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 Great Book that is very well written Jan 29, 2010
If you are looking for a book to help explain the politics of the Middle East then pick up any book by robin wright. This one is just another great book in what is currently happening in the Middle East.
 Objective Look at The Future of The Middle East Nov 21, 2009
Robin Wright has always been my favorite reporter on Middle East affairs. The stories and accounts she has written in The Los Angeles Times and The New Yorker have consistently been impressive in quality and effortlessly impartial. Robin has a unique ability to leverage her vast network of resources to tap into the most intimate thoughts and feelings of that region and relay them uncensored to her audience. So needless to say, I was pretty excited to read this book to learn from her what future my people have and how they might get a shot at it.
I was very impressed, and now like the author, hopeful.
Robin takes on the most volatile players in the Middle East (Palestine, Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Iran, Morocco and Iraq to be exact) and paints with words the most descriptive portrait for each. Having grown up in the region, I know how revealing those portraits are for those who dare peruse them. Her intimate knowledge of Egyptian politics, culture, modern history and collective psyche is astounding. It's evident that her superb soft skills have allowed her to penetrate these cultures and gain the trust of the people who told their story and to whom she listened.
The book is written for a Western audience, who might find the information provided in it completely conflicting with what they thought they knew about the Middle East. The accounts and stories presented in the book aren't clouded with opinions, agendas or spins. The facts are stated and the quotes are relayed. It's pure and simple journalism.
I also believe that another audience might benefit greatly from reading this book--the very people this book is about. Middle Easterners will find in this book a candid reflection of their current affairs. It's imperative for people to know how they are perceived in order to complete their perception of who they really are. We give this feedback to friends and family daily, but nations and cultures don't do that with each other frequently. Here is a chance that I hope doesn't get wasted.
The book in general voices optimism in the future of the Middle East, despite the war in Iraq and despite the rise in Islamic fundamentalism. Painful stories from across the region about fledgling dreams trying to make it and desperate youth fighting to dream are recounted so vividly by the author, who uses her magic to point out the silver lining in each of these stories and in turn keeping our hopes alive for a better tomorrow in the region.
It was definitely an entertaining, informative and thought-provoking read. I highly recommend it.
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
 America's Dreams and Shadows... Sep 28, 2009
Robin Wright has been reporting on the Middle East for over 35 years, interviewing a wide-spectrum of the political players of the area. She did get off the "beaten path," finding ascendant political figures on her own, and even going to Iran so that she could walk into "Kurdistan" prior to the American invasion of Iraq in 2003. One of the best portraits is of the charismatic leader of Hezbollah in Lebanon, Nasrallah, whom she concludes is not only a local leader but also a regional "Che Guevera." Two other enlightening interviews, which are generally conducted over a period of time, are of politically active women in Morocco, Fatima Mernissi, and Latifa Jbabdi, whom the author "brought to life", certainly for this reader. In Egypt, Wright highlighted the work of Ghada Shahbender and the organization she helped found, "We're watching you"; an organization, as its name implies, that monitors and reports on the activities of the powerful, certainly including efforts to monitor electoral fraud. And in Syria she presents portraits on true "profiles in courage," or sheer obduracy, in the persons of Riad al Turk, Yassin Haj Saleh, Samara al Khalil, all of whom spent numerous years in prison, in a country with one of the most repressive governments of the region. I found the background on the Assad assassination attempt, as well as the background and origins of both Ahmadinejad and Rafsanjani in Iran particularly illuminating, and certainly relevant today. The focus of her reportage are interviews of the individuals promoting change, barely inside, or completely outside the political establishment; rarely is there an interview with the actual leader of the country, who might articulate their own interests in change.
In terms of books by reporters, Wright largely avoids the `cut and paste' style, with its inevitable redundancies, though her description of Qatar in the early part of the book, twice, would be the exception. She also tends towards annoying "People magazine" style descriptions of people, such as "...wearing a deep-red polo shirt."
Structurally though, I believe the book is profoundly flawed. The book is subtitled "The Future of the Middle East," yet two of the most essential countries of the area are omitted, Israel, and Saudi Arabia, as Wright acknowledges in her introduction, and for reasons that do not seem to be very convincing. Furthermore, relying on the deficiencies in geographic knowledge of many Americans, she places Morocco in "the Middle East."
Wright is very much an "establishment" reporter, as evidenced by her comment on page 409: "In October 2006, I made my fourth postwar trip to Iraq with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice." The question that others, particularly more independent-minded reporters have raised and this book helps answer is: To be invited on the plane, what sort of self-censorship must be practiced, particularly during the days of the Bush administration? In terms of other countries, be it Syria or Morocco, Wright repeatedly covers the fact that political dissidents are tortured in prison, and are all too often held without charge. A point she rightly makes. But Wright manages an entire chapter on "Iraq and the United States" without ever mentioning Abu Ghraib. Likewise, Guantanamo is nowhere in the Index, yet both places have had a profound impact on America's relationship with this region. Another litmus test of self-censorship is the CIA's coup of 1953 in Iran which overthrew their democratically elected government - not because, in any way the country was a threat to the United States; rather it was all about denying the Iranian people a greater benefit from their oil resources. Stephen Kinzer's book, "All the Shah's Men" covers this event well. Wright does mention the coup twice, a paragraph each in two different chapters. In one of those paragraphs she relates Iranian upset to the "radicalism of their youth." This coup is not an end all, but for an understanding of the American-Iranian relationship, as well as the Iranian world outlook, the coup merits more than passing mention, it is the starting point - the comparison with a reverse situation, how Americans would feel if Iran had overthrown Dwight Eisenhower, and installed their own "man" would greatly facilitate American understanding. Although she does not cover Israel, she does have a chapter on the Palestinians, and conforms to the establishment press "style book" that always starts with the Palestinians doing something outrageous, and then the Israelis respond. Only once did she reverse this, inferring that the attack on the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires in 1992 might have been "payback" for the assassination of the predecessor of Nasrallah as head of Hezbollah. She mentions "targeted assassinations" on several occasions, but never explains why it is in quotes, and, of course, never ties it to terrorism.
