Joel C. Rosenberg. The Twelfth Imam. Tyndale, 2010.

I confess to reading a series out of order. A friend lent me a copy of The Tehran Initiative, which I have already reviewed. The Twelfth Imam is the first in the series.

As noted in that review, the Twelfth Imam is the Shiite Muslim messiah, the Mahdi, as they call him. Unlike the Sunni Muslims, the term Imam is not used to describe any Shia clergy. That is an honorific only certain historical Shiite leaders who are descendants of Mohammad himself can have.

We meet David Shirazi, who is the protagonist of both novels, and learn his background. It is more intense than we realize from just the second book. We learn about his family, his education, his talents, his recruitment by the CIA from the time he was in high school. While an agnostic himself, he does begin to observe Shiite customs and attend mosques in the United States and Germany to establish his background.

When he finally gets “in country” in Iran, he learns that many people, including the top political leadership of the nation are getting excited about the coming of the Twelfth Imam. There is a man who has appeared mysteriously to seemingly random Iranians and performed miracles. Even the Supreme Leader, the Ayatollah, has come under his spell.

At one point this reader was reminded of a novel from the 1950s titled The Ugly American. It is actually a collection of related stories telling about different Americans working in some aspect of the foreign service and how they are clueless about the local cultures. They end up doing things that the local people either do not understand or find offensive. I seem to recall one, for example, was trying to help people in India by starting to import beef cattle.

Not only is Shirazi an Iranian-American whose first language was Farsi, but he reads up on the Shiite eschatology and realizes that the Twelfth Imam is a huge deal in Iran. But his superiors dismiss his reports even though it is the Imam himself who is encouraging Iran to ramp up its nuclear weapon program. Like the ugly Americans in that fifties book, some people just do not get it. Washington, D. C., is not the center of the universe.

We also get a back story to Shirazi’s sometime girlfriend, Marseille. Her family and David’s become friends because of some mutual aid they provide to escape Iran when the American embassy is seized in 1979. That is before either of them are born, but it becomes part of their family history.

So does September 11, 2001. That is a sudden surprise, but Rosenberg tells in the story such a way that it rings true.

Because of the back stories, The Twelfth Imam takes a little while to get going, but it all comes together. The last third of the book is a real page turner in the style of many spy or international thrillers.

Because of its subject matter, The Twelfth Imam gives the reader a lot to think about. Is the Twelfth Imam the real deal? Well, he is consistent with Muslim teachings. While the Persians have the tradition of the Twelfth Imam, as an alleged descendant of Mohammad, he is an Arab. He calls for unity among all the Muslim sects and sounds like he can make it happen. It is not secret that the Apocalyptic goal for Muslims is world conquest and a worldwide Caliphate.

There is one fascinating scene in the novel that truly makes a statement about that. Rosenberg describe a scene between the Imam and the Grand Ayatollah Hosseini (all the “current” government leaders are fictional). The Supreme Leader of Iran and his advisors are all bowing prostrate before the Twelfth Imam.

“Hamid,” said the man…”do you remember what happened on the mountain?”

“Yes, my Lord,” Hosseini said, his face still pressed to the ground. “You showed me the glories of the kingdoms of the world.”

“And what did I say to you?”

“You said, ‘All these things I will give you, if you fall down before me and do my will.’ And I have endeavored to do just that ever since, My Lord.” (293-294, cf. Luke 4:5-8)

Very pointed. Both Islam and Communism claim to be movements that the world is destined to adopt entirely. Both often use violence to gain power, but the ultimate goal is world domination, whether through the Caliphate or the classless society. I recall being surprised years ago reading something by Osama bin Laden. Even though he had fought the Soviets in Afghanistan, he believed he could get the Chinese on his side to help establish his Caliphate.

This also helps explain the unusual hostility both Communism and Islam have towards Christianity. Christianity has its own eschatology, but it does not involve world conquest in the manner of Marx or Mohammad.

The Kingdom of God is very different. Jesus gained his authority not by conquest of geographical territory, but by winning willing human hearts. He demonstrated His authority over sin and death by rising from the dead. Jesus says, “I stand at the door and knock,” not “submit or else” as both Communism and Islam insist upon (see Revelation 3:20).

