The flap of our generals

Saw the movie "The flag of our fathers" about the battle of Iwo Jima (from the US point of view), and was somewhat disappointed. Its the counterpart to the movie [Letters from Iwo Jima][1], which tells the story from the Japanese point of view. I was not crazy about Letters from Iwo Jima but it was better than this movie.

So, why I am wasting your time? As the wikipedia entry [explains nicely][2] the whole battle was probably a waste of life, resources and energy from the US point of view. But the movie never mentions this, because, well, it would make it less convenient to watch.

The conclusion is not to learn your history from movies (or wikipedia).

Which brings me to an **excellent** book I just read on the civil war: "Battle Cry of Freedom", by James M. McPherson. Which is a line taken from a song, also involving [flags][3]. And so the cycle closes (for people obsessive about closing cycles), with a much grandeur story of heroism, incompetence (of politicians and generals alike), symbolism, success and failure. The great success of this book, is that it leaves you with much better understanding of how complicated the whole affair was. There are no short easy answers, and no easy lines. It is not even clear what were the reasons why the south lost the war (yeh, there are a lot of reasons, but as the book discusses, none of them tells even a large fraction of the story).

And that is what great telling of history is all about - it leaves you much more knowledgeable but with fewer certainties. This book reads much more like a suspense book than a history book (although you know the end [the butler did it, of course]) - I found myself skipping ahead when reading this book and then going back.

And you ask yourself, why should I waste my time reading about the civil war? Well, if you want to understand the US realities of here and now, you need to understand the story so far, and the Civil war is a large fraction of this story. Of course, you dont have too, ypu probably already understand everything about it, because you already saw all the relevant movies…

[1]: http://valis.cs.uiuc.edu/blog/?p=603

[2]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Iwo_Jima

[3]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_Cry_of_Freedom

URL: http://valis.cs.uiuc.edu/blog/?p=613

Bush and Clinton forever

[Bush & Clinton forever][1].

[1]: http://bushclintonforever.googlepages.com/

URL: http://valis.cs.uiuc.edu/blog/?p=609

Made it to Israel

After 40 hours of traveling. Not too bad, overall. Slept a bit, but I am still recovering. The first buisness of the day is to read the weekend newspapers.

URL: http://valis.cs.uiuc.edu/blog/?p=595

[Vanity of Vanities, all is Vanity] Comment: "Did you know that..."

New comment on your post #575 "Did you know that..."
Author : Sariel Har-Peled (IP: 74.134.236.181 , 74-134-236-181.dhcp.insightbb.com)
Comment:
Now it all makes sense:
<img src="http://www.bestweekever.tv/bwe/images/2007/10/PEOPLE_dumbledore_ImGay.jpg"/>

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Quote

> Then you must begin a reading program immediately so that you man understand the crises of our age," Ignatius said solemnly. "Begin with the late Romans, including Boethius, of course. Then you should dip rather extensively into early Medieval. You may skip the Renaissance and the Enlightenment. That is mostly dangerous propaganda. Now, that I think about of it, you had better skip the Romantics and the Victorians, too. For the contemporary period, you should study some selected comic books."
>
> "You're fantastic."
>
> "I recommend Batman especially, for he tends to transcend the abysmal society in which he's found himself. His morality is rather rigid, also. I rather respect Batman."

-- **A confederacy of Dunces**, _John Kennedy Toole_

URL: http://valis.cs.uiuc.edu/blog/?p=551

[Vanity of Vanities, all is Vanity] Comment: "Generalissimo Sariel"

New comment on your post #535 "Generalissimo Sariel"
Author : mrc (IP: 74.136.206.4 , 74-136-206-4.dhcp.insightbb.com)
Comment:
this is what happens when sariel emails me the morning after i've seen The Last King of Scotland -- which i highly recommend. the fine dictator-wear is courtesy of Idi Amin, in the mid-seventies (google-image-search the nice man, it's on the first page of results).

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Comment on Korea 13 - Only a pawn in their game by Sariel Har-Peled

It might be a lie, but it is also seems to be a generally accepted fact that North Korea helped the communists in China during the civil war. See for example the wikipedia [entry][1]:
_North Korea also played an important role, with 30-40 thousand Korean troops from Soviet-occupied North Korea were provided[6] in addition to allowing the CCP to use North Korea as a sanctuary in general,[7] and repairing Manchurian railroads and bridges which were used by Mao.[8]
_

[1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Civil_War

URL: http://valis.cs.uiuc.edu/blog/?p=532#comment-27807