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Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
Club Notice - 01/25/91 -- Vol. 9, No. 30
MEETINGS UPCOMING:
Unless otherwise stated, all meetings are on Wednesdays at noon.
LZ meetings are in LZ 2R-158. MT meetings are in the cafeteria.
_D_A_T_E _T_O_P_I_C
01/30 LZ: RITE OF PASSAGE by Alexei Panshin (Adolescence)
02/20 LZ: MARTIANS, GO HOME! by Frederic Brown (Social Satire)
03/13 LZ: TOM SWIFT by Victor Appleton II (Juvenile SF)
_D_A_T_E _E_X_T_E_R_N_A_L _M_E_E_T_I_N_G_S/_C_O_N_V_E_N_T_I_O_N_S/_E_T_C.
01/19 NJSFS: New Jersey Science Fiction Society: TBA
(phone 201-432-5965 for details) (Saturday)
02/09 SFABC: Science Fiction Association of Bergen County:Lawrence
(phone 201-933-2724 for details) (Saturday)
HO Chair: John Jetzt HO 1E-525 834-1563 hocpa!jetzt
LZ Chair: Rob Mitchell LZ 1B-306 576-6106 mtuxo!jrrt
MT Chair: Mark Leeper MT 3D-441 957-5619 mtgzy!leeper
HO Librarian: Tim Schroeder HO 3B-301 949-4488 hotsc!tps
LZ Librarian: Lance Larsen LZ 3L-312 576-3346 mtunq!lfl
MT Librarian: Evelyn Leeper MT 1F-329 957-2070 mtgzy!ecl
Factotum: Evelyn Leeper MT 1F-329 957-2070 mtgzy!ecl
All material copyright by author unless otherwise noted.
1. As I write this the Persian Gulf War is four days old. Of
course all wars have their acronyms. The Vietnam War had MIAs, the
DMZ, and the "VC incurring into the DMZ." This war does also. You
hear a lot about the PLO. But by far the most common acronym so
far this war is the CNN. I guess like pretty much everyone I am
following what is happening in the Gulf with the "prime-time" war
where all the major events seem to fall into my television-watching
time, so much so I expect to turn it on at 7 PM and see a recap,
"Last night in 'The Gulf Crisis' ..." followed by an "And now we
continue with the story."
This war everyone seems to be watching on CNN. High-ranking
military people are giving unsolicited testimonials for CNN
coverage. Well, I suppose they are unsolicited. I'd hate to think
THE MT VOID Page 2
the people commanding our side are supplementing their income with
product placement. It has occurred to me that if Saddam Hussein
really wanted to make his will felt he could have his agents in the
United States take out CNN. Of course, that would be a mistake
because much of his intelligence information comes from CNN. I
wonder how that makes Ted Turner feel.
I have tried to imagine Saddam Hussein watching CNN. It's kind of
tough imagining some of the great nasties of the world watching the
same stuff I do. I have it from a high-placed, reliable source
(actually a Trivial Pursuit card) that Adolf Hitler's favorite film
was _K_i_n_g _K_o_n_g. Somehow it is tough to imagine old Adolf getting a
real charge seeing Kong duke it out with a tyrannosaurus. I guess
it's something Adolf and I had in common. But it is tough to think
of Hussein watching CNN. When he sees a bomber drop a charge into
his military headquarters, do his eyes light up and does he say to
himself, "Hey! I recognize that building! I've been there!"
Does Hussein watch the same CNN commercials we do? Do they work on
him? When he hears that his new palace has been flattened, does he
order, "Get me an aspirin. No, make it a Tylenol gel-cap. I trust
Tylenol." Does the self-styled leader of the Arab world feel bad
because his telephone isn't shaped like a football? Does he wonder
what the big deal is about the _S_p_o_r_t_s _I_l_l_u_s_t_r_a_t_e_d swimsuit issue?
