Cole on CSPAN-2 Tonight at 10 EDT
Note: My talk on Napoleon's Egypt will be shown in the US on CSPAN-2 at 10 pm EDT on Sunday evening, September 9.
At the Napoleon's Egypt Blog, a letter from one of Bonaparte's scientists (a botanist) exhibiting the disillusionment the invaders felt on seizing Egypt. My assistant said it reminded him of Conrad's "Heart of Darkness."
Also, for those who missed it, The Nation review of the book is online.
Labels: Egypt
posted by Juan Cole @ 9/09/2007 07:18:00 AM
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4 Comments:
It's true.
This is an excellent talk. If people missed it, it's available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkHknUmnBaA
The talk on the parallels between Napoleon's failure in Egypt and Bush's in Iraq is about 25 min, and the Q&A (mainly about Iraq and the future) is about 40 min.
Pleased that I watched the show.
The talk was insightful and revealed horrific and significant act's against humanity that Napolean's army practiced in Egypt, i.e. thecutting off of 900 heads and placing them in the Cairo town square.
It's a darn shame that Pres. Bush didn't take full advantage of the the undergraduate history dept. while attending Yale. He could have learned a thing or two about creating political chaos and its ramifications. This president has put America at even greater risk by creating instability in the Middle East that may last for a generation.
As a matter of fact, did I not hear once that Pres. Bush has always looked up to Winston Churchill as a role model? He must has missed that day of class when it was taught that Churchill had deep reservations about the British occupation of Iraq in the 1920's?
At the risk of not sounding patriotic, I suggest the U.S. exits Iraq in a similar manner as Churchill once proposed.I also can understand why Prof. Cole mentioned that the American people aren't going to put up with Iraq much longer. Flawed and failed war efforts have a way of catching up with Americans.Many Republicans I have spoken to in the recent past are very upset about the propaganda and outright lies the Bush administration claimed in the buildup to the Iraq invaision.
I thank Prof. Cole and all of his history professor colleagues for enlightening those of us who need to know the unfiltered story of why we are in Iraq. As a matriculated Oakland University history major, may I say that as challenging as the Middle East subject matter is, it is worth the effort, because once one learns, it is uneasy to unlearn.And there is a lot to learn about this region.
Peace!
It's very interesting :) more please on the topic
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