[lit-ideas] Re: Amis Antithesis
- From: "Lawrence Helm" <lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 18 Sep 2006 16:58:23 -0700
You harp at me when I don't do the research you should have done, and you
still haven't done it. The site you sent me to showed Anderson to be
knowledgeable about the invasion but not about the subject you quoted. It
doesn't show that he knows what the Army Corps of Engineers is doing. I
suppose you'd like me to go Googling for that too. On second though why
don't you do it.
Lawrence
_____
From: lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of Simon Ward
Sent: Monday, September 18, 2006 4:29 PM
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Amis Antithesis
Jon Lee Anderson is a reporter for the New Yorker.
http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/anderson_jon_lee.html
Try Google Lawrence, it's really quite easy...
----- Original Message -----
From: Lawrence <mailto:lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxx> Helm
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Tuesday, September 19, 2006 12:24 AM
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Amis Antithesis
I read your quote. I'm not sure how well informed Jon Lee Anderson is.
Does he know all the work we are doing to rebuild Iraq? My friend has been
over there with the Army Corps of Engineers for quite a long time,
rebuilding, building new, one thing and another. The Iraqi people
appreciate what they are doing. Maybe Jon Lee Anderson doesn't know that.
But then how could he know? He probably gets his information from the New
York Times.
Lawrence
_____
From: lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of Simon Ward
Sent: Monday, September 18, 2006 3:21 PM
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Amis Antithesis
Since Lawrence has gone a bit shy on this thread, here's an extended quote
from Jon Lee Anderson taken from an article in the New Yorker.
QUOTE
I'd like to leap in here and add something that has become dear to my heart
in the course of observing on the ground the conflicts engendered since
9/11: first Afghanistan, then Iraq, and, most recently, Lebanon. I'll begin
with an anecdote. Immediately following the ceasefire, after four weeks of
bombing, Hezbollah announced that it would pay for the reconstruction of
homes for the tens of thousands of people whose homes had been destroyed in
the Israeli bombardment-for the homes, a year's worth of rent, and new
furniture-and would itself rebuild, with funds from Iran, no doubt.
Hezbollah effectively captured people's loyalties and took away that role of
the state from the Lebanese government, and, for that matter, from the
larger actors in the conflict-including America. This was just the latest
example; it goes back to Iraq and it goes back to Afghanistan. Following the
American police action in Afghanistan, to chase the Taliban into the hills,
almost nothing was done to rebuild the country. It took-I forget, exactly-a
year and a half or two years before the first efforts were made to pave the
Kabul-Kandahar road, which was passable for about a year but no longer is
today, because the Taliban have returned and are likely to attack if you are
a Westerner. Very little was done in the political arena. This problem of
Islamic extremism, which George was referring to and which is very real, is
a problem of perception. America is seen to act with all of its might and
resources when it comes to military adventurism or military involvement. In
Iraq, the amount of money expended there on nothing very visible, for the
sake of pursuing the war, is astronomical. But what have we done to rebuild?
I believe this sort of military action has to go hand in hand with a radical
political decision to actually reform these countries. For Afghanistan, that
could have meant a kind of mini-Marshall plan, which could have shown both
the Afghans and the Muslim world that we had no vested interest in
controlling that country but bore some responsibility for what had happened
there. It would have been a very cost-effective investment. Once again, we
do not truly compete for hearts and minds, because we're not willing to pony
up to invest, to show that America isn't only about war, or being crusading
Christians, or whatever it is.
UNQUOTE
http://www.newyorker.com/online/content/articles/060911on_onlineonly02
Other related posts:
