XPost: soc.history.war.misc, sci.military.naval, alt.law-enforcement
XPost: or.politics
IMHO, a quite informative book.
from
https://www.amazon.com/Privilege-Die-Hezbollahs-Legions-Endless/dp/1439143617 rated as a 3.7 by Amazon
"HOW HAS HEZBOLLAH, WHICH HAS NOW WON TWO WARS WITH ISRAEL, managed to
become the most dynamic movement in the Islamic world, why do millions
share its beliefs, and what do they want? The Islamic revolutionary
movement has become the most powerful source of militancy in the Middle
East, forging a mass following and global appeal. A Privilege to Die
offers the first on-the-ground look at the men and women whose fervor
has made Lebanon’s Party of God the gold standard for radical movements across the region and the world.
Through deep and vivid portraits of those who do Hezbollah’s grassroots work—on the battlefields, in politics, in nightclubs, and with scout troops—Thanassis Cambanis, a veteran Middle-East correspondent, puts a
human face on the movement that has ushered in a belligerent renaissance
and inspired fighters in Gaza, the West Bank, Egypt, Iraq, and beyond.
This riveting, remarkable narrative provides an urgent and important exploration of militancy in the Middle East.
Reviews
“Depressingly excellent… Lays out the near-brilliant way in which
Hezbollah manages to be both the party of the downtrodden and the puppet
of two of the area’s most retrograde dictatorships. Cambanis shows how
the trick is pulled.”—Christopher Hitchens, Slate, author of Hitch-22
and God Is Not Great
“An indispensable guide to understanding the region’s most formidable extra-state actor. Cambanis skillfully pinpoints the reasons for
Hezbollah’s political success. . . . In prose that is often eloquent yet earthy, indicative of scholarly erudition as well as a storyteller’s
flair for capturing the complexities of human psychology, Cambanis
describes the seemingly contradictory impulses he discovers.”
—The Christian Science Monitor
Top reviews from the United States
Stuart M. Wilder
5.0 out of 5 stars A readable book diplomats and intelligence officers,
not to mention college professors, must read
Reviewed in the United States on November 29, 2010
Verified Purchase
I will just second, and not repeat , what the two reviews preceding mine
have said about this book. I want to add that Cambanis meets with the
people he reports of in their homes, in their cafes; shares a water pipe
with while he interviews them, asks those he meets and interviews harder questions than we are used to in today's era of friendly, non-offensive reporters, and most importantly, is not afraid to challenge conclusions
he had reached and published earlier upon learning new facts or
discovering he made a mistake. This book is worth one thousand written
by pundits, Washington based reporters, intellectuals and cubicle based
think tank wonks. Hezbollah at this moment is run by unabashedly racist
men who know they can ruin everything by overreaching, made up of
followers who are willing to risk their and their families' lives and
limbs in the belief that their reward awaits them in the next world, by
fellow travelers starved for leadership and a reason to participate in
the affairs of their country, and by international sponsors who think
nothing of threatening the death of millions of innocents. That our
government behaves the way it does in the Middle East with the knowledge
that this group that encourages its followers to believe in the coming
of and work to bring on an Islamic Apocalypse, leaving its friends in
Lebanon in the lurch, is just one of the truly astonishing revelations
and insights of this remarkable, and readable (and well-edited) book.
or
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/reviews/capsule-review/2011-01-01/privilege-die-inside-hezbollahs-legions-and-their-endless-war
Reviewed by L. Carl Brown
January/February 2011
Published on January 1, 2011
In the summer of 2006, Israel launched a devastating incursion into
Lebanon that badly mauled, but failed to knock out, Hezbollah. In the
last days of 2008 and early 2009, Israel moved with equal fury against
Hamas in Gaza, in a short war that Hezbollah opted to stay out of.
Cambanis' intimate account of this recent history, enhanced by stories
of a handful of Hezbollah's true believers and sympathizers, paints a
gripping portrait of this radical religio-political movement. In an
often discursive, largely first-person narrative, Cambanis presents an impressive organization, bearing the awesome title "Party of God," that
is virtually a state within the state of Lebanon. Hezbollah provides
social services. Its leaders live modestly and level with their
followers, thereby earning the group tactical flexibility. Hezbollah
proudly acknowledges receiving support from Iran and Syria and would be
weaker without it, but the group is too deeply rooted in Lebanon to be
the tool of any outsider. Cambanis stresses equally Hezbollah's radical militancy, which makes a more accommodating arrangement within Lebanon
or vis-à-vis Israel unlikely to emerge. Indeed, a depressing theme of A Privilege to Die is the way that less organized, less fervent, and more
corrupt moderates have lost out to radicals since the 1970s.
Stay informed.
Get the latest book reviews delivered bi-weekly.
MORE BY L. CARL BROWN
More:
Middle East
or
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/thanassis-cambanis/a-privilege-to-die/
Hezbollah is a formidable presence that cannot be ignored, and
Cambanis’s book, a well-balanced blend of journalism, history...
If there’s anything to unite the Arab world, it’s opposition to Israel.
If there’s a group to do that unifying, writers former Boston Globe
Middle East bureau chief Cambanis, it’s the much-feared Hezbollah, the
Party of God.
Hezbollah, writes the author, makes for a complex, frightening enemy
that has “put back into popular currency a notion that had lain in
tatters since 1967: that Arab forces could do more than terrorize or
harass Israel—they could defeat and destroy it.
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)