Absolutely.

It's never too late to lift the veil....

NOW that Harvard is recommending Ivory Towers on Sand as the counterpart pre-reading text to Edward Said's Orientalism,

I think that sentence says it ALL.

So what the f were they singularly learning prior to this nice concession to an actually 'balanced' education. And I wonder what the prereqs are at Columbia still?

Well, I think this Islam BS is a threat to our National Security. Did you happen to catch "Radical Islam's 20 Point Plan To Take Over America" on the WorldNetDaily website? If not, it's posted and linked on my weblog. I found it very disturbing to say the least, but then I sent it to a friend of mine who is a counter-terrorism expert and retired SFOD-D Officer. He confirmed what I thought.

Jennifer Martinez sends

I strongly agree that Robert Kaplan's "The Coming Anarchy" should be required reading for everyone who clicked the "Comments" link for this post, and for anyone who writes about foreign policy at all.

I don't agree with everything Kaplan says, but I nevertheless recommend reading everything the man ever wrote. He's that good.

The Kaplan article is interesting but it's surely fair to note that his big-picture speculations are rather dated now; much keeps getting worse abroad but how this has to do with us looks quite different for obvious reasons. Of course Kaplan is rather depressingly naive here about Islam... But he's also naively pessimistic about America, seen at its Clintonian pre-Giuliani low point.

If I had to recommend the three best books I've read since 9/11, they would be Fouad Ajami's The Dream Palace of the Arabs, Robert Kaplan's The Coming Anarchy, and Paul Berman's Terror and Liberalism, each for different reasons. One caveat: I find Kaplan's recommendations quite worrisome. He seems to think we should trust the U.S. military, diplomatic, and intelligence agencies to do right (without public oversight) more than I'm willing to trust them. Nevertheless, I would trust them far, far more than I would trust any arm of the U.N.

Here's something on english comprehension and the Education establishment (don't forget to listen to the sound files! It's better than reading!)

I'd recommend:

"Special Providence" by Walter Russell Mead

"How to Make War" (4th edition) by James F. Dunnigan;

both are especially good for those Democrats who need to get a clue - here's a place to start finding one.

If we're recommending Atlantic articles, this one on what is involved in major, long-term military deployments such as peacekeeping is also something that those needing a clue ought to read. Especially people like Howard Dean, who hasn't the foggiest idea about the military, as he happily proclaimed on Russert's show some time back.

"The Constitution of Liberty" by Hayek.

I'm curious to know to what extent the Middle Eastern studies departments are addressing the issue of Koranic scholarship itself, given the potential explosiveness of the subject. The Atlantic did an introduction on this in 1999 which is posted in their archive. http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/99jan/koran.htm

Good reading, noted and posted above.

A penetrating insight on Islam-vs-future can be found in "Fire on the Mountaintops" by William Sears. Similarly, for what ails western civilization, "Thief in the Night" by W.Sears

Gute Reise!

I haven't read the Esquire article, but I have read the full hardcover book version of Barnett's The Pentagon's New Map.

I actually just finished it recently. Having started it when the Abu Ghraib scandal was flaring for the first time, I had to put it away-- I couldn't take the optimism in the face of daily horrors.

I may try to do a formal review if people are interested, but the bottom line is, I liked it. It resonates a great deal with sacttered thoughts I'd had over the last five years or so. On the other hand, it is an informal book (think of it as a series of very connected op-ed pieces turned into a book) and many of the ideas will not be new to readers of WoC.

I'd probably recommend it in paperback.