On Thu, Nov 15, 2001 at 02:38:59PM -0500, Seth Ackerman wrote:
> Brad Delong wrote:
>
> > >What's your evaluation of the war? You've been away a long time;
> > >bring us up to date.
> > >
> > >Doug
> >
> > Look:
> .
> Brad, I read your website piece on the parallels between the Christian and
> Islamic reformations and I thought it was incredibly perceptive. I had
> exactly the same thought when I read Mahmoun Fandy's book on the politics of
> dissent in Saudi Arabia.
>
> He describes all these underground ultra-fundamentalist Saudi dissidents and
> analyzes their sermons and political tracts and they are amazingly similar
> to the weird underground English religious dissidents from the Civil War
> era -- diggers, ranters, etc. -- all with these bizarre theological ideas
> and conspiracy theories about the local political scene.
>
> Having said that...
>
> > The only thing I would disagree with is (4): that on balance it seems
> > to me that the situations in Bosnia, in Serbia, and in the Persian
> > Gulf are considerably better than if the U.S. had not intervened
> > against Slobodan Milosevic and Saddam Hussein.
> .
> ...you've seen the UNICEF, WHO reports, etc. about the apocalyptic rise in
> child and maternal mortality, malnutrition, water-borne illnesses,
> educational breakdown and social dislocation in Iraq. As a rare economist
> who gives weight to such indices, how can you say the situation in the
> Persian Gulf is better now than if the war and embargo hadn't happened?
>
> Seth
>
-- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929
Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu