"AFGHANISTAN a country study", Dept Army Pamphlet 550-65 5th edition, January 1986, 400+ pp. As I write this review, I see that an updated November 2001 edition of this book has only just now become available. The 5th edition was written during the Soviet occupation and war against the mujahidin resistance.

As usual with this excellent series, the author gives a concise summary of the nation's historical, geographical, cultural, political, economic, and military aspects for his readers. What I especially found most helpful, in light of more recent events, were both his detailed description and analysis of the previous 10 years of history and political developments through the end of 1985 as the Soviet Union came to dominate, invade, occupy, and devastate Afghanistan and the detailed explanation of the differences and relationships between the 15+ major Afghani ethnic groups separated by language, religion, geography and history. The author includes an extremely astute analysis of Soviet political, economic, and military strategy and tactics which led to their withdrawal from Afghanistan in 1989, defeat of the Najibullah regime in 1992, and the subsequent fundamentalist Islamic state ruled by the Taliban.

Having read several other DA pam 550 Area Handbooks, I was struck also by the author's appropriate use of humor in many places, which is not usually found in other area handbooks or in federally funded documents in general. Unfortunately, this series is not updated as frequently as I would like it to be. Obviously, an annual edition is not necessary since other government agencies perform that function but I would like to see more frequent revisions of titles in the series which incorporate the most recent current events and available economic data on a 4 or 5 year cycle whenever possible.

"Afghanistan: Lifting the Veil" is well-titled, as it helps educate what and why the people, the Taliban, bin Laden, al Qaeda could be what they are in Afghanistan.

Reuters is one of the best positions possible to see what is going on. As the top int'l news agency, they know the lay of the land, and the issues surrounding things.

It is not overly academic, and is accessible by the intelligent reader. It brings more to the table than simple American anger, or sadness for the loss of the WTC. Instead, Reuters shows the whole of the matter, demonstrating the grays and well as the black and whites of the circumstance.

I fully recommend "Afghanistan: Lifting the Veil" by Reuters.

Anthony Trendl

This is the greatest intertwining bunch of short stories I ever managed to stumble onto (in the San Antonio Public Library back in '86.) In fact, it was this book that got me started. I've been writing stories ever since. Ms. Littledog has an uncanny talent for taking and amplifying the most mundane situations, and causing the ordinary reader to see his or her life as 'so cool,' much like the Jarmusch movie 'Stranger Than Paradise' does. 'Afoot in the Fields....' is a lot like that film, only w/a kaleidoscope of colors, too. When I was growing up. we used to say, concerning our favorite lps: There ain't a dog on this album, man. [And likewise, there ain't a dog in Littledog's work.....]

This work of original research is not your "run of the mill" dinosaur book. It makes extensive use of European archival sources to seamlessly weave both history and palaeontology together to tell the story of Tendaguru. It is detailed, thorough and challenging! The photos, many seen for the first time, are awesome.

Dear Reader:

Joseph E. Harris' best selling book "African-American Reaction to War in Ethiopia 1936-1941" prevail vividly the historical facts and the African-Americans and other Africans reactions. Mr. Harris dedicated his research to bring the strong relationship between Ethiopians and African Americans. You will read more in detail about the aggressive movement of the African-American to defend Ethiopia from Italians' fascism in the following manner: the African-Americans wrote a letter to the city mayor all the way to President Roosevelt. They boycotted the Italian own business and demonstrated on the America streets against Italian. They enlisted to go to Ethiopia to fight the war beside their Ethiopians brother and sisters.

I'm going to take the direct quote from the book to show the deepness of the relationship and its highest pick during mid 1930's as one of the African-American statement.

...a tendency to avoid the label of Negro in favor of Ethiopian. One black American said, "I do not want to be called Negro, colored, or [n-word]. Either term is an insult to me or you. Our rightful name is Ethiopian." (P. 7)

African Americans was significantly enlisted in different cities in America to go to Ethiopia to fight the Fascist Italians. The American State Department issued a statement based on the legislation:

..."American citizen shall be deemed to have expatriated himself when he had been naturalized in any foreign state in conformity with its laws."

The African Americans viewpoint to the American State Department as Orhardo Andrews, of New York City, stated.

"First the Africans who are residing here and all the West did not come here voluntarily, but by an act of kidnapping which today is punishable in the United States by death...As for loosing our citizenship of this country, we don't give a nick about that. This citizenship is of no value to us.... If you country can not protect us when we are citizens and living here, why should we worry about it?" (P. 41)

In the same book you would learn about Ethiopians who were resided in American. Dr. Melaku Bayen was one of prominent among the many Ethiopians who worked with African American in New York City. He was also the editor and the father of "ETHIOPIAN REVIEW" magazine as far back as in the early 1930. You can request the copy of the magazine form American Congress Library. The magazine encompassed all the black people in the globe. It was rich with Pan-Africanism ideology.

I found it diligently researched book to learn the oldest relationship between Ethiopian and African-Americans. I recommend for anyone who would like to learn the magnitude support Ethiopia received during 1935 to 1941 mainly from our African American brothers and sisters.

I'm certain the book will also shed some light to understand the recent Ethio-Eritrea border conflict.

I recently was engaged in a major research project focusing on the foreign policy orientation of Iran. This book proved to be an invaluable tool. If you are interested in Iranian economics, domestic politics or Iran's geopolitical orientation, then I whole heartedly suggest this book. A must read to understand the Middle East as a whole.

The shocking thing about this work is that it is publically available. It provides a remarkable look into the process and forces that are driving United States air operations (for good or ill) in the Joint arena. It should be required reading for every military aviator. Its only essential flaw is that it began as commissioned study, and its customer is obvious.

Of course, this is no reading book. But any person who has an interest on air war in the pacific MUST have this book. This is a chronological day by day and theater by theater account of missions, units movements and victory claims for all US air operations, be it Army Air Force, Navy or Marine Corps. All this is served by excellent indexes that make it easy to find what you are looking for: places, poeple, units, you name it. In a nutshell - The perfect reference book.

The authors provided a host of factual information and quotations, providing a vivid picture of the military conquest by theUS-led military forces in a short, quick read compact format. Theirfollow up book on the weapons that will be employed by the united states in its future wars against powerless 3rd world countries is cause for great concern.

Ten years after its publication, this slim volume stands up to the test of time. The essays, all written prior to the beginning of the Gulf War, soberly examine the rationales and likely outcomes of the then unfought conflict. Then-president Bush's "New World Order", the use of threats to the oil market as a rationale for the war, and long term problems in the mid-east are all critically dissected and little justification is found for military intervention.

Possibly the most interesting part of the book is the essays on the oil supply. A pro-war administration and its pundit allies in the press predicted sky high prices if America didn't strike against "naked aggression." An excellent case is made in "A War for Oil?" that no such thing would have occurred and the fact that oil prices have continued to decline over the past ten years, even with the restricted output and other disruptions in the oil supply, helps put the lie to such wild claims.

This book is an essential addition to the library of anyone interested in critiques of America's foreign policy and especially to those who are concerned with the tendency of the U.S. to intervene militarily abroad.