Saturday, December 26, 2009

The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 by Lawrence Wright


My rating: 4 of 5 stars

 "Wherever you are, death will find you,
even in the looming tower."

With these words, quoted from a passage from the fourth sura of the Quran,  bin Laden "sent an obvious signal to the hijackers who were on their way" (p. 350).

Today's headline announcing the most recent hijacking attempt illustrates the relevance of Lawrence Wright's The Looming Tower:  Al-Qaeda and The Road to 9/11.  For those seeking to understand the philosophical underpinnings and motivations behind these kinds of terrorist attacks, Wright's book provides a highly readable and informative primer on the sources of the most pressing conflicts of our time.

Wright's book traces the emergence of Al-Qaeda ("The Base") from a rag-tag bunch of largely uneducated religious zealots who got their first taste of jihad fighting against the Soviets in the late 1970s and early 1980's to the highly disciplined force capable of executing international acts of terror such as embassy bombings, an attack on the USS Cole and the destruction of the World Trade Center towers and the death of thousands.

By analyzing the intersections of radical Islamic thought, Middle Eastern political developments and the rigidity of the U.S. intelligence and investigative bureacracies in the post-Cold War global context, Wright helps to explain how America came to be the target of Al-Qaeda's struggle against "The West" and how the very agencies charged with our public safety let us down.  In so doing, he provides details on how these developments culminated in the global conflict we find ourselves engaged in today.

Wright's narrative make a crucial distinction between more traditional Islamic laws -- against murder (especially of innocent bystanders) against suicide, etc. -- and the ways bin Laden and other radical Islamists twisted teachings from the Quran to justify killing and mass destruction.  Like adherents of fundamentalist Christianity who espouse a so-called "Pro-Life" position, yet see no contradictions in the bombing of abortion clinics or the murder of doctors who provide safe procedures for women, the advocates of radical Islam engage in similar contortions of logic fueled by religious zealotry.

As Wright makes clear, the central contradiction of Al-Qaeda's actions on 9/11 is that while they sought to strike at "the head of the snake" (the source of the evil of The West) by attacking a symbol of American dominance, they left a vast array of humanity in their wake:
"In so many ways, the Trade Center dead formed a kind of universal parliament, representing sixty-two countries and nearly every ethnic group and religion in the world....The manifold ways in which they attached to life testified to the Quranic injunction that the taking of a single life destroys a universe.  Al-Qaeda had aimed its attack at America, but it struck all of humanity."  (p. 368)

The Looming Tower connects the legacy of Al-Qaeda's attacks on 9/11 with our ever deepening military entanglements in Afghanistan.  Wright's analysis provides much needed historical context to help us understand why more troops and more expenditures in a misguided attempt to gain control of this region will not make us more secure.  Wright explains that through Al-Qaeda's terrorist strikes:  "Bin Laden wanted to lure the United States into Afghanistan, which was already being called the graveyard of empires" (emphasis added mine -- p. 272).

If the United States is not to end up buried in "the graveyard of empires", we would do well to read and draw lessons from the history Wright so articulately presents.

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Saturday, December 19, 2009

What's wrong with America's Health Care System...

Money-Driven Medicine: The Real Reason Health Care Costs So Much Money-Driven Medicine: The Real Reason Health Care Costs So Much by Maggie Mahar


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Maggie Mahar's fascinating and compelling book, Money-Driven Medicine:  The Real Reason Health Care Costs So Much, contributes much to our understanding of the current health care crisis.  Mahar takes the reader behind the hysterical ranting about "pulling the plug on grandma" and "socialized medicine."  In doing so, she provides the reader with a clear and accessible analysis of why we pay more, for less. 

The disciples of the "free market" would have us believe that competition between insurance companies serves to dampen soaring prices.  Unfortunately, as Mahar shows, the fiercely competitive health care arena pits doctors against doctors and hospitals against hospitals.  In the current system, everyone gets paid on a piece rate basis.  The more procedures, prescriptions, surgeries provided, the higher the profit.  The problem with this kind of arrangement is that often times, more is not necessarily better.  That is, more treatment does not result in better health outcomes for patients.

Mahar is at her best when she presents strong evidence for the failure of more treatment to foster greater health.  She details examples of how the flurry of unproven treatments, unnecessary tests, and defective medical devices actually threatens patients' well-being. 

Money-Driven Medicine should be required reading for every member of Congress as well as all Americans.  We need to move beyond distracting and obfuscating hyperbole toward a thorough accounting of exactly how our health care system works and doesn't work.  Only then will we be able to develop more rational and effective policy options to ensure the health and well-being for all. 

For those interested in seeing the film based on Mahar's book, go to the link www.moneydrivenmedicine.org for more information.