Anyway, the Imam not only promotes Islamic unity, but he provides his backing to the Iranian nuclear weapon development. Shirazi, working undercover as a technician and salesman for a German telecommunications company, learns about some of this, and when an earthquake topples the Iranian city of Hamadan, he begins to suspect that the earthquake was caused by an underground nuclear test.

Meanwhile, the head of the Iranian nuclear weapons program is killed by a car bomb, and one of his associates wants out of the program before he is killed. While nearly everyone suspects the car bomber to be an Israeli agent, we really do not know for sure.

Shirazi gets involved in a plot almost as complicated as Argo. Indeed, the original Argo exploit is part of the back story. The Twelfth Imam gets exciting and truly apocalyptic. Even though I would recommend reading the tales in order, I am glad I read this one even if I did not read it first.

Sarah Z. Sleeper. Gaijin. Running Wild Press, 2020.

Gaijin means “foreigner” in Japanese. It does not have an especially positive connotation. There are several Gaijins in Gaijin.

The narrator, Lucy Tosch, is the primary gaijin. As an undergrad journalism major at Northwestern, she falls in love with a handsome, exotic student from Japan named Owen. Yes, his parents chose an English name for him. The author describes the attraction with a passionate intensity. At one point, she says she does not understand it, maybe it is pheromones. I said to myself, “With emphasis on the moan.”

Owen introduces her to his mother who comes with him to America. They have a few dates, but their relationship remains chaste. Suddenly, Owen leaves Illinois for Japan with nothing more than a text message saying goodbye and sorry.

Lucy, who was still struggling with the recent passing of her father, is heartbroken. I am not sure I ever in a novel read such a moving description of heartbreak. Perhaps I have red something similar in poems or heard it in songs, but not in a novel. We feel for Lucy.

Lucy continues to dwell on Owen and eventually ends up in Japan. Well, Okinawa, which has been ruled by Japan since 1879. Here, not only are there many American gaijins from the U. S. military bases, but we are told that the Okinawans consider Japanese foreigners, too. The Ryukyu Islands, of which Okinawa is a part, have their own language and distinct culture.

It turns out Owen’s family, though living in Tokyo for three generations, originated in Okinawa, and Owen’s brother is a photographer for the newspaper in Okinawa that hires Lucy. She hopes to perhaps connect with his brother Hisashi and find out what has happened to her first love.

The story gets complicated quickly. There has been an ongoing movement among some in Japan to have the American military bases leave Okinawa. Even a left-wing journalist like Lucy gets lumped with the American soldiers and sailors and experiences a terrible crime against her along with many threats. Even Hisashi gets threats because he is perceived as an outsider from Tokyo.

In some ways both brothers are outsiders, gaijins, in their family. We are told that their father is ashamed of both of them, though Lucy cannot see how that is possible. They are both intelligent, attractive, hard-working young men. It may have something to do with them not going into the family business. There may be other things.

There is more. An American sailor is charged with raping a teenage Japanese girl whose family is vacationing on the island. Anti-American demonstrations heat up. Lucy learns a little about the Americans stationed there and becomes acquainted with a few American families who, for different reasons, have retired to Okinawa when they left the service.

And then there is Aokigahara, the Suicide Forest. That becomes almost a subplot or secondary theme of the story, the practice of ubasute, “abandoning the weak.”

There is a lot to this intense story. It may begin as a love story but really turns into something else—strange, weird, and, yes, foreign. Foreign even to the Japanese, perhaps.

This reviewer does have one quibble with this book. It is odd, but another book we reviewed had a similar error. Lucy tells us she meets a Marine Corps medical doctor. Well, the Marines do not have doctors. The Marines are part of the Navy, and Marine bases use Navy physicians just as they use Navy medical corpsmen.

Also, the man she identifies as a Marine doctor has the rank of captain in her story and has been in the service for six years. The rank of Marine captain is the same a Navy lieutenant. For a regular officer, that would be a typical rank after six years, but because of their extra education, Navy doctors are commissioned as lieutenants when they first join. After six years, he would probably be a lieutenant commander.

Sandra Cisneros. The House on Mango Street. 1984; Vintage, 2009.