(Actually, I've seen it and I still don't know.) Does he make
plans that if he has to flee the country he'll loot the treasury
and invest heavily in Elvis plates from the Bradford Exchange? I
bet right about now he could go for some dollar-a-week life
insurance with no medical checkup required.
2. Collected from Usenet (warning--spoilers ahead):
My name is Batman. You killed my father. Prepare to
die.
My name is Darth Vader. I _a_m your father. Prepare to
die.
My name is Freddie Krueger. I killed your father.
Prepare to die.
My name is Freddie Krueger. Your father killed me.
Prepare to die.
My name is Hamlet. You killed my father and slept with
my mother. Prepare to die.
My name is Locutus. You are irrelevent; my father is
irrelevent. Prepare to die.
My name is Norman Bates. I killed my mother. Prepare to
die after I put on this dress and wig.
My name is Oedipus. I killed my father and slept with my
mother. Prepare to be grossed out as I rip my eyes out.
Mark Leeper
MT 3D-441 957-5619
...mtgzy!leeper
A Batch of Midi-Reviews
Copyright 1991
By Dale L. Skran Jr.
Copyright 1991 Dale L. Skran Jr.
_S_u_r_r_e_n_d_e_r _N_o_n_e - _t_h_e _L_e_g_a_c_y _o_f _G_i_r_d
by Elizabeth Moon
Elizabeth Moon is best known for the "Deed of Paksenarrion"
trilogy, a sword-and-sorcery epic concerning a sheepfarmer's daughter
who becomes first a mercenary and then a paladin. The series features
more realistic combat than most and is certainly readable. _S_u_r_r_e_n_d_e_r
_N_o_n_e is a prequel to the trilogy that tells the tail of how "Gird," a
god-like figure in the trilogy, came into his reputation.
Once again there is extensive focus on realistic combat and
especially on training for combat and the logistics of combat. Magic
actually plays a very minor role in story. Overall, readable and even
enjoyable, but not a great work.
_D_e_a_t_h'_s _H_e_a_d _R_e_b_e_l_l_i_o_n: _W_a_r _W_o_r_l_d _V_o_l_u_m_e _I_I
created by Jerry Pournelle
edited by John F. Carr and Roland Green
This "mosaic" story continues the threads of the John Christian
Falkenberg universe into a new period. The "Saurons" have come --
genetically engineered to be perfect soldiers -- they attempt to conquer
and fail in all-destroying battle. Though the Empire of Man destroys
the Sauron homeworld, one ship survives and finds its way to Haven, an
isolated colony world where they seek to establish themselves anew. The
catch is that Haven is a lot like Harrison's Pyrrus -- not a place you
really want to live -- and the humans who already live there plan on
having something to say about the future of the Saurons.
With authors like Larry Niven and Harry Turtledove it is hard to go
to far wrong. Unfortunately, the Saurons are portrayed as being too
much like a combination of Nazis and Spartans to be believable. There
are many unanswered questions in this universe - why is genetic
engineering _o_n_l_y used to produce super-soldiers? Why is technology so
little advanced beyond our own in 2637? The best story is "Brenda" (by
Niven). It concerns a Sauron woman who crashes on an Earth colony (not
Haven) and ultimately passes herself off as human.
Overall, this series is interesting reading, but no more
fundamentally believable than Buck Rogers.
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_I_n _t_h_e _C_o_u_n_t_r_y _o_f _t_h_e _B_l_i_n_d
by Michael Flynn
This is the first book I've read by Flynn, and I admit to being
sucked in by the intriguing jacket blurb, which reads "What if there
really were a secret conspiracy running things behind the scenes ...
and they were incompetent?" The story begins with a young reporter
finding a warehouse full of old but workable Babbage mechanical
computers sometime in the late 1990s. It takes a bit, but eventually
she realizes that not only is the history we have been taught an
incredible shell obscuring a terrible reality, but that there is *more
than one* group seeking to manipulate history for their own ends.
Unfortunately, the technology they are using is less than perfect.
However, in the land of the blind the one-eyed man is King ... unless
someone kills the King.
