1990 Books

Excellent book! An interesting read for anyone who wants to understand other facets of what our troops encounter while deployed. JD

Matthew Bogdanos' story of the lost antiquities of the Bahgdad Museum is a fascinating and informative account of his experiences with an interagency counterterrorism unit following 9/11. However, its not just about Bahgdad, as he tells us about the challenges he faces growing up in downtown New York, his roots in Greek and Middle Eastern classics, etc. In fact, despite the extraordinary depth of his knowledge of classic literature, arts, and history, there is a certain air of self-promotion throughout the book that the reader just can't overlook. Nonetheless, I found Bogdanos' writing to be sophisticated and interesting and I felt that I finished his book with a better understanding of U.S. efforts to help the Iraqi people help themselves (despite the efforts of their fellow Iraqi's to sell their own heritage to the highest bidders). The beautiful photos add great depth to Bogdanos' account and spark the reader's interest in the history and art of the region. Enjoy this highly unusual account of one man's war time experiences.

Too many Project Management texts are lessons in using Gantt Charts. Rob Thomsett looks at the reality of managing IT projects and dealing with the people/political aspects. I keep this book by my desk and refer to it often

I've been fortunate enough to have attended some of Rob's workshops and bought this book in 95. At the time I found it very insightful and have had great success applying it ever since. I recently re-read the book. Sadly much of what Rob saw as problems in 80's project management have remained in place in the 90's (massive projects, long timeframes with no staged delivery of change/benefits, throwing people and money - then having the plug pulled with nothing to show for $XX million spent). The technology may have changed, but what Rob is getting at in this book: Think about people, think about change, think about how to manage risk remain as relevant today as they did when first published in 93.

And it's not a pretty picture overall, but we didn't expect it to be, did we? We all seem to feel the pressures of not enough time, of "to-do" lists that never shrink, and of work-time creeping into our personal-time.

The book is best when laying out the data and the results of the time-diary studies measuring what folks really do spend their time on, as they spend it, rather than in retrospect. Some of the conclusions are not obvious, and are that much more interesting for it.

The solutions presented though are simplistic and often slip into pop psychology babble, in my opinion. But that isn't the point of the book, the "how we spend time" is. Moving on from there is for each of us individually and (probably) some other book.

Oh yeah, and remove the TV from your house. You don't need it. And you won't miss it as much as you think.

I have been preparing lectures on stress management and came upon the work of the authors' Use of Time Project which has tracked Americans expenditures of time over decades. This book has caused me to re-think all of my assumptions, and fits in beautifully with some of the brand new books coming out in the wellness field, including Dean Ornish's Love and Survival: The Scientific Basis for the Healing Power of Intimacy and Paul Pearsall's The Pleasure Prescription: To Love, To Work and To Play. Time for Life shows, in methodical yet eloquent thoroughness, that the sense of hurry sickness and time famine is illusory and unnecessary: we in fact have ENOUGH time and money to be happy, yet we think we do not. The final chapter is worth the price of the book: called Brother, can you spare some time? it points out that the pace of life is a political issue, and that the commercialization of leisure can be critiqued and questioned, that while most of us lead lives of unbelievable privilege, happiness eludes us. This does not have to be the case. This is a scholarly book, yet accessible to the lay reader, particularly if you skip around some. The cross cultural stuff is fascinating (eg., Japanese people work longer hours yet don't feel the time famine like Americans do.) It is well worth the careful reading this important topic warrants. I am indebted to Mr. Robinson and Godbey for this expression of their life's work. I am deeply grateful, in fact.

Some guides are meant to be read at leisure while sipping tea - and other guides are meant to be carried in your purse and referred to while you are actively figuring out the subway system. The citypack book is definitely the latter of the two. Small, direct, concise, this is not about gorgeous photos and long histories. It is about maps, tips, hours of operation, and how to get there.

I definitely like both the size of this book and how it's laid out. You can quickly skim to the area you're in and figure out what there is to see, how to get there, what the timing is going to be like, and where to find some reliable food when you're done. Yes, it does have some photos too, but they're meant to highlight the information and to help you recognize key locations.

If you're looking for an armchair travel book, there are several others I can recommend for that purpose. However, for actually walking through a city and making your way safely, I definitely recommend the citypack as being ideal for the job.

Tokyo is the most amazing place to visit, and this guide listed so many places to visit without consuming the whole day. The guide suggests 'Daily Itineries" as well as short bits of info. This is the ideal guide for travel! My husband tells everyone that I saw more of Tokyo in 2 week than he did in 2 months while working there. Short and to the point.

