Appreciating Hitchens
Has Hitchens vacillated between ideologies of idealism and pragmatism? Has he exchanged one body of ideals (Trotsky’s version of socialism) for another (Wolfowitz’s version of enforced democratic reform in the Middle East)? Perhaps, and of all criticisms of his work, these are perhaps the ones most likely to stick. But even this pales in comparison to what history is more likely to record as the bigger issue – the role Hitchens played in developing a response to the threat posed by Islamic fundamentalism.Top 10 Books of 2006
2006 may have marked my favorite year in terms of reading selections. It has been a pleasure to explore more philosophy, although I was not able to make the effort to access all of the masters' work first-hand as much as I had hoped at the beginning of the year. A number of books were left out that deserved to be mentioned including Daniel Dennett's Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon, some great books on contemporary politics (Cobra II, Fiasco, Conservatives Without Conscience, and The One Percent Doctrine), and some really great biographies (Mao: the Unknown Story, Lincoln's Melancholy: How Depression Challenged a President and Fueld His Greatness, Team of Rivals: the ...Updated End-of-Year 2006 Bookshelf
My updated EOY 2006 bookshelf can be found here. UPDATE: Due to a server deletion, this post does not have all active links.The Iraq Study Group Report
The paucity of profundity from the ISG is not its fault; rather, any such blame belongs squarely on the shoulders of our President for putting smart and influential people in situations where their advice has to be reduced to points which should be otherwise self-evident. The ISG is never more damning than when it points out that we have a grand total of 33 Arabic speakers at our Baghdad embassy, only 6 of which can be called fluent. (pg. 92). Similarly, when the ISG illustrates that to fight the insurgency we must understand the insurgency, and to do so is problematic when the Defense Intelligence Agency has less than 10 analysts with more than 2 years on ...Sino-American Friction Builds
While in Shanghai, I completed an article analyzing the US Trade Representative's 2006 report on China's WTO compliance for Asia Times. The article can be read in detail here.Looking Beyond the China Dividend
What happens when the China price globalizes? Are business executives looking beyond the China Dividend? My article at Asia Times here explores this question, and the bigger issue of whether business should be adding to its due-diligence for new efforts in China.China: Barking Up the Wrong Tree
My analysis of the 2006 US-China Economic and Security Review Commission's report to Congress can be read here here.About MysteriousFaith
“If anyone can show me, and prove to me, that I am wrong in thought or deed, I will gladly change. I seek the truth, which never yet hurt anybody. It is only persistence in self-delusion and ignorance which does harm.”
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