More Links to Background on Recent Events

I've been in deep lurk mode since the events of Sept 11. There is a lot of good dialog on this forum and I wish I had more time to participate and contribute. In the meantime, some might find that a series of articles from my favorite magazine Atlantic Monthly provide interesting and informed background. Included is an excerpt from "Blowback" mentioned by Andy Fox in threads below. The article about the Afghan-Pakistani border is also very good.


Regards,


Rick

You really like the Atlantic Monthly more than The Nation or Mother Jones? :-)


Thanks for the link. I just started subscribing to the Atlantic Monthly, it is indeed a great magazine.

Andy,


When the former Soviet Union lost its grip on Eastern Europe and years before the genocide in the former Yugoslavia started, the Atlantic had a long article predicting that we would wish Tito was still in control and able to suppress the ethnic hatreds.


In any event, IMO it is a well balanced magazine with appeal to the right and left. I tend to like the deep background articles written at a level even I can understand.


Regards,


Rick

Atlantic Monthly is a great mag. For good analysis on this situation and Central Asian geopoliticts this site is excellent:

Many of the ideas here have been interesting and thought provoking. I think that we must all be cautious to avoid the contamination of our thought process by our agendas. Will a debate where all sides skillfully take turns rationalizing and justifying help us solve our problems? If one side characterizes an attack as preemptive or peace keeping, while the other claim they are the victim of an unprovoked attack, all the while preparing for retaliation, where does this leave us? Do the ends justify the means intellectually? Are we willing to sacrifice the truth in order to be right? People are more than willing to look at history in a vacume when it serves their purpose. Why are we so afraid of the truth? Is it because we live in a culture, in which we spend 80$ on football tickets and video games when we KNOW that there are countless in our global community that are starving to death?


Looking at the links that Rick kindly provided, I stumbled upon the following article http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/2001/09/power.htm


I urge you to read it as well. 800 000 people were slaughtered! What was the reaction of the international community? It is a horribly sad account and I think that it can help to put things into perspective. What role do we play and what responsibility do we have, both as a group and as individuals,for the suffering that is going on worldwide?