The House on Mango Street was mentioned a number of years ago on the Advanced Placement English Literature Exam.¹ I happened across a copy and decided to pick it up.

The House on Mango Street is a collection of sketches. Nearly all of them are three pages or less. They do not so much tell a story as give a sense of place and time. Mango Street in Chicago is where the narrator Esperanza and her family move when she is junior high age. It may have been set in a certain place and time (the sixties) but the tales are universal.

The sketches mostly describe the various people and families that live on the street and attend Esperanza’s school. She gradually becomes more aware of the world around her and more aware of what it means to be growing up.

Probably the most engaging chapter is entitled “The Family of Little Feet.” Esperanza and two of her middle school friends try on some high heels and strut around the neighborhood. It is the first time that some of the men and boys notice them. The experience is both exhilarating and scary. It shows her the effect a young woman can have on men, but it also suggests something that Esperanza is not ready for.

There are winners and losers. There is a young bride whose husband turns out to be abusive. (There is an undercurrent of abuse in a number of the sketches.) Some people in the neighborhood are destined to rise up and out as the American Dream comes true for them. Others, tempted by drugs and crime, will waste their lives.

Some of the people look back. Esperanza envies one friend who still speaks of her hometown in Mexico. They go back to visit, and some day, her friend tells her, she will return to live there. Others, like Esperanza herself, are not so much uprooted as unrooted, to coin a term. She rattles off all the streets they lived on before Mango Street. Now her family owns the house, but she is not sure that is where she belongs.

Cisneros at heart is a poet, and these sketches are more like prose poems. There is a tenderness and attention to detail that come through.

Back in the eighties, when Salinger was still very much alive, a student asked me why we did not read Catcher in the Rye in class. She loved the book and some of her friends at another school had studied it in their English class. I told her that it was written by a contemporary American, and you are a contemporary American. You do not need a teacher to understand it, other than maybe a few symbols you might miss. I would rather spend time with a book that you need a teacher for.

To illustrate, back in the eighties I used to feel that way about The Great Gatsby. I do not any more. Back then my students knew people who had fought in World War I and remembered the Roaring Twenties. Even many of the songs in the book were ones they had heard. A lot of them had seen gangster films set in the twenties. I have taught the book in some classes for about fifteen years now. Many of the students have not even heard of Al Capone these days.

Anyway, I would certainly recommend The House on Mango Street to any student taking the English Literature AP test or not, but I would honestly not know how to teach it. Cisneros is still with us. She is a contemporary American. The book speaks for itself.

Note
¹ By the way, your reviewer will be taking part in the Advanced Placement Exam reading for the next week starting tomorrow. We will all have things to learn this year with the combination of the manner in which the test was given online and with the new essay scoring system.

Brian Nelson. The Last Sword Maker. Blackstone, 2019.

At one point in The Last Sword Maker there is an epigraph that quotes H.G. Wells writing about “atomic bombs” in 1914. Thirty years before the first actual atomic bomb and only a few years after Einstein discovered the significance of E=mc², Wells was imagining the potential destructive power of atomic energy.

The Last Sword Maker does something similar with nanotechnology. As Wells turned some of his speculation into popular fiction, so author Brian Nelson speculates on possibilities of nanotechnology as a weapon. In doing so, he has created a real techno-thriller.

As I write, I am still waiting out the coronavirus scare.

We read in the novel that hundreds of villagers in Tibet are dying of a mysterious disease that seems to be very selective about who is killed. It is as if the virus is political. We soon discover that the Chinese have created what amounts to man-made viruses, like invisible drones, that identify their victims by their DNA, enter their bodies, and duplicate themselves till the host dies.

At one point the author tells us “If you sat twelve Tibetan men down, all but two or three of them would have served time in Chinese jails” (87). He insists that what he shares about Chinese history is accurate, even if it is not well known.

Just this week I read an article, originally published in Foreign Policy, about Chinese abductions of political enemies from foreign soils. Nelson has the Chinese abduct a number of his main characters from the United States, not because they are political enemies but because the Chinese want their technical know-how. They want to beat the United States in creating a sophisticated man-made nanovirus weapon.

Their cause? The same cause that has been the cause for all brutal regimes in the last century and a half: “the tide of history” (268). But we realize its force comes not so much historical inevitability as it does from something else.