This is a great book for anyone interested in Tombstone history, particularly the beginnings of the legendary town. Everyone knows about the "Gunfight at the O.K. Corral," but most people no nothing about the mining that went on in this town.

Tombstone became known as "The Town too Tough to Die" as a result of several catastrophes that plagued the town, in particular, three fires that leveled various parts of town.

Tombstone showcased its resiliency for the world to see when after each tragedy the town quickly rebuilt and resumed normalcy.

This book goes into great detail about the mining and history of the ups and downs of this famous western town.

Anybody interested in the tale of Tombstone beyond a certain gunfight that occurred one blustery October day in 1881 will find a terrific read in "Too Tough To Die." Author Lynn R. Bailey, our foremost chronicler of southeastern Arizona's history, seemingly has been building to this story for years, producing over time a spate of valuable books on related subjects. "Too tough..." brings much of this together.

While its scope is greater, "Too Tough To Die" does not neglect to whistle up a memory of the years 1879-1882, when the town had "a man for breakfast every day," those years before the mines filled with water, the silver market went into decline, and the bulk of the population moved on. While not delving into the detail one would find in Wyatt Earp biographies, Bailey gives the Earps their due, placing them in historical context. Wyatt and his brothers, to the author, while playing a marked and exciting role in Tombstone for a few years, were never true leaders, and many in the town were glad to see their demise. While Bailey's scholarship is unassailable, some with lionizing views of the Earps and their character will disagree with several of his interpretations and conclusions.

What separates this from other books on the subject is the lengthy timeline it covers. Bailey brings Tombstone's historical narrative close to the present day, and gives as full a picture of prominent Tombstoners of later years as we are likely to get. He brings to life movers and shakers of the town- the early and later mining magnates, and those later men and women who believed in the town as a tourist attraction. His theme is the readjustment of the town's economy over a century, to paraphrase the author, from mining silver to mining the cash in tourist's pockets.

Along the way readers will come to understand the structure and machinery of the silver mines, the vagaries of the precious metals markets, and how a mining economy impacts the lives of townspeople. There is much about Indian troubles and how the townsfolk handled them, about disastrous fires, and about newspapermen and the fabled Tombstone Epitaph. There is material on the gambling fraternity, soiled doves, the Pearce mining strike, the infamous Bisbee deportations, and the first Helldorado, begun on the day the New York Stock Market crashed, and more. Bailey relates the effects on the town's image of the writings of Fredrick Bechdolt and Walter Noble Burns, and the television westerns of the 1950s, "The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp," and "Tombstone Territory." It is interesting to note later entrepreneurs' attempts to get townsfolk to dress western for the tourists, and to preserve the architectural look and feel of an 1883 wild west town, especially in light of early day Tombstoners' desire to be a bastion of civilization in the west. There is more surprising and enlightening history here, too much to be mentioned in the space of this review, and the book surpasses earlier works on Tombstone's history by Bechdolt, Burns, John Myers Myers, and more recently, the fine work of William Shillingberg, in scope and detail.

Bailey's sources are extensively noted, the wide-ranging bibliography will be welcome by students and researchers, and the book is generously illustrated. Anyone who has visited the old camp and walked its streets, will find this a gratifying story, told in its fullness, of a town's survival against the odds.

This book shows the front side of every Topps baseball card that was created from their inception in 1951 through 1990, when the book was published. It also includes the "Traded Series" for those players drafted or traded during said year. Each year has a section of what happened in the season during said year, and has a quiz. The quiz asks a question, and the answer is told in the form of a number, which correlates to a specific players card number for that year. This book is a joy to have, especially at looking into the past and seeing the players of yesteryear. The book is heavy, as it is almost 11 pounds, but it is well worth it!

Excellent View of all Topps Baseball Cards Presented Yearly of each cards front face reduced to approx. 20% of the actual size on nice premium glosy thick paper. Hoping that someday maybe the size (larger) and back side of each card can be made in the same format. For now the next best thing to actually owning the entire collection which (Depending of course on condtion) could cost approx. half million dollars. An excellent gift for any baseball card fan of years gone by to re-live there child-hood memories in this massive volume weighting more than 10-lbs.

Rabbi Wein is one of the great teachers of Judaism living today. He is unique in his deep interest in and understanding of Jewish history. In this monumental work he surveys Jewish history from 1650 to 1990. Much of his focus is on Jewish religious life, and the story of the greats of Torah through the generations. He writes with clarity and with a deep faith in Hashgachah G-d's Providential Guidance of Jewish history. His understanding of the significance of the Jewish return to the land of Israel is also profound.
I highly recommend this book for anyone who wishes to better understand aspects of Jewish history not ordinarily covered in most texts. And I even more recommend it for those who wish to strengthen their faith in the God of Israel's special connection with the story of the people of Israel.

