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Reporter Reveals A Diverse Middle East

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By BILLY TOWNSEND

The Tampa Tribune

Published: April 20, 2008

"Dreams and Shadows: The Future of the Middle East," by Robin Wright (Penguin Press, $26.95)

"Charlie Wilson's War," Tom Hanks' movie dramatizing how a carousing, alcoholic Texas congressman managed to steer huge federal funding into the successful 1980s anti-Soviet jihad in Afghanistan, ends with this Wilson quote flashed on the screen:

"These things happened. They were glorious and they changed the world."

And then we messed up the end game.

Wilson lamented that America lost interest in Afghanistan and Pakistan after the Soviet Union withdrew and then collapsed. The implicit suggestion is that this inattention abandoned the region to al-Qaida and modern jihadism.

Completely absent from the movie was any question of its premise. No one bothered to ask: Is this our game to screw up? Has it ever been?

For anyone willing to consider those questions, I would encourage you to read "Dreams and Shadows: The Future of the Middle East," the new book from veteran Middle East and foreign affairs reporter Robin Wright.

It's a sort of travelogue of internal social tumult within Islamic Middle Eastern countries and territories. Wright's journey takes us to Gaza and the West Bank, Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Iran, Morocco and Iraq.

Wright patiently stacks conversation upon anecdote upon custom to build a ground-level view of the widely differing cultural, religious and civic textures unique to each country and people.

I was particularly impressed by Wright's discussions of Iran and Lebanon. She traces how both arrived at the current stalemate that exists between secular modern culture and traditional, socially conservative theocrats. Perhaps because of that stalemate, the political culture within both countries is far more open and far more volatile than that of our ally Egypt and foe Syria, both of which present themselves as soul-crushing secular police states in Wright's book.

Wright's cool-headed reporting and discussion of Hezbollah - and its extraordinarily capable leader Hassan Nasrallah - is by itself enough to recommend the book. Hezbollah is a social and military force with popular support. Wright's reporting suggests an organization capable of acting brutally and rationally in its own interests. But more than that, she suggests a Hezbollah that is constantly analyzing and reassessing those interests.

The Middle East is a roiling region of disparate countries, tribes, clans, religions, sects, nations, secular intellectuals, clerics, intelligence services, militaries, oligarchies, et al. All of these are grinding against each other every day. We, the United States, may set off an earthquake here or head one off there. But Wright's reporting suggests powerfully that telling ourselves we can manage or control these ancient forces in any meaningful way is a delusion.

Billy Townsend is a Tribune reporter in Polk County.

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