Novel Update No.

1
1. Describe the events that happened in the first section that
you read. How did they make you feel? What is your initial
reaction to the novel?
In chapter number one the writer of the book (Robert
Bauer) an ex-CIA agent describes several events that could
lead to an easier understanding of the relations between the
countries in the Middle East and their history, at the same
time trying to open the mind of the reader when it comes to
how modern cultures perceive in an erratic way this region of
the world. Part of this chapter describes how the families of a
bomb man are glorified and they treat them as heroes, this is
something kind of disturbing since we see those people as
terrorist and kill innocent people. For the last part of the
chapter Bauer explains how complicated the Iranian
government think and develops their strategies moving
people as if they were in a chess match as the author
mentions The Americans still do not understand Irans
strategy even after the invasion of Iraq(Bauer, p.22). This is
the real treat to the world not the nuclear weapons they were
accused of developing, Bauer then explains the complexity of
why the attacks on Iraq by the U.S. was the greatest thing
that could have happen to Iran since they could control the oil
industry, according to Bauer in the first days of the war,
Iranian surrogates immediately started to steal hundreds of
thousands of barrels.(Bauer, p.24). My initial thoughts on the
book is that it is interesting since I have not heard ever the
history of what happens in the Middle East and why the U.S.
really attacked Iraq.