Although certainly readable, Flynn is not a brilliant stylist, and
the book reads like many a best-selling thriller, albeit with a more
interesting premise. This volume contains many entertaining historical
speculations, although the characterization is a bit on the weak side.
I look forward from hearing more from Flynn in the future.
MIND CHILDREN
THE FUTURE OF ROBOT AND HUMAN INTELLIGENCE
by Hans Moravec
Harvard University Press, 1988
A review by Dale L. Skran Jr.
Copyright 1990 Dale L. Skran Jr.
[First published in PYROTECHNICS, the newsletter of General
Technics, and reprinted here by permission of the author.]
Hans Moravec is a well-known robot researcher at Carnegie-Mellon
University. In _M_i_n_d _C_h_i_l_d_r_e_n he has produced his first work of
speculative science. Although interesting, it is unlikely to win the
Pulitzer ala Hofsteader's _G_o_d_e_l, _E_s_c_h_e_r, _B_a_c_h, or Sagan's _B_r_o_c_a'_s _B_r_a_i_n.
Initially, Moravec describes some of the history of robotics and
his personal part of it. He then works through a calculation of the
computing power of the human brain, develops a metric for the comparison
of computer hardware with organic brains, and extrapolates computer
evolution forward to the point at which first a so-called "super-
computer" and second a personal computer will have human equivalence in
raw power (about 2010 and 2030, more or less). Although moderately
convincing, this analysis is not complete, and could easily be off by an
order of magnitude. However, due to the rapid growth of computing
power, this would not delay human equivalence in computers very much.
Moravec then explores the history of AI briefly, and lays out his
support for "bottom-up" or robot-based AI as opposed to "top-down"
mainframe AI. Moravec splits the difference, and predicts that the two
will meet half-way in the fairly near future, resulting in a robot
cottage industry as thousands of entrepreneurs strive to produce
specialized robots, much as thousands of programmers today labor to
product software tools and games. Moravec envisions, for example, a
plumbing robot, a stair-building robot, a window washing robot, etc.
Moving beyond the immediate future, Moravec makes an argument for
personality downloading and "pattern-identity" as opposed to "body-
identity." The downloading argument is fairly plausible, especially in
its weaker form, which allows for the gradual enhancement of human
capacity via bio-cybernetic add-ons. Eventually, the organic part of
our brains might be such a small part of the whole as to make
downloading straightforward. Moravec dismisses genetic engineering as
merely the production of robots using inferior materials.
This opinion neatly sums up one side of Bruce Sterlings fictional
(_S_c_h_i_s_m_a_t_r_i_x, _C_r_y_s_t_a_l _E_x_p_r_e_s_s) Shaper/Mec stories. In Sterling's
fictional future, humanity is divided into two camps: the Shapers, who
use genetic technology to improve themselves, and the Mecs, who abhor
genetic engineering and rely instead on mechanical and electronic
enhancements to the human body. Although I enjoyed Sterling's stories
greatly, I always found this dichotomy a bit silly, and was surprised to
- 2 -
find Moravec arguing so ardently for the Mec position. One hopes that
the conflict between these two views will not result in the centuries
long war envisioned by Sterling, since both approaches can be used at
the same time. Given our history of past conflicts over relatively
abstract issues (Protestantism vs. Catholicism, Capitalism vs.
Communism) this may be too optimistic.
To carry the speculation further, even intelligent robots may be
body-identified. The real long-term conflict may be between those who
prefer bodies (organic _a_n_d inorganic), and "cybernetic ghosts" who find
them inconvenient.
Moravec also mentions a side effect of downloading - backup copies,
and considers a few of the implications. This theme is explored in much
greater depth by the SF writer John Varley in many books and stories,
but notably "Overdrawn at the Memory Bank."
