it wouldn't have been much of a trick for an Iraqi to do so.
During the war, a Vietnamese said something like, "You Americans take no time to understand Vietnamese culture, which is over a thousand years old. Americans have no culture, unless you consider beer and big bosoms culture." Nothing has changed; we are as paper thin as ever.
This book doesn't live up to it's subtitle, "The History, the People, and the Modern Conflicts of the World's Least Understood Land," but it is informative and gives you a flavor for the country. I would have liked to seen contributions by Iraqis. Western academics and journalists aren't needed to explain foreign things to Americans. Many peoples understand and know how to relate to our culture, it wouldn't have been much of a trick for an Iraqi to do so.
During the war, a Vietnamese said something like, "You Americans take no time to understand Vietnamese culture, which is over a thousand years old. Americans have no culture, unless you consider beer and big bosoms culture." Nothing has changed; we are as paper thin as ever.
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