Comments on: Kaplan reviewed in TNR, plus more

By: theCardinal

theCardinal — Wed, 05 Oct 2005 19:20:39 +0000

I would not expect any less from someone reared by Susan Sontang.

By: Younghusband

Younghusband — Wed, 05 Oct 2005 13:02:48 +0000

This review did seem pretty misguided to me as well. The criticisms were personal rather than technical. Rieff disdains Kaplan’s comments on the Confederate Army, and insinuates he is a racist. Well, I respect blitzkrieg as a brilliant strategy, does that make me a Nazi?

By: lirelou

lirelou — Wed, 05 Oct 2005 09:15:56 +0000

By citing Larteguy’s “Les mercenaires” along with the Centurions and Praetorians, Rieff has played loose with his cited works, presumably for the purpose of sounding more authoritative. “Les mercenaires”, originally published as “Sang sur la colline” is an account of the Korean War seen through the eyes of a Reserve Doctor, who has volunteered for call-up after discovering that his wife was cheating. Sent to the “French U.N. Batallion” in Korea, he meets up with, and is drawn to, Captain Pierre Lirelou, a colonial infantry officer, former Free French commando, former Spanish civil war accidental volunteer, who has been reassigned to Korea from Indochina after his methods, copied from the Viet Minh, caused him too many problems with corrupt civilian administrators and certain career military officers. The doctors chief assistant, a homosexual enlisted man, is portrayed as a human being. I recall no “rootless Paris cosmopolitans”, or “traitorous leftists”, allthough the post WWII August 44 FFI types don’t come off too well in one small aside during a flashback. The novel does paint a somewhat dim picture of the 2nd US Infantry Division commander, who comes across as a ticket-punching sod more intent on promotion than on his men’s lives (a caricature that would resound with many Vietnam era grunts), but other than that, it is not a condensed version of the two later works cited. Rieff is also incorrect in stating that Larteguy was a paratrooper in Indochina, and he should have done more research. Larteguy was a journalist in Indochina. As Jean Osty, he served in the WWII French Commandos, first in North Africa, and then on their campaigns in metropolitan France as part of De Lattre’s First French Army. Although airborne trained, by the U.S. 82nd Airborne Division, the French commandos never jumped into combat. After the war, the commandos and “choc” battalions were amalgamated into what became the metropolitan (blue beret) parachute units, and one battalion served in Indochina under that name before the remainder were amalgamated with other units to form the 1st Parachute Chasseurs Regiment. What had been the WWII French SAS units, meanwhile, evolved into the Colonial Paracommando (later Parachute) battalions. Larteguy’s conenction to these units, and more particularly their officers and senior NCOs, gave him both a sympathy for them and access into their inner circles. But again, as a journalist and a former paratrooper, not an actively serving member. As for Paul Aussaresses, he would only be one of several officers who served as a model for Julien Boisferas, particularly since he was serving with a non-divisional intelligence unit and not within the 10th Airborne Division. But why waste time. His name is brought up only as a device to raise the issue of torturers, and imply that Kaplan supports such. As a postscript, I do not believe that “Les mercenaires” has ever been translated into English, and the Lirelou above bears no relation or resemblance to Larteguy’s superbly crafted character. We merely share a love for the same patois-speaking section of the Pyrenees.

By: Curzon

Curzon — Tue, 04 Oct 2005 04:09:30 +0000

Yeah, hear hear to Mark. The destruction of civilizations has been the story of human history — see the Celts/Britons, Etruscans, Ainu, etc etc etc etc… just see the wiki article.

By: Tiu Fu Fong

Tiu Fu Fong — Tue, 04 Oct 2005 03:24:47 +0000

Good review in Asia Times Online comparing the US “empire” to the British empire, with a large focus on the quality of the front line empire builders: http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/GJ04Aa01.html

By: R. Elgin

R. Elgin — Tue, 04 Oct 2005 02:35:29 +0000

“Ohmynews” is a “wannabe” news organization whose agenda is not the impartial collection of news but the re-invention of news and fact to support a clearly political agenda, namely anti-Americanism and how misunderstood their North Korean brothers really are.

By: mark safranski

mark safranski — Tue, 04 Oct 2005 02:19:58 +0000

“This is breathtaking. Here is a serious writer in 2005 admiring the Indian wars, which in their brutality brought about the end of an entire American civilization”

The TNR writer here is not very bright. Or is trying to pawn off ignorance as enlightenment.

Not all civilizations are worth preserving. If The great plains were under the sway of the Sioux and Pawnee today, billions would be starving to death across the planet to preserve a way of life that actually had a very, very, short historical shelf-life ( Horses arrived on the plains only with the Spanish) and could be horrifyingly brutal. It wasn’t all ” Dances With Wolves” out there for God’s sake.

The less said about the abattoir-cannibal culture of the Aztecs the better.

By: Eddie

Eddie — Tue, 04 Oct 2005 01:59:43 +0000

Yes, it sucks. The review was up last week (Friday) yet they just now get around to fixing the link problem. Yikes.

By: theCardinal

theCardinal — Tue, 04 Oct 2005 01:34:39 +0000

Nonetheless the TNR site still sucks, it took them 24 hours to fix the link to access the review. In case non-subscribers cannot access the review I posted an extensive excerpt here.

By: Eddie

Eddie — Tue, 04 Oct 2005 01:16:57 +0000

Here’s the Rieff review Curzon:
http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?i=20051010&s=rieff101005