Summaries and Customer Reviews are supplied by Amazon.com

Average Customer Rating:

Fundamentally Flawed

Customer Rating:

Baer raises a few interesting points here, but the logic and over-the-top conclusions make the book a fatally flawed one. While Iran and it's proxies have adroitly exploited the mistakes of their adversaries, you can't bank or build an empire on waiting for your enemies to blunder. The US stumbled badly in invading Iraq and in doing so handed a great deal gain to Iran. That Iran took what was handed to them is hardly indicative of some type of Iranian political genius. Similarly, Baer repeatedly sites Hezbollah "victories" over Israel as the basis for a number of his arguments. While the conflicts in question (Israel quitting Lebanon after 18 years of occupation and the 2006 war) may constitute victories in an Arab/Muslim world that has known few, by any objective standard, neither "victory" was anything to write home about. Like the US invasion of Iraq, both spoke more about Israeli blundering than Iranian competence. To his credit, Baer concedes that Iran is willing and able to start blowing up shopping malls if and when needed. He then offers the bizarre consolation that they would only use terror for specific political ends. Unlike the Sunnis, whom he pronounces "deranged", the Iranian Shia are quite rational. Thanks for the clarification. If I get blown to shreds at Ikea, it will be good to know it was a calculated political murder and not just some crazy guys. As for his suggestion that we sack the King of Jordan, he doesn't provide any details or say who is going to serve the eviction notice. Iran has collected the spoils of US and Israeli bungling. That doesn't make them an empire or even particularly clever.

Understanding Other Cultures	Customer Rating:
This is an excellent book. It gives insight as to why certain people that we really don't understand act the way they do.

Almost Great

Customer Rating:

First let me say that I was really excited when I saw that Baer was writing on Iran. I was not dissapointed either. The problem is he seems to be too much in Iran's camp. One outright falsehood is his complete disregard for Al-Sistani: the Iraq shia religious leader, now is he as powerful as Iran? No, but he (according to Iraqis I have talked to while being stationed there) is not just sitting in his house in Najaf waiting to be taken out as Mr. Baer implies: according to my Iraq friends Maliki seeks him out. Now about the negotiations, I agree we should talk to and even negotiate with Iran, but is it much better that they do terrorism for realist purposes as opposed to the Takfiri way of terrorism for pure chaos sake? And who in there right mind thinks the Shia could hold Saudia Arabia? Why because Hezbollah fought the Israelis? That seems to be his rationale, I know he knows the Shia are less than 20% of the Muslim population. Still I would recommend this book as something new and original to any one interested in foreign affairs.

Very Important for America to consider

Customer Rating:

This guy knows what he is talking about and the books well written. I was fortunate to catch Robert Baer's interview with Terry Gross on NPR's Fresh Air" October 2 episode (available for download/podcast) and was astonished. I consider myself somewhere in the middle or higher than average as far as being informed about what goes on in this world, but found that interview astonishing!. I immediately had to run out and get the book. I've now read all three, and am better informed about what is REALLY going on in this country and the world- to the point of nausea, sometimes. Shame on us, shame on them. Our country's leaders have really let us down over the years. It's not too much to expect our leaders, and the leaders of this world, to act with honesty and integrety- rather than acting out of corrupted self-interest. Thank you, Mr. Baer, for sharing your experiences and insight. It's time for things to change- way past time.

Questions for Mr. Baer

Customer Rating:

I couldn't find any contact information for Mr. Baer so I post my question here. I watched Mr. Baer's interview with Stephen Colbert ( [...] ) He says some strange and wrong things about Iran in this interview, such as Iran was involved in 9/11 and those Al-Qaida members were trained in Iran and USA should have attacked Iran instead of Iraq. Then I watched his interview with BBC Hard Talk here: [...] What he says in this more recent interview totally contradicts with what he says in interview with Stephen Colbert, He says that Iran has done nothing to USA and we should negotiate with them and Iran is helping USA in Iraq, etc. I want to know what is the reason of this substantial change ? Are all CIA agents so ignorant and change their opinions so fast and substantial? If that's the case and CIA operations are based on the intelligence reports that people like Baer provide, then I am really sorry for CIA and USA. I am just wondering what was revealed to Mr. Baer between his interview with Stephen Colbert and the BBC Hard Talk interview that so fundamentally changed his view on Iran? My email is payams79@yahoo.com in case Mr. Baer wants to reply to this.