Tonight Jon's got Fouad Ajami, Iraq war apologist, and Stephen's got Joe Quesada, editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics, and I've got formatting issues. Sorry about that.
I already know which interview I'm going to like better...
Update: actually, they
changed guests on me! Jon's guest is Dr. Alon ben-Meir:Middle East Director of the World Policy Institute at the New School for Social Research, and a professor of International Relations and Middle-Eastern studies at the Center for Global Studies at NYU and at the New School. Completely different. And would have been much more enjoyable to read about. Entirely opposite viewpoint than the other guy.
Tonight, Jon talks to
Fouad Ajami , whose new book is
"The Foreigner's Gift: The Americans, the Arabs, and the Iraqis in Iraq. " He's the
director of the middle east program at the Paul H. Nitze school of advanced international studies at Johns Hopkins. In a 2001 article,
Salon called him "The media's favorite Arab expert." He's a member of the board of directors at the
Council on Foreign Relations (which publishes
Foreign Affairs. He's a contributing editor to
US News & World Report, he's written a whole lot of
books, he's been
published in
lots of other
places ... he's a big shot. Such a big shot that (according to
Wikipedia ) Condoleezza Rice has been known to summon him to the White House for advice, and Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, a friend and former colleague at SAIS, has paid tribute to him in speeches on Iraq. Which gives you an idea of what we're in for.
He's on a book tour, I guess, and has been on CSPAN's bookTV and Charlie Rose (direct video link, that). I watched the Charlie Rose segment, and transcribed the following -- it felt like all I needed to know.
CR: what has been the cost on the other side, beyond and,but most importantly, blood and, secondly, treasure?"
(FA misunderstands: cost to the US?)
CR: No, I mean in terms of the arab world...for example, many will argue that america's reputation, it's capacity to influence, has decreased rather than increased.
FA:"Charlie, as you know,on this one, I'm a total hawk. We owe the arab world no apology for anything. We owe the arab world no apology. For one, there were the terror attacks of 9/11, which emanated right from the heart of arab society."
You've heard all this before (quite probably because he's the one saying it) -- he talks about how evil Saddam was, how horrible the rest of the arab world was for ignoring how evil Saddam was, how 9/11 is justification for the Iraq war, which he describes as a war on arab radicalism... he says he never used the WMD argument, so discussing that isn't on the table... talks about how Congress voted for the war, the public
supported it "organically" (and thus isn't allowed ever to stop fighting)... and that after 9/11, we had to take the war to an arab country, and if that country was Iraq, then so be it. No, really. Charlie Rose was really good with him.
(Here's a
bloggers point of view. Don't know this person, but it seems this bit was linked to by Juan Cole, who's sane.)
Ajami--just like Ahmad Chalabi, as it happens--is a Shi-ite Arab who left his homeland while still young and ended up in the United States as a strong supporter of Israel and a darling of the neo-cons. Beyond that, Ajami is blessed (cursed?) with a delusion that he is Joseph Conrad reincarnate, a condition that manifests itself through the generation of prose of a staggeringly self-aggrandizing, mock-heroic grandeur.
Later in the piece, he's described as a con-man. Here are some
other opinions of him . I saw the book at Borders last week and didn't look at it long enough to form an opinion (other than that it's got a pretty cover), but I got the impression that the author had a nuanced view of "the arabs", in understanding that they're not monolithic. But after seeing him on CR, I don't think I'll bother picking it up again.
So. Jon's interview may be a <headdesk> La la la la, yell-so-as-to-scare-the-cat experience. But Stephen's should be more fun. He's talking to Joe Quesada, editor-in-chief of Marvel (and writer/artist ). In an interview today on CBR, Joe talks about going on Colbert. He doesn't get into specifics, but there's this bit:
[CBR]I think there still may be a little pre-show prep you need to do, which I'd like to help you out with. I can think of only one issue you must be prepared to tackle before going on the show - what's your stance on bears?
[JQ]What's my stance on bears ... you know, those damned grizzlies, I gotta say I agree with Colbert. When I'm on the show, you will see how I agree with Colbert. I will take a stance on bears.
I would guess they'll talk about the
Civil War storyline... that's Marvel's
summer no-you-don't-really-need-to-buy-all-the-books
crossover storyline. It looks to be full of changed costumes, heroes fighting other heroes, all that stuff you'd expect -- oh, and Spidey reveals his
secret identity. There's this
Superhero Registration Act, you see, and the various players take sides (Iron Man or Captain America?). There's possibly a whole civil liberties discussion to be had about this, but I wouldn't be surprised if it just turns into a geekfest. (Oh, and I
found some
links that might contain
spoilers...) I did pick up a post-revelation Spidey book last week, and enjoyed it, but I'm waiting for the trade.
So I probably should have saved the news that Oni Press is putting together a Tek Jansen comic for today rather than going with it Monday, but I didn't. That poll just wrote itself... Let's just go with a classic concept (and I'm just randomly picking names, here):