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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Sam who wrote (241758)	9/14/2007 10:34:59 AM
From: Don Hurst	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

>>" I have to say, though, I agree with Kaplan and George Packer's views far more than Ajami. Both Ajami and Packer were on Charlie Rose last night, BTW. Worth watching, if anyone is interested. "<< Sam, when I saw that Ajami was on Rose last night, I watched it for a couple of minutes and turned it off. What could he possibly have said that was worth listening to? Did he use the assassination of Abu Reisha at the front door of his house as an example of the safety and security of Anbar and success of the "surge"?

To: Sam who wrote (241758)	9/14/2007 10:55:55 AM
From: michael97123	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Ajamis are a new take for me as well. I respect him so i have to take into consideration. The character studies in the article differ greatly from what i was thinking. Mideast very complicated place and iraq historically is at center of all the mideast struggles save the one with the jews. So do you think iran is a strawman? Is what they are doing defensive or offensive? I remember the old USSR and when i was back in grad school studying this stuff it was always whether they were more intereted in spreading communism or building buffer zones to protect themselves from attack. Same with china in its dealings with southeast asia. Iran torn between expansion of shiaa calipatism and protecting themselves from US, Israel, sunnis, particularly the bin laden sunnis.

To: Sam who wrote (241758)	9/14/2007 1:24:33 PM
From: Nadine Carroll	Respond to of 281500

I have to say, though, I agree with Kaplan and George Packer's views far more than Ajami. Both Ajami and Packer were on Charlie Rose last night, BTW. Worth watching, if anyone is interested. I caught the tail end of it. Packer has his ideology, Ajami has his. It won't surprise you to hear I agree with Ajami far more. I will also add that I think Ajami's knowledge of the Middle East is far deeper than Packer's, who is a journalist. Ajami is a real scholar, and knows the cultures and the languages. That's so important for the Middle East, where the first story you are told is likely to be the "proper" one, not the true one. You have to know how to listen to the proper story and keep digging. But for most journalists (with notable exceptions like John Burns of the NYT), the proper story fits in well with their preconceptions, so they don't dig further. The debate I would like to see is between Fawad Gerges and Fouad Ajami. I have never seen those two matched up. They both know the languages and the culture, and have diametrically opposed ideologies.