It is a dramatic, but truthful history. Makes you proud of being Jewish, without pulling punches. I definitely recommend it.

The authors argue passionately against NATO's military intervention in the former Yugoslavia. They show convincingly that intervention is just a cover for the selfish interests of the NATO powers, and that it will delay, not promote, a durable peace. They also oppose what they rightly call the inhuman economic sanctions that the UN imposed on the people of Serbia and Montenegro.

Now 60,000 NATO troops, including 15,000 British, are going in, supposedly to enforce a cease﷓fire in Bosnia. The authors demolish the arguments of those who call on outside powers to intervene for humanitarian or other reasons. We should recall that the 1918-1922 war of intervention against the Soviet Union started 'to police the armistice'. A Labour Government sent troops into northern Ireland in 1969 on a humanitarian pretext. Now we are at last seeing peace again there, ending that unjust interference and occupation, and we do not want another long-term foreign aggression to start.

The authors judge that "While publicly claiming humanitarian concern, each of the imperialist powers is in reality seeking to advance its own economic, political, and strategic military interests, which conflict in an increasingly sharp way during a period of world capitalist depression." (p. 11) The Western capitalist powers aim to reduce Eastern Europe's countries again to semi-colonies. The US Government wants "to block its imperialist rivals in Europe from getting a firmer economic foothold in the former Yugoslavia." (p. 62) The member states of the European Union, while pretending to have a common policy, pursue their own interests, in Yugoslavia as elsewhere.

The NATO forces will not be holding the ring but rigging the fight. Everyone knows that the USA armed and trained the Croat and Bosnian Muslim armed forces. Remember that the USA, while supposedly bringing democracy to Haiti, was funding death squads that killed hundreds of supporters of the elected government (Guardian, 4 December 1995). If the USA wants peace in Bosnia, why lift the arms ban? As the authors sum up, intervention will probably bring "more deaths, destruction, denial of national sovereignty, and brutal economic exploitation." (p. 18). It also risks spreading the war to other countries in Eastern Europe.

The war in Yugoslavia arose originally from conditions of worsening capitalist decline. The government there cut back on planned cooperation and relied increasingly on market forces. These created competition between regions and enterprises, and deepened regional inequalities, increasing pressures towards devolution and breakup. The government imported goods that Yugoslavs could have produced themselves, running up huge debts and increasing unemployment. Outside forces seized on these internal failings.

The people of Yugoslavia can solve their own problems, by taking the responsibility for rebuilding their country. As an independent socialist country, Yugoslavia enabled its people to live together. They must learn to live together again, a process in which outside forces can play no part.

"What are the roots of the carnage and the developing European war in wake of the collapse of Yugoslavia?

"The answer is not 'age-old ethnic and religious conflicts,' as the daily papers and TV newscasts say. What's happening in Yugoslavia is a product of the crisis and intensifying conflicts of the depression-ridden world capitalist system.

"Rival gangs of would-be capitalists--fragments of the former Yugoslav Stalinist regime--drape themselves in nationalist colors in a war for territory and resources that is against the interests of all working people in Yugoslavia. Washington and its competitors in Europe are intervening militarily to protect and advance their respective interests.

"The articles collected in this book tell the truth about Yugoslavia and why working people the world over should oppose military intervention" (from the back cover).

Sadkovich takes a deserving critical eye at the role of the U.S. media in the wars in the former Yugoslavia. Here finally is an authour who is outlining the responsibility of the mainstream press during the wars. It is only unfortunate his research does not include British and other foreign journalists.

Finally a complete and compelling analysis of the U.S. media and its coverage of the conflict in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Masterfully and methodically, Sadkovich dissects and analyzes all the media personalities, forces, intricacies and often contradictory doctrines that shaped the coverage of the war. Sadkovich not only confronts the "Watergate Syndrome" of the U.S. media head on and explains the "who, what, where, how and why", he exposes the underbelly of the U.S. media and by extension the diplomatic and special interest circles that fueled and manipulated the "image" of the conflict as a civil and ethnic war.

Thoroughly researched and referenced, Sadkovich's work not only scrutinizes the conflict through current complex media theories and international legal frames of reference, but convincingly challenges the prevailing notion of "equal guilt amongst warring factions" and responsibility for the conflict.

Sadkovich not o! nly sets the stage, explains the players and the plot, but also exposes readers to what went on behind the curtain.