Yet, there was a powerful system controlling these people. And that was the other thing he felt in the Great Lab: fear. (316, Italics in original)

Why do we hear little about such things in the West? We all know the answer: “They were all too afraid of upsetting the great economic behemoth” (54).

The Last Sword Maker, though, is not a political tract.

Wunderkind Eric Hill, Admiral James Curtiss, and others are working on an American top secret project to create microscopic nanocomputers called nanosites that can replicate themselves, acquire information, and perhaps be used as a sophisticated and virtually invisible weapon.

There are many twists and turns. Admiral Curtiss carries some guilt for the loss of life in a successful war operation years ago in the Middle East. Now he may be faced with something similar. The Americans have spies in the Chinese facility; the Chinese have spies in the American facility. Will the Chinese steal American technology for their weapons the way the Soviets stole plans for the atomic bomb during the Cold War?

This is a big deal. Like some of Wells’ writings, there is an element of science fiction here, but this is not far-out technology like Star Wars hyperspace. We know that nanotechnology is real. Chips are getting smaller and more powerful. They make information-gathering drones that resemble insects. We really do not have much further to go.

The story is set in 2025, only five years away. Will there be such a weapon then? It is plausible. No, no one ever built a submarine like Red October, but the technology was plausible in 1984. It is scarily not much different now with the technology Nelson is looking into.

There is one term associated with artificial intelligence in this novel that is new to me. We have heard people like Ray Kurzweil speak of singularity—the point in history when artificial intelligence will behave identically to human intelligence. Here the computer techies speak of the Big Bang (268): When they develop artificial intelligence that communicates with human intelligence so that the brain can absorb and access all the information on the World Wide Web. That appears to be a step beyond singularity. Will we be able to handle it? Or will people like the X-Men actually come into existence?

Yes, The Last Sword Maker is a thriller, and most readers who read it for that will not be disappointed. But it surely raises a lot of other interesting questions and ideas as well. Read it for the adventure; think about it afterwards for the significance of the story.

Brad Thor. Spy Master. Pocket Books, 2019.

Spy Master is another installment in the saga of Scot Harvath, one of the two spy masters in this story. The author expresses disdain for what the CIA has become: an established bureaucracy with a middle management doing nothing out of fear of rocking the status quo. (This reviewer recalls an old saying: “What kind of person do you never find in the CIA? A Republican.)

Harvath, then, works for a private firm that does intelligence outsourcing. In some ways Spy Master is an updated version of Red Storm Rising, Tom Clancy’s second novel. That story was about a Soviet plan to take out NATO, and much of the action takes place in Iceland.

Spy Master is set in contemporary Europe, but Russia is still trying to take out NATO. First, as always, sabotage and cyberwarfare get NATO nations arguing with one another. These are followed by plans to gain control of the Baltic Sea as in the old Soviet days.

Instead of Iceland, much of the action takes place on another Nordic island, the Swedish island of Gotland in the Baltic. Russia figures that if they can control this relatively sparsely populated landmass, they can control access to the Baltic Sea and the Baltic lands Russia still covets: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland.

Harvath develops a clever plan which not only thwarts a Russian planned tactical occupation of Gotland, but in doing so, he learns the identity of the Russian (the other spy master) behind the disruption of NATO and the planned invasion of the Baltic region.

Throughout the novel, Thor emphasizes the importance of teamwork. To do a good job, one has to have skilled and reliable people working together. Harvath is no lone wolf James Bond character. Success also requires a certain amount of luck. I have to confess there was one situation towards the end where the luck seemed unrealistic, but otherwise this is an entertaining tale.

Just as back in 1987 something like Red Storm Rising might have happened, so with our current international alignments something like Spy Master is within the realm of possibility.

Rudyard Kipling. The Jungle Book. Amazon Classics, 2017.
———. The Second Jungle Book. Amazon Services, 2012.

Kipling’s Jungle Books are two collections of stories, but the majority of the stories tell us about Mowgli, “the man-cub,” raised by wolves in the Indian jungle. Those tales rightly deserve the credit for why we remember these stories. First, a few of the others.

