In late March, NBM will release an expanded and revised edition of my 2006 book “Silk Road to Ruin,” my guide to the history and politics of post-Soviet Central Asia: Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Xinjiang (western China).
This paperback edition updates the info from the first edition and adds a new chapter, about my amazing trip to Lake Sarez in Tajikistan.
You can pre-order the paperback edition of “Silk Road” here.
1 Comment.
I am currently in a place with very few people who CAN read English, and far fewer who DO read (in any language). So I was shocked to see Mr Rall’s Manifesto, and I bought a copy. He’s an incredible Pollyanna.
In 1968, a few men chose the nominees for President. The Democrats chose Humphrey, who told the truth: it was impossible to leave Vietnam, since leaving Vietnam would be just like Chamberlain at Munich in ’38, and the US couldn’t possibly win, since China and the Soviet Union had far larger nuclear arsenals than the US (Kennedy and LBJ believed their own lies), and twenty times as many conventional divisions.
Nixon lied and said he had a ‘Secret Plan’ to win unconditionally. And Nixon won the next two elections. Unconditionally.
(As Whimsical says, if progressives had voted for Humphrey, Nixon and Reagan would never have happened. But progressives stayed home and Nixon won. He never provides any evidence for this conclusion, and I strongly suspect it’s wrong.)
After Humphrey lost, the Democrats let all Democrats vote on who should run, and they picked McGovern, who lost by a landslide. An overwhelming majority of American voters all ‘knew’ that withdrawal from Vietnam would be a mistake much greater than Chamberlain’s mistake in Munich (which wasn’t even a mistake, according to most progressive historians).
Today, we have all the New York Times columnists telling all the New York Times readers that Syria has a regime that MUST be changed, and the US has the duty to change it. And most Americans believe what they read in the newspapers. So they strongly support the US forcing regime change in Syria.
I, however, have spoken with lots of Syrians. Those who aren’t Salafi or Wahabbi want to keep the current regime as the best of a bad lot. By far.