Moravec also discusses the re-creation of the dead via simulation,
but unconvincingly. First, except for a very few famous people, we just
don't have enough information to create a good-quality simulation of,
say, my great-grandfather. A few pictures and a box of letters won't do
it. Second, although a person much like the original might result,
unless they were directly downloaded, there would be significant gaps
between simulation and the original. Note that I am not contending that
the simulation would not be human, just that it would not be the
original person. Although this might be an interesting experiment a la
Silverberg's "Enter A Soldier, Later, Enter Another," it is not an
immortality that would appeal to most.
In one of the more imaginative and original sections, Moravec
discusses that possible creation of self-perpetuating information
"wildlife" on every level of abstraction (from machine code to high-
level software structures), and buttresses his case with some hair-
raising ARPA-net stories. He details a cybernetic existence analogous
to our biological existence, in which we are surrounded by a sea of
parasites and dormant viruses that occasionally give us serious trouble.
The recent Signaling System 7 crash that affected long-distance phone
service nationwide suggests that Moravec's vision is not far-fetched.
Finally, Moravec considers the possible infinite extension of
consciousness either by altering time or by moving beyond our universe.
Here he is clearly out of his depth, and is borrowing from better minds
than his.
All in all, _M_i_n_d _C_h_i_l_d_r_e_n is a worth-while book for those
interested in the romance of technology as well as the forward-looking
technical professional. Moravec's robot cottage industry may be the
basis for the latter half of many of our careers.
THE CRYSTAL SINGER by Anne McCaffrey
A book review by Frank R. Leisti
Copyright 1991 Frank R. Leisti
This wily woman writer has collected together various shorts
published in magazines and has created a new series to rival that of the
Pern series. Well, not quite yet, but she has made an excellent base
upon which to bring forth wondrous stories and adventures from.
While not on the order of evolution as the "Dragonriders of Pern"
series, this first book on the crystal cuckoo or silicate spiders has a
dramatic impact on this reader. Imagine a world of such grayness and of
such terrible storms, whose winds can exceed Mach speeds, three moons
and a huge amount of water bringing changes destruction in various
cycles. From this world, crystals in the ranges have been formed into
amazing things of beauty, structure and form.
The Heptite Guild governs the entire planet Ballybran, where
everyone in the Guild is a member paying 30% of their salary as a form
of tax and protection. We learn about a young talented singer,
Killashandra Ree, who in a fit of frustration embarks on an odyssey
where she can take a lead part out of the entire universe of Federated
Planets.
Upon meeting a Crystal cutter, or the more flattering term, Crystal
Singer, she discovers more about his profession and decides that she
will become one. We follow her journey through the indoctrination and
examination and basic tutoring when she is on the planet. The down side
of this job application is that if you do not become a Crystal Singer,
you can never leave the planet.
We discover more about Killashandra as she undergoes her training
and medical transition and finally goes to cut crystal. While she
believes that she is in charge, we find her manipulated by the Guild in
search of the fantastic Black Crystal--segments of which allow
instantaneous communication.
A wonderful idea and book. I have re-read this book many times,
and each time, its impact is such that I often dream of the planet
Ballybran and have further adventures in its realm. How reassuring to
know that a second book is published about Killashandra.
I would rate this novel at +3 for its effect on me and the
wonderful planet from whence these crystals have been formed.
IN BETWEEN DRAGONS by Michael Kandel
Bantam Spectra, 1991, ISBN 0-553-28814-8, $3.95.
