Actually, the problems start with “Kenneth Pollack”
Philip Weiss at the Huffington Post
is shocked to read that “Middle East expert” Kenneth Pollack does not speak Persian or Arabic:
just got a copy of Ken Pollack’s latest book on Iran, The Persian Puzzle, and was shocked on flipping to page 429, the Author’s Note at the end of the book, to read that Pollack has never been to Iran and doesn’t speak Persian, has only dribs and drabs of Arabic.
You’d think a book that purports to explain the “Persian Puzzle” might have offered that disclaimer at the front.
Of course, the real problem is that this is Kenneth Pollack, whose track record as Weiss notices on these matters is not great and by now “Kenneth Pollack” is a synonym for “talks out of his arse” or “ass”, in deference to our American readers.
His previous book, The Threatening Storm was instrumental in convincing a number of cruise missile liberals (*cough*Kevin Drum*cough*) the war on Iraq was a good idea, mainly by being completely wrong on everything to do with the Iraq “crisis”; his new book attempts to do the same for the war on Iran. If anybody is still stupid enough to give him credit, which is not entirely unlikely within the Beltway, as learning from experience seems not to be a trait highly valued there.