Reviews
This page logs my quick review of books, podcasts, movies and essays.
Book review: Black Wave, by Kim Ghattas. Score: 8.5/10 (reviewed August 2024)
Readable and a good primer to understand contemporary history of the Middle East, extending to Afghanistan and Pakistan. The book chronicles the cold-war between Iran and Saudi Arabia that started in the late 1970s and continues to this day.
I was struck by the fascinating role of innovative "bootleg media" to foment revolution. In late 1970s Iran it started with cassette tapes smuggled out of Iraq and spread across a diaspora of disaffected Shia muslims. Over time the modes of diffusion have evolved tremendously, particularly in the last 10 years, with social media platforms on phones that are designed to exploit the neural and emotional plasticity of every kid on earth.
I enjoyed the book for the profiles of power that it presented of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and Mohammad bin Salman ("MbS"). For example, Khomeini had shown persistent indifference to the plight of millions of disaffected Shia Muslims in Lebanon, but he wisely saw the plight of Shia Muslims in occupied Palestine as a catapult to power, though he never actually did anything to help them. He adroitly harnessed support from Western intellectuals and media (Michel Foucault, Peter Jennings...) who were predisposed to let almost all of his underlying character get "lost in translation". Khomeini also brilliantly harnessed support from Iranian intellectual leftists, communists and (arguably) the oil industry that initially also drank the kool-aid and thought this was a guy with which you could cut a deal.
Although the book seems to try to remain neutral between its portrayal of Khomeini and the House of Saud, it is pretty clear the author is more horrified by the transnational impact that the Saudi leadership has had in funding global muslim radicalization. The power and propaganda of the Khomeini regime is portrayed as relatively small-time compared to that of the Saudi leadership, and nothing speaks to this more powerfully than Saudi's masterful control of US support, even after the 2001 September 11 attacks in NYC that were designed, funded and executed by Saudi nationals. One of the most damning character portrayals in the book is that of Mohammad bin Salman ("MbS") although, writing today (mid 2024) we're probably only in the early chapters of the full scope of MbS' exploits. Side note: one of my acquaintances was at the November 2017 Ritz Carlton conference where 31 year-old MbS staged his infamous coup and tells a funny story of MbS’ adolescent bad-ass behavior at the conference (sitting on presentation stage slouched way back on chair, legs wide open) and how it was irritating much of the elite that would find themselves under his house arrest a few days later. I expect that leaders of both the US Democratic party and Republican party are compromised with Saudi money, but I suspect there are more tentacles wrapped around D Trump.
Black Wave ends with an implausible and inconsistent hopeful note - odd, as I can't imagine this being turned into a movie. The book chastises Western readers for lamenting the inability of the majority of moderate Muslims around the world to stand up to despots, while then citing many examples of younger intellectual Muslims (including the author herself) who criticize their parents for letting this happen.
Most disappointing for me is that I never made it to Beirut, a place that in my imagination has always been a mecca of spectacular beauty (not of the architectural sort), great nightlife and delicious food topped-off with robust sugar-dosed coffee in charming cafes filled with even more spectacular beauty. Credit to this perfect post-card image goes to some friendly Lebanese acquaintances (ok, just one) that I made in London about 25 years ago. Anyway, Iran and Saudi are definitely culpable for the destruction of my Beirut.