Talking Heads
I have long been fascinated by the Green Mountain Academy. They are an organization based here in Manchester that hosts all kinds of interesting gatherings, seminars, "brown bag" lunch time meetings, on all the subjects that an inquisitive, inquiring mind would find intriguing. A lot of it involves political stuff, foreign policy and international affairs — all those things I love and cherish — but also a helping of cross-cultural dialogues that cover a range of topics. Year after year, they tap into the wealth of knowledge and expertise that always surprises you exists here — as in I didn't know that guy lived in....... take your pick of towns right here in the neighborhood.
Last night was another example of this when they hosted a panel discussion on the Middle East featuring four really interesting guys — Barrie Dunsmore, the former ABC-TV foreign correspondent and newscaster, Mansour Farhang, a Bennington college professor, Haviland Smith, a former CIA agent who for my money stole the show with his straight talk and Ronald Spiers, a former ambassador and State Department foreign policy expert.
The problem I have with panel discussions like this is that everyone is in broad agreement about what they think about the issue at hand - in this case the numerous problems of the Middle East. Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, Israel, Palestine — it never ends.
Panels like this one are great. There can never be too little of informed discusssion, even among like-minded people, of important issues such as those presented in the Middle East. Next time, it would be great to have someone who came at it from the other side, if not a real-deal neocon, then someone who wasn't a card-carrying member of the Bush-is-always-wrong crowd. It would havetaken the discussion to another level.
We did get some towards the end anyway, when a couple of pro-Israeli folks took issue with the suggestion that it was up to Israel to make a few concessions to the Palestinians to move closer to a settlement of the evil seed that poisons everything else in the Miiddle East.
Anyway, like I said, Haviland Smith was for my money the most interesting. Finally someone was willing to come out and state forthrightly to a crowd completely inclined to see the Iraq War - and possibly one coming in Iran - as being all about oil.
Not so, says Smith.
What are they going to do with it but sell it?
There's lots of easier ways of getting oil than going to war over it. Thank you.
So what did the rest of you think about the evening? I'd like to hear.