Fareed Zakaria interviews Niall Ferguson in an episode of Foreign Exchange. Old Fergie has a thing or two to say about Iraq, comparing it to the Eastern Europe of the 20th century of all places! Give it a look below and wot wot! to the Chief for the link.


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He ends on a rather optimistic note. The discussion was very interesting. Indeed, during the first part of the interview, I was thinking What about India?. And then they brought up that topic. A very thought-provoking 13 minutes. Thanks YH!

von Kaufman-Turkestansky added these pithy words on 16 May 07 at 5:37 pm

On the subject of multiculturalism… if it is possible to have a successful, well integrated, multicultural society then it would already have happened. As for his final comments, I agree. As good as the U.S. military is, America should stick with what it’s really good at; technology development. Using the Army to affect the course of other nations just doesn’t pump water in the bucket anymore. If you know what I mean.

Jason W added these pithy words on 16 May 07 at 6:05 pm

Eastern Europe is an apt comparison both under the Austro-Hungarian empire and Communism to the factional and sectarian violence experienced in Iraq currently and the propping up of a nation-state with fairly incompatible ethnic groups by a foreign power. My only concern is that while the Serbs/Albanians/Croats/Kosovars were basically fighting for land and nationalism, the Iraqi one will degenerate into a pitched conflict for the Sunni triangle mixed with religious entanglements. While I wouldn’t say the rest of Iraqi land is useless (Basra and access to the Persian Gulf come to mind), the abundance of oil in the Triangle versus the absence of oil otherwise in Iraq is noteworthy and a cause for concern.

alec added these pithy words on 17 May 07 at 2:08 am

Fergie??

Curzon added these pithy words on 17 May 07 at 8:28 am

Great stuff. Thank you, YoungHusband.

snow added these pithy words on 21 May 07 at 4:53 am

Are we referring to British royalty Fergie, or Fergilicious Fergie??

alec added these pithy words on 21 May 07 at 7:35 pm

correct me if im wrong alec, but isnt most of Iraq’s oil in the north in areas around kirkuk and in the south around Basra rather than the sunni triangle. If anything its the sunni triangle thats more or less worthless, explaining why the people there are so pissed.

sydaus added these pithy words on 10 Sep 07 at 4:15 pm

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13 minutes with Fergie on Iraq

Posted on 16 May 07 by Younghusband. Subscribe to follow comments on this post. 7 comments. Add your thoughts or trackback from your own site.

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