Good Muslim, Bad Muslim: America, the Cold War, and the Roots of Terror [Paperback]

As an American who cares and who wants peace for everyone even at my own expense I hope that many people will read this book. Yes, it is true that the author takes page after page to lay out the negative actions of our government. But who is to blame for that? The author for reporting the events or our government for giving so much to write about?

As citizens of the strongest and richest nation on the earth we have a duty to the world to be aware. This is OUR nation and we should not let small minded and selfish men (and women) destroy other nations without being held accountable. And if you need to be selfish about it then please learn enough to understand that it does affect you how other nations think of America.

We must be wary of others and double-wary of ourselves. This book is not easy to read because it is painful, but it is still a must read for Americans. Even if one-tenth of what Mamdani reports is true we should all be stunned and embarassed.

Discussion is painfully frank, honest, and thought provoking. Some will be unwilling to face this.

The origins of the worst may be in the Reagan era and now with this preemptive war but Carter and Clinton's errors are noted in what is a constructive rather than partisan analysis.

The types and motives of political Islam is a useful antidote to the simplistic poisonous tripe so common from the Media and the Administration and even scholars who should know better like Lewis and Huntington.

The summary of major costs of the focal Afghan War include, and continue to include, eroding democracy at home; US blowback from the creation of international trained and experienced terrorist Alumni; dramatic increases in Drug trade and users from financing methods of the wars; increased incoherence and decreased communication between the CIA and FBI. One can add that Press self censorship and complicity recently rated the US as not in the top 20 world wide for having a "free Press." The author does not mention that after first disarming then attacking Iraq the US 'bully' inadvertently makes a case for nukes for all for some deterrent (remember that word?).

The analysis of an commonality of irrational interest with Israel as another settler state and the discussion of the nature of suicide bombing will upset assumptions widely held but deserve thoughtful consideration.

Read this book! More importantly, THINK about what is said. Definitely worth buying. I'm giving a copy to the local library too!

Initially the U.S. government did not think of Islam as a challenger civilization. In fact Islam was perceived as anti-Communist and anti-nationalist. (Anti-nationlist before the Iranian revolution and the response to that was to back Iraq, despite its secular nationalism, because its brand of nationalism was sort of the lesser of the two evils.) Therefore, the Afghan Jihadis were wholeheartedly supported and even described as the moral equivalents of the Founding Fathers. The Jihadis were taught the state-of-the-art techniques of killing and destruction because they represented a tool to bleed the Soviet Union to death.

From there one can start the story of al-Qaeda which is often presented as if al-Qaeda appeared out of the blue. Terrorists are made, not born. The analysis of Prof. Mamdani is somewhat reductionist as it fails to address the internal circumstances of Muslim societies. However, it is a great step toward understanding the foundations of the catastrophes we are witnessing today.