A question from one of your classmates

This question about the paper comes from one of your classmates. I would like to encourage you to talk to each other about the papers, so I am posting it here. My simple answer is that you should be able to tell some of his views about US policies toward Iran pretty easily from chapters 4-6 (hint: Mossadeq, Iraq's chemical weapons); what he thinks of US policy in Afghanistan in the 1980s is more subtle, you may have to work harder to tease it out.

I just want to be clear about what I am supposed to write about and where I will be getting the informatioin from. I am up to date on the reading of all 5 chapters in the Fisk book. From the reading of the first 5 chapters there are times in each chapter that Fisk will make comments about America or the current administration. Maybe I have forgotten some of what I have read but I don't recall him speaking directly about Afghanistan and Iran and America's policies. I guess my question is from the 5 questions that you would like for us to answer are you saying that I will be able to get my information from the first5 chapters? I know that you also gave us a blog to use as a source (Middle East Reading Notes Blog). Also, when you say that Fisk iscritical of Americas policies are you talking about the 2001 War inAfghanistan and the Iran-Iraq war? As you can see I am confused and Ijust want to be clear, could you please direct me in the right direction?

Perhaps it will help if I post a couple of background articles about Afghanistan in the 1980s to give context to what Fisk is saying. Stand by...