His refreshing academic "no holds barred" approach should prove enlightening and educational to both the casual reader and industry professionals who have followed the conflict from the outset. A must read!

The Toronto Star
May 4, 1991, Saturday

A saga of tawdry double dealing
By Paul William Roberts

Unholy Babylon: The Secret History of Saddam's War

By Adel Darwish and Gregory Alexander

....

ANYONE PUZZLED by President George Bush's hypocritical actions during the period immediately following his order reining in Desert Storm's dogs of war will be terminally confounded by Adel Darwish and Gregory Alexander's meticulously- researched saga of the tawdry double-dealing strewn along the road leading to this confrontation with Saddam Hussein.

Back when he was CIA director, Bush was personally responsible for the mass slaughter of Kurds by the Baghdad regime, having urged them to revolt, armed them, then failed to provide any backup. Now, as President, he's betrayed them again, and in much the same way, standing in the ditch he calls high moral ground while Iraqi helicopter-gunships and troops butcher countless thousands of men, women and children. If this is "an Iraqi internal affair" in Washington's eyes, then so was the Nazi holocaust. With 200,000 or so troops still within Iraqi borders, Bush apparently sees nothing wrong with upholding Saddam's sovereign right to slaughter any religious or ethnic faction he feels inclined to. Why?

Unholy Babylon provides answers to this and numerous other tricky questions, raising still trickier questions in the process. Darwish is one of the most respected and authoritative investigative reporters covering Middle East affairs. Egyptian by birth, he currently corresponds for The Independent, which consistently provided critical commentary of the war while most Western media waved the Stars and Stripes like hapless vassals. His co-author, "Gregory Alexander," is regarded by those who are aware of his actual identity as one of the two or three supreme experts on international arms trading. He employs a pseudonym and lives in conditions that make Salman Rushdie's arrangements seem positively freewheeling. I'm betraying no confidence by saying he was once a British army officer serving in the Middle East, and then actually worked in the international arms industry for several years before conscience called.

Although people like Judith Miller (Saddam Hussein And The Crisis In The Gulf) and Samir al-Khalil (Republic Of Fear) have done yeoman's work covering similar territory, Darwish and Alexander, besides having access to stratospherically high-level source material, manage a level of concision and readability that makes coherent sense of close to a century's worth of history, much of it deliberately obfuscated, partially erased, or hopelessly tangled to protect the guilty. Who the guilty actually are is Unholy Babylon's main theme.

The book confirms that Iraq's plot to annex Kuwait was made known to most Arab leaders by February, 1990. Both the CIA and the Egyptian intelligence service warned their respective governments repeatedly, stating unequivocally by late September that Saddam's troops would definitely be moving across the border within days. Presidents Bush and Egypt's Hosni Mubarak chose to ignore these warnings. Why?

Reading this chilling and repulsive tale of big politics and even bigger business, you find yourself yodelling why? every 10 minutes. Why, for example, didn't we see much evidence of the $ 50 billion or so in high-tech arms sold by the U.S. to Saudi Arabia over the last few years? Why was America aligning itself with countries that had human rights records at least as bad as those of Saddam's Ba'athist regime they were conscripted to topple? And why did Bush encourage Iraqi Kurds and Shiites to embark on a civil war if he had no intention of supporting them - particularly since he'd stopped Stormin' Norman from trashing Saddam's war machine when the opportunity was available, and thus knew full well the rebels did not stand a chance against the kind of punch Baghdad could still deploy against them?

The truth is - as Unholy Babylon makes abundantly clear - that Washington prefers Saddam, the monster it made, and a Ba'athist reign of terror in Iraq to the prospect of a Kurdistan which could end up controlling the world's second largest oilfields, and a Shiite state in southern Iraq that would inevitably find itself a satellite of fundamentalist Iran. America's fear of Iran, the authors reveal, is indeed so great it must be considered the major factor in the decade-long cultivation of Saddam Hussein's regime - a cultivation that paralleled the lavish U.S. cossetting of the Shah's Iran, entailing techno-military assistance of the first order, including hands-on involvement by numerous American allies in the construction of weapons facilities more advanced than any outside North America or NATO. They became Desert Storm's first targets.

Besides naked greed and the mega-politics of oil, the only thing approaching reasons and answers this book offers is the suggestion that U.S. foreign policy has more to do with chaos and instability than it does with putting order in the "new world order." As long as the U.S. is creating the chaos, it can operate within it quite happily and much more easily than it could within, say, a truly democratic Middle East.

