The imperial motif is reinforced by Wawro's reference to a British official in 1966, saying, "Change is something the Arabs must do themselves. We have no alternative but to sit this one out"until the ranting and shadow-boxing about "imperialism' is treated as depassse." Yes that would be nice, if the British and U.S. would sit this one out, would take their very real and non-shadowy imperialism and go home with it. Imperialism will not be depasse until it is gone, other wise the statement only supports my critique of Wawro looking at the situation through the rose tinted glasses of supposed U.S. beneficence.
The final words of the book are all too true, returning fully to the quicksand metaphor, a "state of nature" within which human exertions cause the awful stuff to become inescapable: "Let us move deliberately and powerfully to the edge of the morass, and climb out." Good idea. Simple idea. Not likely to happen within the current state of the economy and global geopolitics.
And now the rest of the story".
The rest of Wawro's story, before becoming stuck in his own analytical quicksand, is very well written. Put simply, without going into a lot of quotes and references, is that the U.S. has acted through arrogance, ignorance, and political domestic expediency. The perpetuation of those three qualities through the corporate controlled media, and the desire of the corporate-political-military elites to retain the wealth and control of the nation and the world will keep the U.S. mired in its quicksand for some time yet.
The first two thirds of Quicksand are impressively written, providing an excellent background into the U.S. quagmire in the Middle East. It is well worth reading for that alone, but be prepared to wear some rose coloured spectacles while reading the last third.
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