Gray Lady goes to war

Because television and Web coverage is so grim, shrill, and relentless, I've been following the war with Iraq primarily via newsprint. The New York Times has been excellent, summarizing the day's events on the front page of its "A Nation at War" section and publishing a daily map on the section back showing battles, terror attacks, and other developments in the country.

Paul Berman has written two recent pieces for the Times that are worth a read: a profile of the late Sayyid Qutb, a philosopher who has become a Che Guevara figure for Islamist terrorists, and an op-ed piece about the "Report on the Transition to Democracy in Iraq," a report written by Iraqi exiles about post-war plans.

What I like about Berman's work is that he's digging into source material -- Qutb's books, the Iraqi report -- to better understand what's going on here. He has a book coming out in April called Terror and Liberalism that sounds intriguing.

2003/03/31 · 0 COMMENTS · Link