Sunday, June 27, 2004

Posted here Sunday, June 27, 2004 at 5:28:44 PM     Timothy Garton Ash Americans can still do these good things in the world, but they don't have unlimited time. As time goes by, the power of the United States will fade. As time goes by, Americans will be less and less able to shape the world around them. We cannot know how long this time will be, but it may be no more than 20 years. In those 20 years, however, Americans have a historic chance, working with Europeans, to lay the foundations of a free world. from http://books.guardian.co.uk/extracts/story/0,6761,1234540,00.html   he is writing a book called free world published jluy 1 by penguin, he wants to organize the civilized internationalsits around the world. He estimates them at 1 billion people. An interview audio is at http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/aod/radio3_aod.shtml?nightwaves_fri for a week ********

Posted here Sunday, June 27, 2004 at 5:11:09 PM     I've been reading Infidels: the conflict between Christendom and Islam 638-2002. The deep message is that jews, arabs, chiristians, reviled each other, borrowed slogans from each other, methods of fighting from each other, and remained irreconcilable. Economic pressures and slogans and fear make a bad combination. The slogans gain their energy by putting categories of defilement under religious ategories and this leading to violence and war to protect us from them. We all know this, but the depth and horror of it leaves me wilted. a review from the guardian http://books.guardian.co.uk/reviews/history/0,6121,1221931,00.html ********