A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper
Copyright 1991 Evelyn C. Leeper
_I_n _B_e_t_w_e_e_n _D_r_a_g_o_n_s is Michael Kandel's second novel, his first
being _S_t_r_a_n_g_e _I_n_v_a_s_i_o_n. (Before setting off on his own auctorial
career, he was best known as the translator of Stanislaw Lem's works
into English.) _I_n _B_e_t_w_e_e_n _D_r_a_g_o_n_s to some extent is similar to _S_t_r_a_n_g_e
_I_n_v_a_s_i_o_n in that both deal with heroes attempting to save the universe,
or at least the world, from some terrible menace. Both also deal with
the question of "what is reality?" But where the main character of
_S_t_r_a_n_g_e _I_n_v_a_s_i_o_n is a schizophrenic, the main character of _I_n _B_e_t_w_e_e_n
_D_r_a_g_o_n_s, Sherman Potts, is a teenage boy who travels to the worlds in
the books he reads in Mr. McGulvey's library. The choice of Sherman as
the hero's first name is perhaps unfortunate, given the publicity about
_T_h_e _B_o_n_f_i_r_e _o_f _t_h_e _V_a_n_i_t_i_e_s which talks about _i_t_s "hero," Sherman McCoy,
leading to possible confusion in the public's mind. But in many ways
Sherman Potts is more a "Master of the Universe" than Sherman McCoy, so
who knows? For all I know, it could be intentional. Anyway, Sherman
travels to worlds full of dragons, psychic enemies, and disappearing
food. All this isn't enough for him, though, and his attempt to travel
to the world of the "Lust Kittens" makes the whole structure start to
unravel.
Having never been an adolescent boy, I can't say how accurately
Kandel has portrayed one, though one does have the inkling that Kandel
may have been one himself. While I thought this was not up to _S_t_r_a_n_g_e
_I_n_v_a_s_i_o_n, other readers may disagree, but in any case it is certainly an
interesting perspective on adolescence.
FLIGHT OF THE INTRUDER
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1991 Mark R. Leeper
Capsule review: Pretty pictures, stupid story. The
air-war of a previous conflict is occasionally
entertaining to watch but the plot is cliched as are most
of the characters. This film's only chance is to follow
the current wave of interest in military equipment.
Rating: low 0.
Had I not actually seen a copy of the book _F_l_i_g_h_t _o_f _t_h_e _I_n_t_r_u_d_e_r
by Stephen Coonts, I would have had a hard time telling if this was a
very weak story given classy military equipment photography and quality
special effects treatment or if this was just a collection of classy
military equipment photography and quality special effects tied together
by a very weak excuse for a story. During World War II a lot of B war
movies carried stories just as good to the bottom half of double bills.
We are talking _H_e_l_l_c_a_t_s _o_f _t_h_e _N_a_v_y-level plotting here. In 1972
Vietnam we have an aircraft carrier ruled over by a cigar-chewing,
mean-as-a-junkyard-dog-but-heart-of-gold sort of commander. Danny
Glover plays the Black commander with the unlikely name Frank
Camparelli. One of his bright young pilots, Jake Grafton (played by the
uninteresting Brad Johnson) agonizes over the loss of his bombardier.
The companion is lost in a raid that accomplishes nothing besides adding
visual interest to the opening credits. Grafton wants to go on a
super-special raid of his own devising. But this raid is directly
contrary to orders. His top-gun replacement bombardier Virgil Cole
(played by Willem Dafoe) says absolutely not. Does Jake get to make his
super-special raid on North Vietnam? And if he does, what is the Navy's
reaction?
The weak story is, however, punctuated by pretty pictures of
planes, helicopters, and aircraft carriers to keep the audience
watching. If this film stands any chance with audiences it is in the
fortuitous timing of this film coincident with a sudden upsurge of
interest in technical weaponry. Indeed many people may find events in
the Middle East resonating with attitudes in this film. On the other
hand, maybe some people would prefer to stay home and watch technical
weaponry on television.
_F_l_i_g_h_t _o_f _t_h_e _I_n_t_r_u_d_e_r is directed by John Milius, who is
specializing in gutsy films like _A_p_o_c_a_l_y_p_s_e _N_o_w (which he wrote), _C_o_n_a_n
_t_h_e _B_a_r_b_a_r_i_a_n, and _R_e_d _D_a_w_n. The score is by Basil Poledouris, the
gifted composer of the scores for the "Conan" films, who seems
repeatedly associated with films with right-wing themes. Poledouris
scored _R_e_d _D_a_w_n, _A_m_e_r_i_k_a, and _T_h_e _H_u_n_t _f_o_r _R_e_d _O_c_t_o_b_e_r.
