I passed along some of the feedback on the Woolsey piece (re: WW4) to my colleague who is a not so retired analyst. Originally USSR but now roaming around. His feedback is interesting on intell. analysts and how they approach a particular culture or country.. ================== Thanks for the feedback. Your list respondent seems to be well informed, and well balanced in his assessment. I am not as taken with the Mideast or Islamic experts as he seems to be. Most of the time, the area experts, on the basis of knowing a culture well, tend to lean over backward in favor of the society and culture they are studying (even when, for example, they are intelligence analysts). I know this from my own experience in the Soviet field; one had to develop, whether one realized it or not, an interest and empathy in the culture to continue to work in the area and to be at all worthwhile in one's analysis. Most of the people I knew who were any good tended to the view that the Russian culture and society were good (decent human beings, values, etc.) and to compensate by seeing the Communist leadership as somewhat different; if asked, we probably would have considered the Russian people better off without their leaders (but few of us believed that this was possible - at most, we thought that the regime would change, not collapse). I think something similar is happening now. The Iraqis (or the Arab culture) are essentially good and decent, in the view of Islamic or Middle East scholars, but the regime is vicious. What this doesn't allow for is the possibility that regimes reflect the culture and society from which they arise. People might complain about the excesses and cruelties of the regime, but most people will put up with it and just try to stay out of trouble, avoid politics, and go along with whoever rules them. I agree with both Woolsey and Huntington: if one is confronting a culture with rival globalistic ambitions, they they are a danger. Of course, from the Arab point of view (and others) the same thing might be said about the U.S.
_______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://scribe.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