The first non-Mowgli story in The Jungle Book is not even set in the jungle. “The White Seal” is set mostly on an island in the Bering Sea, about as un-jungly (if there is such a term) as you can get. The title character has a number of adventures as he searches the Pacific Ocean for a safe place to breed, away from the seal hunters.

Since the white seal ends up in a sea where sea cows (i.e. dugongs) live, he must end up in the Indian Ocean or nearby seas, so, I suppose, he cannot be too far from a tropical rain forest of some kind. The seals do not have a Law of the Jungle, but they do observe the Rules of the Beach.

“Quiquern” is a very entertaining Arctic survival story. There is no setting farther from the jungle than this one. Well, there is a convoluted explanation at the end that the author got the story from a walrus tusk with carvings that told the story that he acquired in Ceylon (modern Sri Lanka). Like so many of Kipling’s stories, there is a real appreciation and understanding for the culture and survival skills of the Inuit—and, yes, that is what he calls them.

The Second Jungle Book contains a sweet story called “The Miracle of Purun Bhagat.” Sir Purun Dass is high ranking government official who leaves it all behind to become a monk in the Himalayan foothills. He develops a kind of St. Francis reputation, though the author notes that people who stay still and quiet can have animals come close to them. There is no magic other than patience. Ultimately, his awareness of the local fauna provokes him to once again act like the political leader he left behind. That becomes the real miracle.

Other Jungle Book stories include the favorite about the mongoose, “Rikki-Tikki-Tavi.” “Toomai of the Elephants” relates a great story about elephant behavior. Is the elephant’s dance a legend, a prank played on tenderfeet, a silly cliche like saying “when pigs fly,” or is it something else?

“Her Majesty’s Servants” tells a story from the perspective of the various animals one might find in an English army camp in India in the nineteenth century including donkeys, horses, camels, elephants, mules, bulls, and dogs. This reminded me of Kipling’s short story “The Ship that Found Itself” where all the parts of the ship on its maiden voyage begin to work together as a whole. So it is with the military animals. Presumably, it will be so with the solders themselves.

Ah, but both Jungle Books mostly tell us about the growth and adventures of Mowgli. While a boy raised in the wild by wolves causes us to suspend our disbelief some, the character and experiences of the animals in Mowgli’s jungle are fairly realistic. It is, for example, much easier to picture Mowgli among wolves and the descriptions of how he survived and what he observed than it is to picture Tarzan and his apes and his fantastical ape-men. If Kipling had the same streak of humor that Twain did, he might have penned “Rice Burroughs Literary Offenses.” Kipling is the realist here.

While most of Mowgli’s adventures are in the wild, he does have some interaction with people. Human nature being what it is,some people think he is evil and try to kill him. Others are grateful to him for saving their lives. One long-lived crocodile enjoys the special treatment he gets from some villagers who think he is a god—even though he occasionally eats a child.

While Mowgli lives by the Law of the Jungle, he uses his wits in such a way that the reader realizes he is, indeed, a human being, a homo sapiens. Mowgli means “frog,” which resembles his state when the animals find him—small and hairless. We see his cleverness especially when he gets his revenge on Shere Khan the tiger or when he outwits a pack of nearly two hundred dholes. He begins to realize that he does not quite fit in when spring mating season comes and even his closest companions are otherwise occupied.

Kipling tells the stories and tells them well. We see the regal black panther, Bagheera; the observant python, Kaa; the various members of the wolf pack, including Akela the noble leader; the wise bear, Baloo; the anarchic monkeys who follow no law; and even the white cobra who guards a treasure the way dragons in Norse myths do. We learn to appreciate the animals for who they are, and even mankind for who they are. The Law of the Jungle teaches them to survive. We can learn a thing or two from it as well.

Dwight D. Eisenhower. Crusade in Europe. Doubleday, 1950.

Crusade in Europe is a classic military memoir by the general who led the Allied forces against Germany and its allies in Europe in World War II. It covers North Africa and Italy but focuses on D-Day and the fall of Germany. Since many people know at least in broad terms what happened, this review will point out significant observations that Eisenhower made.

