Book Review [34] : Hegemony or Survival

'Hegemony or Survival' by Noam Chomsky is a nice analysis of US "war on terror" since the days of President Wilson. Noam Chomsky in his own style decimates the moral foundation underneath the bloody wars in the "service of mankind". But sometimes he loses almost everything and tries to depict an oversimplifying picture of major world crisis. For him  US is the bad guy and whoever opposes US is the nice guy without any exception whatsoever. 

You can not defeat the evil without fighting using all the means you have at your disposal. This is your right as well as moral obligation. The mess of our modern world is the legacy of the western renaissance. The once mighty and well advanced African civilization of Carthage was destroyed to dust by the mighty Western Roman Empire. The once mighty  Persian empire of Asia was destroyed to dust by the young Greek, we call him Alexander The Great. When some one from West conquers the world we call him Alexander The Great but if some one from East conquers the world we call him Barbarian like Xerxes or Ghengis Khan. The differencebetween Alexander and Ghengis Khan is same as the difference between Bush and Laden. We call one a terrotist and other a proponent of infnite justice. As they say we live in interesting times. We live in time when ego of only super power on earth lies in destroying the least powerful, least educated, most corrupt and most poor nation in our world. They call it a wise war now and we are fine in supporting it. Overall this book is a nice book and after reading chomsky i will say if you have read his one book assume that you have read him all.
Highly Recommended (8/10)
P.S. Kabul is near to Delhi than Bangalore.

Book Review [31] : The clash of civilizations and the remaking of world order

Samuel P. Huntington's "The clash of civilizations and the remaking of world order" is an extensively researched work on the fault lines across various civilizations. I bought this book almost 2 years back and never got a chance to go through it until last week. Its a must read book for any student of world politics.
                                People lose a set of identities to get new ones. Take the case of India just before 1947 citizens of India on the other side of current border were proud of India but only one date made them ardent Pakistanis and they fought 2 major wars, 2 minor wars and consistent proxy war in a normal life time of a South Asian native. This is too much for countries having almost everything in common except majority religion. In way its a manifestation of the civilizational conflict war fought between Qasim and Dahir in Sindh 8th Century, Mahmud Ghazanavi and Rajputs in 11th Century and between Ghurids against Rajputs in 12th Century and ultimately resulted in a period of relative "peace" under Islamic rule of the subcontinent for more than 600 years. Pakistan, Bangladesh and Muslim minority in India are legacy of that 600 years rule. This is strikingly similar to the story of Yugoslavia. Kosovo is Pakistan and Bosnia is Kashmir and India is Serbia. Serbia was under Turkish rule for more than 500 years since 1389. The entire disintegration of Yugoslavia took place along civilizational lines i.e. Croatia, Slovenia: Western Christianity; Serbia, Montenegro: Orthodox Christianity; Kosovo: Islam and Bosnia is divided among Serbs, Croats and Muslims. Orthodox Russia supported Serbia; Germany and west supported Croatia/Slovenia; Iran, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and USA supported Bosnian Muslims. Bosnia and Kosovo are nothing but legacy of Turkish rule or the remnants of Turkish civilization in Balkan. This book talks in detail about the decline of Western civilization and rise of South Asian and East Asian civilization.
                              The Chinese and Indian civilization will be able to rise rather spectacularly but this can not said about Muslim civilization as it lacks a core state of that civilization. Western Civilization has core states in USA, France, Germany and UK, Chinese civilization has core state in China, Indian civilization has core state in India, Islamic civilization lacks a strong core state almost all the Islamic states are more or less at the same level. Pakistan, Indonesia, Iran and Turkey have potential to become one. Pakistan is ethnically and linguistically divided state and has been a torn state since Independence. Indonesia can become one but it will not be accepted by middle east countries because of distance and culture. Iran can not become because its Shiite state. Turkey looks more formidable but its more inclined to be a part of EU than to become leader of Arab states although the recent trend shows a clear tilt of Turkey to become leader of Islamic civilization. Core state is very necessary for the survival and glory of Islamic civilization and only the core state has the power to mediate and control fitna and wars in Islamic states.  This book is too good and i strongly recommend it. 
Highly Recommended (9/10)

Book Review [24] : Interventions by Noam Chomsky

Just finished Interventions by Noam Chomsky, a series of articles on UN foreign policy post 9/11. He exposes brilliantly the double standards followed by US with respect to UN charter, NPT, or even an age old problem of Palestine and Israel. This is a must read book for anyone who wants to know the real picture of the world instead of the "reel" picture created by so called democratic west. He describes how US used forces to destroy democracies in Latin America and other places just to control their energy resources. Now Latin America is fostering its relations with China and Asia (Hugo Chavez leading from the front) giving US a cold shoulder, even Canada is tilting towards China. Coming generations will decide who was the greater terrorist George Bush or Osama bin Laden. 

Highly Recommended (8/10)