Darwish and Alexander make no comment on the diabolical facts they began assembling even before August 2, 1990 but I'd like to meet the reader who does not finish Unholy Babylon with a sizzling sense of rage, despair and abject frustration aimed at those we have allowed to govern the allegedly-free world and who have abused that privilege by licensing a wrecking-crew to exploit and enslave the wretched of the Earth.

---
Toronto Star Newspapers
July 6, 1991 Saturday

Authors examine the effects of international greed

Unholy Babylon presents a detailed account of the world's financing of Iraq's military machine and the history of events that led to the invasion of Kuwait and the diplomatic posturing prior to the Persian Gulf War.

Authors Adel Darwish and Gregory Alexander display a sophisticated knowledge of Arab politics and history and the ruthless practices of the international arms trade. They combine extensive research with broad contacts and experience, giving Unholy Babylon an authority and depth that is both fascinating and chilling.

Darwish and Alexander contend that world leaders ignored warning signals, bungled messages and recklessly pursued their own short-sighted goals in the years and months that led up to Iraq's invasion of Kuwait. Again and again, they missed opportunities to curb Saddam Hussein's belligerence, even as Iraqi tanks rolled south towards Kuwait.

Furthermore, leaders of the East and West share the blame for helping create Saddam Hussein's mighty war machine.

Generous loans and financing from foreign governments and banks allowed Iraq to spend between $80 and $105 billion on armaments from 1980-90. During the mid 1980s, Iraq became the world's leading importer of arms. Even after the end of its war with Iran, Iraq continued to pump billions of dollars a year into weapons of mass destruction.

A few diplomats and intelligence officials raised murmurs of alarm, but these invariably were side-stepped by businesses and ministries of trade and commerce who were anxious to sell military wares to virtually any nation willing to buy. Effective embargoes were few.

The effects of international greed were compounded by anxious government and military leaders who were willing to do almost anything to stop the rise of Islamic fundamentalism. Better Saddam Hussein than the Ayatollah Khomeini, they reasoned. Saddam was pleased to take all the armaments they could offer.

Unholy Babylon makes clear that despite official government policy, most nations are prepared to turn a blind eye when arms sales boost local employment and stimulate the GNP.

As U.S. President George Bush trumpets a new policy of international arms control without controlling arms, the world seems to have learned little. Saddam Hussein is bloodied but unbowed. Billions of dollars worth of armaments continue to flow to the Middle East.
--
Hamilton Spectator (Ontario, Canada)

December 4, 1991 Wednesday

...Readers bemused by the peaceniks' vitriolic attacks upon the Americans for the victory over Iraq will find Unholy Babylon most enlightening.

Written by two respected experts on the Middle East, Adel Darwish and Gregory Alexander, the book is sub-titled 'The Secret History of Saddam's War' and reveals much background material not generally known in North America, including Western bungling which allowed Saddam to invade Kuwait with impunity.

Meaty and detailed, yet readily understandable, the book will repay study by anyone wanting more than he finds in the media to understand the Gulf War.

--

The Nation
March 29, 2004

... Adel Darwish and Gregory Alexander in their 1991 book, Unholy Babylon, [reported] that Washington was extremely alarmed by Qassim and the Communists, and therefore wooed the Baath Party as an alternative. When the Baath briefly came to power in 1963, the CIA passed to Saddam Hussein, probably an agency asset, a list of hundreds of Iraqi Communists, whom the new regime liquidated. The Baath was in the wilderness when the coup collapsed, but came back to stay in 1968. Again, Darwish and Alexander report assertions of US backing for the 1968 coup, confirmed to me by other journalists who have talked to retired CIA and State Department officials.

Unholy Babylon is the detailed chronicle of the creation of a monster - Saddam Hussein - aided and abetted by the United States and other western powers. The US needed Saddam, in their estimation, to counter the Iranian threat. The US and European countries were willing to tolerate and to support internal totalitarianism and terror, suppression of dissent by force, gas warfare and other war crimes against internal enemies and Iran, as long as Saddam would fight the Iranian menace. The British looked the other way as Saddam murdered dissenters on their soil. Everyone looked away as virtually every country in Europe, plus the US and Canada, lined up to supply Saddam Hussein with long range rockets and essential atomic bomb technology.
Adel Darwish is eminently qualified for the job of investigating Saddam's empire, having been a veteran foreign correspondent in Iraq before he was thrown out for reporting a major missile testing mis-hap and thus revealing Saddam's secret missile development program.
The hard cover edition of Unholy Babylon has been updated and corrected and is probably well worth the extra investment.
Read this book to understand what is happening now. It has been the source book (sometimes not acknowledged) for several "informed analyses."...