One point Eisenhower makes immediately is that historically alliances are unreliable. I just finished Shakespeare’s Henry IV Part 1 in two of my classes. That play illustrates this principle clearly. Eisenhower notes that Napoleon succeeded in most of his campaigns because he fought alliances, and the parties disagreed among themselves—just like the Percys in Henry IV. He stresses how important it was to have one overall commander. While he supported the idea, he tells us that he never expected to get the position. He had been promoted so quickly that he was a two-star general but still officially listed as a lieutenant colonel in regular army.

He could keep alliances going. He seemed to get along with everyone and sticks up with nearly every military and political person he had to work with, even General Montgomery, who had a reputation of being full of himself. Eisenhower admired and trusted Patton and stood up against the criticism he often received in the press. Among other things, he notes that Patton’s men were loyal to him. I mentioned in an earlier review that I had an uncle who was in the army in North Africa, Italy, and Northern Europe. The two generals he spoke most highly of were Patton and Eisenhower.

Eisenhower sometimes disagreed with Winston Churchill, but they would always come to an arrangement and carried mutual respect. At the very end he worked with General Zhukov who was leading the Red Army in Germany. He writes that while he was not especially sympathetic to Roosevelt’s domestic policies, that as a war leader of the country, F.D.R. “seemed to me to fulfill all that could possibly be expected of him.” (414)

It seems like the only person he had true difficulties with was Charles de Gaulle. Now, at the beginning of U.S. involvement it was unclear whose side De Gaulle was on. Later Eisenhower understood that once France had been the key power in Europe, and the rapid fall to the German Blitzkrieg was an embarrassment. One French general confided that “we…defeated ourselves.” Throughout, Eisenhower stresses the importance of keeping the alliance “on positive terms.”

He even explains why he called the World War a crusade:

…never before in a war between many nations the forces that stood for human good and man’s rights were this time confronted by a completely evil conspiracy with which no compromise could be tolerated. Because only by the utter destruction of the Axis was a decent world possible, the war became for me a crusade in the traditional sense of that often misused word. (157)

Eisenhower did have some challenges working with the press. Even though the press from the allied nations were all on the same side (something President Reagan contrasted with the press coverage of the Grenada rescue), reporters are looking for conflict, and much of the internal conflict they were reporting on had been fabricated. He also learned—as this reviewer had to learn when he was in the service—not all journalists respect classified or off the record information.

Sometimes there are quips that entertain, or as Eisenhower would say, contribute to morale. He does not quote the famous saying of the 101st Airborne when it was surrounded in Bastogne or General McAuliffe’s monosyllabic reply to the German call for surrender. He does tell the story that when the German garrison guarding the city of Aachen was limited to one building, the American VII Corps started using 155-millimeter rifles to knock the building’s walls down. The German commander surrendered and said, “When the Americans start using 155s as sniper weapons, it is time to give up” (312).

According to Eisenhower two key factors accounted for the Allied victory. World War II was the first war that used concentrated air power. Along with that was the increased industrial production from the Allies. By the beginning of 1943, Germany simply could not keep up. Early in the war, Germany had the advantage in both areas. No allied country was prepared. But by 1943 America in particular was assembling ships, landing craft, airplanes, tanks, jeeps, and weapons at an astounding rate. In one day of bombing in February 1945, the Allies put 9,000 planes in the air over Germany.

Eisenhower tells us that as the Allied forces were massing at the German border in the late fall of 1944, General Omar Bradley predicted that Germany’s only chance to successfully repel their attack would be if they made an advance at the Ardennes Forest. He then drew a likely German plan of attack on a map. “Within a maximum of five miles at any point,” Bradley correctly indicated the “bulge” of what became known as the Battle of the Bulge.

He also tells of how Patton’s troops almost by accident discovered the salt mine where the Nazis had hoarded many stolen valuables and art treasures including “a few millions of gold coins from the United States” (407).

A number of times on the Western Front, they were surprised when the Germans made a move that made little sense and ultimately hurt them. We noted in another review something similar on Hitler’s Eastern Front. They realized that Hitler was overriding his generals according to his own intuition. In that respect, he said, “…we owed a lot to Hitler” (394).

At one point near the end of the war, he described coming to the first concentration camp his troops liberated at Gotha. He said, “I have never at any other time experienced an equal sense of shock.” He made a point of exploring every part of the camp noting details in case people would say “the stories of Nazi brutality were just propaganda” (404).

