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mburnamfink 's review for:
Know Thine Enemy: A Spy's Journey Into Revolutionary Iran
by Edward Shirley
Know Thine Enemy is really three books in one, and all of them mis-titled.
The 'present' of the book is the mid-90s, as Shirley (psuedonym of Reuel Marc Gerecht, former CIA case officer specializing in the Middle East and presently a moderately hawkish DC policy type) goes on a long dreamed of trip into Iran. I can only describe this as the worst idea ever, as it involves smuggling himself over the border in an excruciatingly small hidden compartment in a truck. Shirley will get to see the land-at night, illuminated by headlights, a few cement cities much like any other in West Asia, truckstop tearooms, small apartments, one trip to the bazaar, and a few ancient tombs and citadels. The penalty for being discovered by a wandering patrol of the Revolutionary Guard would be horrific, but Iran is far from an Iron Curtain police state, and Shirley makes it in and out safely--obviously, or else this would be a very different book.
The second part is a kind of anthropological study of the Iranian national character, and the progress of the Islamic Revolution. Shirley describes himself as someone who fell in love with Persia in college, his love comes through in his description of the language, the poetry, and the history of Iran. This, however, is not a textbook and the cultural study is somewhat haphazard and disorganized. Summing up an entire nation is an exercise in futile generalizations, although it is probably fair to say that though the Iranians may chant "Death to America" sincerely, it is not the only thing that they believe about America, and that Persian culture is shot through with contradictions, sudden reversals of Good and Evil, and conspiracy theories. The Iranians are, in Shirley's estimation, a people with martyrdom in their blood. They have been betrayed by their rulers for centuries: Ottoman and British colonial powers, the corruption and brutality of the Shah, the senseless bloodshed of the revolution and the Iran-Iraq War. They love Islam, they hate the Mullahs. They despise the Shah, and want him restored. They are more afraid of American intervention than anything else, and hope America will save them. Do not enter the Middle East expecting simple answers.
The third, best, and sadly briefest parts of the book are when Shirley talks about his career as a spy and gripes about the CIA. Some parts of it are as expected, bemoaning the rise of mediocre bureaucrats instead of culturally sensitive field officers. Some of it is quite insightful, like when Shirley dissects his own thought process on encountering an Iranian businessman in a consulate in Berlin, and goes about probing his opinions as a prelude to recruiting him as an agent.
This book is more than the sum of its parts, but the sum depends on how much you believe the Iran soul can be "known", and whether that knowledge is still relevant. I'd say no, and there's just too much filler about being in that damn coffin in the truck for me to recommend this book.
The 'present' of the book is the mid-90s, as Shirley (psuedonym of Reuel Marc Gerecht, former CIA case officer specializing in the Middle East and presently a moderately hawkish DC policy type) goes on a long dreamed of trip into Iran. I can only describe this as the worst idea ever, as it involves smuggling himself over the border in an excruciatingly small hidden compartment in a truck. Shirley will get to see the land-at night, illuminated by headlights, a few cement cities much like any other in West Asia, truckstop tearooms, small apartments, one trip to the bazaar, and a few ancient tombs and citadels. The penalty for being discovered by a wandering patrol of the Revolutionary Guard would be horrific, but Iran is far from an Iron Curtain police state, and Shirley makes it in and out safely--obviously, or else this would be a very different book.
The second part is a kind of anthropological study of the Iranian national character, and the progress of the Islamic Revolution. Shirley describes himself as someone who fell in love with Persia in college, his love comes through in his description of the language, the poetry, and the history of Iran. This, however, is not a textbook and the cultural study is somewhat haphazard and disorganized. Summing up an entire nation is an exercise in futile generalizations, although it is probably fair to say that though the Iranians may chant "Death to America" sincerely, it is not the only thing that they believe about America, and that Persian culture is shot through with contradictions, sudden reversals of Good and Evil, and conspiracy theories. The Iranians are, in Shirley's estimation, a people with martyrdom in their blood. They have been betrayed by their rulers for centuries: Ottoman and British colonial powers, the corruption and brutality of the Shah, the senseless bloodshed of the revolution and the Iran-Iraq War. They love Islam, they hate the Mullahs. They despise the Shah, and want him restored. They are more afraid of American intervention than anything else, and hope America will save them. Do not enter the Middle East expecting simple answers.
The third, best, and sadly briefest parts of the book are when Shirley talks about his career as a spy and gripes about the CIA. Some parts of it are as expected, bemoaning the rise of mediocre bureaucrats instead of culturally sensitive field officers. Some of it is quite insightful, like when Shirley dissects his own thought process on encountering an Iranian businessman in a consulate in Berlin, and goes about probing his opinions as a prelude to recruiting him as an agent.
This book is more than the sum of its parts, but the sum depends on how much you believe the Iran soul can be "known", and whether that knowledge is still relevant. I'd say no, and there's just too much filler about being in that damn coffin in the truck for me to recommend this book.