The most startling error in the book is in the last chapter, the one on Iraq and the United States, where on page 410, she says: "The most ambitious and costly U.S. intervention since the end of World War II felt like it was in free fall." An error at so many different levels, because you don't have to worry about the "lessons" of Vietnam, the ones the first George Bush felt he had overcome in the war of 1991, if you completely "airbrush" Vietnam out of history. The Iraq, Afghanistan, and interventions in other Middle East countries may yet exceed the 58,000 plus dead on the wall in Washington, DC, who died over a 16 year period, and at a cost in economic terms, on an inflation adjusted basis, that still exceeds current war expenditures in the Islamic world, not to mention the social turmoil in the United States--but we are still not there yet. It should be no surprise that Vietnam is not in the index, and certainly not "lesson learned there."
In one of the classic works on Vietnam, Graham Greene's "The Quiet American," the author said of Alden Pyle, the CIA operative who was modeled on Kermit Roosevelt, the real life CIA operative who was responsible for the 1953 Iranian coup: "He was impregnably armoured by his good intentions and his ignorance." Greene saw the links between American mistakes in Southeast Asia and Southwest Asia. Shouldn't we all?
In her prologue Wright explains that the title to her book was derived from Musafa Kemal Ataturk, the "modernizer" of Turkey, who said: "Neither sentiment nor illusion must influence our policy. Away with dreams and shadows!" Good advice for the United States also, and how we perceive both our interests and the Middle East. Wright used an epigraph from Riad Al Turk, the Syrian dissident who said that: "Democracy cannot be brought on the back of a tank." Indeed, by setting a better example, we could recover the Shahbenders who states, as quoted by Wright at the very end, that: "Most Egyptians now raise their eyebrows and speak quite sarcastically about American democracy." Away with our own dreams and shadows.
0 of 1 found the following review helpful:
Dreams and Shadows is a must read!!! Sep 04, 2009
Dreams and Shadows is definitely a must read. I couldn't put it down. The author and journalist, Robin Wright, is absolutely amazing in her knowledge and skill in expressing herself. Her ability to obtain interviews with leaders in high positions and other key persons to secure the information included in this book and the, sometimes, dangerous positions she all too often found herself in is remarkable, to say the least. The book is about the future of the Middle East and is quite an eye-opener! I feel so much better informed now and able to better understand what I read and hear in the news pertaining to these countries after reading this book. In conclusion, I highly recommend Dreams and Shadows.
An Overview of The Middle East Aug 02, 2009
This is a survey of the current political status in Palestine, Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Iran, Morocco and Iraq. Through recent events, author Robin Wright sees hope for change in the region. She warns that the movements she cites are nascent and fragile, and steps backward sometimes follow steps forward. She also notes that she may be putting too much emphasis on the undercurrents. The book ends with the regressive effects of the US's democracy mission in Iraq. Despite all her disclaimers, as events have unfolded her observations of everyday dissatisfaction in Iran did show very deep and strong desires for political change and she may be right on in the other countries as well.
For the wide swath of territory covered, the youth comprise 70% of the population. This generation is more educated than any before it and has finger tip access to knowledge of the world beyond. In the last chapter, feminist, Fatima Mernissi of Morocco cites information itself as being the most important factor for empowerment.
Robin Wright notes that what is different today than any time before is that dissent is not confined to a small circle of dissidents. A very large and diverse section of the population is telling authoritarian leaders that it wants change and is no longer afraid to demand it. In some of these countries women are in the forefront of change. Most leaders demanding change say that to be effective, change has to be gradual. Many say secular movements need to reserve a place for religion.
Morocco was of the most interest to me, perhaps because it's the country I know least about. It isn't a country often mentioned, let alone covered, in the US press. Morocco demonstrates Wright's step foward and backward observation. The king's structural power exceeds that of any other monarch. Just as the new young king, who's father and grandfather had led extremely iron handed regimes, set the stage for less government repression and women were secured a few rights, suicide bombs and other violence brought on a wave of mass arrests.
Wright's view that small things can tell the story clearly presaged the events in Iran. Before the election and its aftermath she observed that the rulers were the butt of everyday jokes, cab drivers bypassed clerics, the 1970's hostage takers were critical of the government they spawned and regime was unable to produce adoring patriotic crowds in 2007 when it took some British soldiers as hostages.
If Wright is correct on the other countries she covers, as she was in Iran, these next few years will be incredibly tumultuous in these countries.
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