Current State of Me 1-23

Listen: Fast Car by Tracy Chapman. Excellent song, excellent lyrics.

Watch: A Disquiet Follows My Soul: The second episode of the last part of the final season of Battlestar Galactica is on the SciFi Channel tonight at 10/9c. This is a great show. I almost wrote it off as just another sci-fi show for geeks. I gave it a chance, however, and it's very very good. It's won numerous awards and was even called the best drama on TV by Time Magazine. Give it a chance.

Check out: A word cloud of the key words used during Barack Obama's inaugural speech.

Read: Going off of yesterday's recommendation of Robert Baer's The Devil We Know, here are three quotes from the book to think about:

Still, Amin believes the United States misunderstands Iran by an unnecessarily wide mark. On one level, Americans are too distant from the Middle East, too naive to understand its complexities and history. On another, it's the people who show up in Washington--Iranian and Arab exiles nursing a grudge, with time on their hands and money to pay for a hotel--who influence U.S. policy by default. They color Washington's view of the world, drawing us into foreign adventures we have no business being in. (15)

...it [Iran] is a country that hides behind appearances. He went on, 'It's not the veil that blinds Iranians. It's the veil that blinds you. Americans see the turban, not the brain.' That's another thing Amin learned to do trying to explain Iran to outsiders: reduce complexities to sound bites we're comfortable with. (16)

The problem is exacerbated, as Amin said, by exiles--usually homesick Iranians who remember an Iran of their dreams. They make themselves indispensable in Washington, in its think tanks, and with Beltway contractors peddling expertise on Iran. But almost invariable the exiles' only service is to promote their own personal interests, which usually come down to changing the regime in Tehran. This is the same malign influence we saw in the fifties when the China lobby convinced us to back Chiang Kai-shek, or today with the Cuban lobby blocking reconciliation with Castro's Cuba. Iraq, though, is the real parable for exiles suckering Washington into a debacle. (17)

Thought: Apparently, I'm on the same page as those watched the inauguration address at the Foreign Policy lunch table. For us both, the highlight of the speech was this statement. Especially the last line:

To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you're on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.

A statement of supreme rhetorical eloquence, not to mention deeper meaning.