_F_l_i_g_h_t _o_f _t_h_e _I_n_t_r_u_d_e_r is linked in advertising with _T_h_e _H_u_n_t _f_o_r
_R_e_d _O_c_t_o_b_e_r, but it falls well short of that film's interest value and
quality. My rating is a low 0 on the -4 to +4 scale.
WHITE FANG
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1991 Mark R. Leeper
Capsule review: Nice photography, nice score, nice
dog, good script mostly new even to those who have read
the book. Rating: low +2 (-4 to +4).
Walt Disney Studios continues to make films that old Walt would
have been proud of. They are better films than Disney himself was
making toward the end of his life. While it is not necessarily true of
the Touchstone line, when a film comes out under the Disney title, it is
worth seeing. Films such as _N_e_v_e_r _C_r_y _W_o_l_f, _T_h_e _J_o_u_r_n_e_y _o_f _N_a_t_t_y _G_a_n_n,
and _W_h_i_t_e _F_a_n_g have more in common than just the curious link that they
all try to vindicate wolves: they have good scripts with well-crafted
dialogue. Disney's staff may be among the most accomplished nature
photographers in the world. And they appear to be the only studio that
seems to make sure all their prints are on high-quality, blemish-free
film. While it probably will not stand with some of their better
efforts of the past, _W_h_i_t_e _F_a_n_g is fully up to Disney's photographic and
writing standards.
_W_h_i_t_e _F_a_n_g has a decent story which takes some of its ideas from
the novel by Jack London. Perhaps the film's biggest failing is that it
really is very different from the novel. While the novel linearly
follows the story of the dog, the screenplay follows two often crossing
lines, the story of the dog and the story of a young prospector who has
come to the Klondike to inherit his father's gold mine. Ethan Hawke
plays Jack Conroy, who slowly learns to survive in the wild with the
reluctant tutelage of Alex Larson (played by Klaus Maria Brandauer).
Disney apparently is not ready yet to have animals as his main
characters the way Annaud did in his film, _T_h_e _B_e_a_r. Speaking of that
film, incidentally, Bart the Bear, who played the big, strong, silent
hero of _T_h_e _B_e_a_r, gets to try his paw at playing a villain in _W_h_i_t_e
_F_a_n_g. He has a high old time chewing up the scenery in a small but
important part and, like Brandauer, seems a little too big for his role
as written. Conroy arrives in the Klondike and climbs the "Golden
Stairway" in an impressive and spectacular scene. At the top he teams
up with friends of his father, Larson and a delightful old prospector
played by Seymour Cassel. Then, in a sequence that does not quite make
geometric sense, they cross country but repeatedly run into first a
she-wolf and later her cub. The hazards of surviving in the spectacular
desolation are well represented in the film.
The nature photography is flawless, with huge vistas of craggy blue
ice. Against this backdrop you see the wolves playing and dancing.
Unfortunately, not all the photography is as original as it usually is
in a Disney film. Whole sequences seem borrowed from _T_h_e _B_e_a_r and one
nice underwater shot was inspired by _T_h_e _B_l_a_c_k _S_t_a_l_l_i_o_n. The score by
Basil Poledouris, who also scored the current film _F_l_i_g_h_t _o_f _t_h_e
_I_n_t_r_u_d_e_r, is very good and in some ways reminiscent of his best score,
_C_o_n_a_n _t_h_e _B_a_r_b_a_r_i_a_n.
My rating for _W_h_i_t_e _F_a_n_g is a low +2 on the -4 to +4 scale.
SADDAM HUSSEIN AND THE CRISIS IN THE GULF by Judith Miller and Laurie Mylroie
Random House, 1990, ISBN 0-8129-1921-1, $5.95.
