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This book describes facts and events that are not easy to find in the press. It gives the reader an insight about world political games and the countries which will shape the future of the world. Melissa Rossi is a humorous and opinioned writer and this book, easy to read and understand, will lead the reader into more reading about other countries and other people, which is very important to open our mind and to understand our geopololitical planet.
This book gives a good quick overview of situations with welcome bouts of humor, but it is horribly outdated. The book was written before Saddam Hussein was "found," so be mindful that politics and the landscape of the war have changed greatly since the book went to press.
The book contains interesting anecdotes and facts on various countries of the world. It is pretty hard to put down.Like GUINNESS WORLD'S RECORD, it needs to be located in the bathroom as short reading materials. The content is amusing and entertaining, something to occupy one's time in a more productive way.
Sit down, kick back, and get plastered while you read this book.Obviously the author did when she wrote it.So full of holes, contradictions, and glaring fairy tales that it makes "Peter Pan" look like a history channel documentary.
We sat down together and researched the points that they found fault with - and the boys were on the money. What I liked:It's organized well - starting with the places that are "ticking" time bombs and gradually working down the ratings of volatility to the nations that are "talkers" (as opposed to "doers" I suppose). near each other in the book. The same paragraph has inaccurate statements about the goal of the mission that sparked the battle and the basic facts of when and how elements were introduced into the operation and what role they played. That is an important point.
It's not a big book, especially since the topic is the world, and so it has to boil down the issues and histories into some brief points. with translation." Aidid's son Hussein Farrah Aydid was a Marine Reservist and had been sent to Somalia to translate and serve as a liaison with his father. For the most part the author does a good job of identifying what is really important to know.What I didn't like:Some of the synopses are so brief as to not be very useful. The Marines had operated in country earlier, and from time to time there were some Marine units offshore, but not for the events described by the author.Some are significant errors. Both my sons take honors level history classes and while reading this book they complained of statements that they thought were wrong. It was apparent when I saw it, slightly annoying (just give me the facts and let me make up my own mind about how I feel about what I've learned) but I learned to just discount it and skip past it.Conclusion:A darn good idea and well organized, but too skimpy on details in some parts and too many major errors to be trusted. However, that had only lasted for three weeks and the younger Aydid had been back at his job the City of West Covina engineering department, updating water maps, counting cars in traffic, etc. Because so many issues tend to cross national boundaries it makes it easy to see how the same situation developed or has been addressed in neighboring places.
And we rely too much on the dominant media to "educate" us on the facts, conditions and histories of countries that are important or where problems make them a place to be concerned about.That said, this book gets a mixed review from me because it does well in some areas and poorly in others. The same section is full of other blatant errors, some of which are minor - "the image of a dead Marine being dragged through the streets." is inaccurate because there were no Marines present in Somalia or participating in the operation. Many of us, myself included, are lacking a good understanding of other parts of the world. for more than ten months before the battle took place.
Inaccuracies were too common. Not exactly wrong, but if you are familiar with the subject being discussed you would likely shake your head and say "that's really not an accurate way to describe the facts." There were several points on which the author just got the important facts wrong. For example, in the section on Somalia on page 143 there is a box containing one very long paragraph that describes what is commonly known as the "Battle of Mogadishu". I bought this book last year because I really liked the concept - a sort of brief guide to the world for Americans. Such as the author's statement that the Somali militia forces brought down two Blackhawk helicopters using "land-to-air missiles." Inaccurate because the Somali's actually used Soviet era Rocket Propelled Grenades (RPGs) which are relatively unsophisticated weapons compared to ground to air missiles. The realization that a Blackhawk was susceptible to incapacitating damage by something as simple and cheap as an RPG was something of a shock. Perhaps more importantly, it is a unproven but widely held belief that Al Qaeda was responsible for discovering this weakness and providing slightly modified RPGs and training to the Somalis in an effort to hurt and embarrass the U.S. The author failed to mention that and it would seem important considering the importance given in other parts of the book to Al Qaeda and terrorism in general.
That last part was the kiss of death for the book as far as I'm concerned. That concept groups countries with similar problems, outlooks, histories, etc. If I can find that many blatant errors in one paragraph I have no confidence in anything else I read. Much of it has to do with how brief some of the author's comments are - it resulted in over simplification of some complex subjects that came across as misleading. Among the things the author got wrong was an allusion that warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid might have been tipped off about the US operation by his son who was a Marine "supposedly helping out the U.S. Others have commented on what appears to be the interjection of politically motivated bias on the author's part. I might give it another half star if Amazon would let me, but not a full three stars.
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