|
|
Article: In the imperial weeds: in his travels with special forces on the frontier of America's empire, Robert Kaplan captures the gritty realities, but not the paradoxes.(On Political Books)(Imperial Grunts: The American Military On the Ground)(Book Review)
- Article from:
- The Washington Monthly
- Article date:
- September 1, 2005
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2005 Washington Monthly Company. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
|
Imperial Grunts: The American Military On the Ground By Robert D. Kaplan Random House, $27.95
There are a few things you might need to know about Yemen. If you're kidnapped, don't get too upset; you're probably just a bargaining chip in some tribal bid for a new water well or a road. Kalashnikovs are everywhere, and so are the long curving daggers known as jambiyas, every local man's obligatory fashion accessory. If you want to bring along presents for local notables, big knives will do fine. Cell phones are popular, as is the Arabic-language satellite TV channel Al-Jazeera, even if, as Robert Kaplan advises us, Yemenis tend to view it as "provocatively ...