A book review by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1991 Mark R. Leeper
It is generally the case that when there is a news event of
national or international implications that dominates public interest,
enterprising publishers will try to provide timely, books to give
readers background on the situation. Such a book is Miller and
Mylroie's _S_a_d_d_a_m _H_u_s_s_e_i_n _a_n_d _t_h_e _C_r_i_s_i_s _i_n _t_h_e _G_u_l_f. The window of time
when such a book will be optimally useful is, of course, short. This
book bears a 1990 copyright but includes text reprinted from a "Middle
East Watch" report dated November 10, 1990. I can only conclude that
the book was up to date in late November or early December. I bought
the book January 13, 1991, and finished it January 20, 1991, distracted
by not totally irrelevant events in the news
To some extent the haste with which the book was prepared is
evident. The organization is not always as clear and logical as it
might be. Some information appears more than once, though that may not
necessarily be a bad thing. Judith Miller is from the _N_e_w _Y_o_r_k _T_i_m_e_s
and is a former Cairo Bureau Chief, a former Washington Deputy Bureau
Chief, and currently a special correspondent on the Gulf Crisis. She
wrote the shell of the book about the take-over of Kuwait, Iraqi-
American relations, chemical weapons, and Kuwaiti-Iraqi relations.
Laurie Mylroie of Harvard's Center for Middle Eastern Studies wrote a
six-chapter insert giving Hussein's background and Iraqi history, and
then a history of Hussein's rule of Iraq. Another chapter was written
by Jerome Levinson on petroleum policy. Sadly missing is an index,
which would have made referencing the book much easier.
Most interesting and readable are the sections by Mylroie whose
histories of both Hussein and Iraq, first separate, then merging, are
both grisly and authoritative. Neither of the authors equivocates on
the violent nature of the man or the police state that he has brought
about in Iraq. I can say that I have read a fair amount about the
Holocaust perpetrated by the Nazis in Europe and find some of what
Hussein's regime has done in Iraq comparably disturbing, though done on
a much smaller scale. Some insight is added by Mylroie's biography of
the political-assassin-and-torturer-turned-national-leader who
visualizes himself as a real-life Don Vito Corleone. Miller sees
Hussein, at least in part, as a man venting his rage on the powers he
defended in the Iran-Iraq War, but who failed to come to his and his
country's defense and financial aid in the years following that war.
The conclusions section, authored by Miller, disappointingly
prosaically concludes we are fighting this war to protect our oil
interests. She harangues the West for its addiction to vast quantities
of oil. I agree that this is a concern to the Western powers, but I do
Saddam Hussein January 20, 1991 Page 2
not see that as the most pressing reason this war is being fought. My
opinion, admittedly a minority one, is that the Western powers, through
financial greed and desire for political leverage, have sold or given
the Iraqi regime the means to build superweapons. Then, too late, they
realized that placed Iraq on a collision with Israel, who already had
superweapons. Allowing the conflict to take place would have been too
dangerous for the world. In many ways this war is an extension of the
1981 Israeli raid on Iraq's Osirak Reactor, an action publicly condemned
and privately applauded by the Western powers. Now Israel could no
longer defuse the situation and the Western powers could only at the
cost of war. It is a frightening war, but less frightening than its
alternatives. Miller and Mylroie talk of the
nuclear/chemical/biological capabilities the Hussein regime was
accumulating as part of the overall portrait of the brutality of
Hussein, but they do not adequately consider defusing that was machine
as a real reason for the war. I do think that the authors and I agree
that this war is _n_o_t being fought because of our moral outrage that one
country should take over another, an outrage we would have to have
developed since China took over Tibet.
_S_a_d_d_a_m _H_u_s_s_e_i_n _a_n_d _t_h_e _C_r_i_s_i_s _i_n _t_h_e _G_u_l_f is most valuable for its
presenting a wealth of background information at the right time. While
the authors say their goal is to help understand the kind of man Hussein
is, in fact they only harden the reader's resolve that this may not be a
man one wants to understand. And the book's hasty construction shows a
few too many seams. Nevertheless, no better source of timely war
background information is known to me. In that vein, this book is
recommended.