Towards the end of the war in Europe, the Allies had to coordinate with the Red Army. Eisenhower’s contact had always been with Stalin. Eisenhower always refers to him as Generalissimo Stalin: He controlled everything. At the Russian and Western lines approached each other, Stalin let the local commander, General Zhukov, act as liaison.

Eisenhower shares some lessons he learned dealing with the Russians and Communists that could still be useful in Western nations that deal with Russia and China today. Eisenhower had a difficult time understanding how the Red Army promoted morale since the Russian command saw the troops as so much cannon fodder. He guessed the morale was simply based only “upon patriotism, possibly of fanaticism” (468).

Another Russian general was surprised that the Western Allies were concerned about the treatment of German prisoners. The Geneva Convention meant little to them. Also when the Western press wrote something unfavorable about the Soviets or Red Army, the Russian command expected the Allied authorities to censor or punish them in some way. When Eisenhower explained freedom of the press, the response was simply, “If you were Russia’s friend, you will do something about it.”This sounds like what the West is encountering with China today. Eisenhower concludes:

Communism inspires and enables its militant preachers to exploit injustices and inequity among men…The sequel is dictatorial rule…Were they completely confident in the rectitude and appeal of their own doctrine, there would be no necessity to follow an aggressive policy. (476-477)

Jesus might say, “You will recognize them by their fruits” (Matthew 7:16).

Eisenhower tells of meeting Truman after he became President in 1945. Prior to that, he had only met him “casually two or three times.” Since the war was over, Eisenhower expressed to him a desire to retire quietly. But when they were alone, “he suddenly turned to me and said:’General, there is nothing that I won’t try to help you get. That definitely and specifically includes the presidency in 1948” (446).

At the time, Eisenhower considered this an “astounding proposition.” Crusade in Europe first came out in 1948. However, we know what happened in 1952. The general may have been astounded, but he must have taken the President’s proposition seriously.

Joel C. Rosenberg. The Tehran Initiative. Tyndale, 2011.

Shi’a Islam—centered in Iran—believes that there were twelve great Imams, Muslim leaders, who succeeded Mohamed. The twelfth one disappeared and, according to Shi’ite teaching, will return alongside Jesus to set up a worldwide caliphate.

Sunni Muslims have a similar belief that their Mahdi or savior will come with Jesus to establish Islam worldwide. It might not take too much for someone who claims to be the Twelfth Imam to convince Sunni Muslims that he and the Mahdi are the same person.

Christians, naturally, would see this differently. I recall having a conversation a number of years ago with a Christian scholar about Iran. He said with an ironic smile, “How can we support a country whose goal is to offer hospitality to the Antichrist.”

Over the years I have read a number of works of fiction based on the biblical end times—not just apocalyptic stories, but stories of the Apocalypse. I can think of one published before the twentieth century, I think it was called Raptured. Then there was the A Thief in the Night series. One novel featured Pope Sixtus the Sixth (get it?). Of course, the Left Behind series was a big seller.

The Tehran Initiative appears to be more realistic than any of these others. First of all, it does not claim to interpret Bible prophecy. A few characters do. A few interpret Islamic prophecy as well. But at its core, this book is simply a techno-thriller in the vein of Tom Clancy.

In this case a man claiming to be the Mahdi and the Twelfth Imam has appeared. He has performed a few unusual miracles and appears to have escaped an assassination attempt. People seem to almost instinctively bow to him and call him lord. Though Arab and not Persian, he has persuaded the theocrats of the Islamic Republic of Iran that he is the real deal. He has declared that he will lead Muslims to rule the world. That includes wiping out both the Little Satan, Israel, and the Great Satan, the United States.

The story focuses on David Shirazi, an Iranian-American who works for the CIA. His cover is that he is a German citizen who works for a German telecommunications company. He gets in a few jams, but basically learns that Iran has built a number of nuclear warheads. Under the Twelfth Iman’s direction, Iran will use them to annihilate Israel. Israel does not cover a whole lot of territory, so this is no idle daydream.

One clear question to the Imam is—what about Jerusalem? Muslims value “Al Quds,” too. The Mosque of Omar supposedly shows the spot where Mohamed ascended to heaven from and returned with a message from Allah. On the other hand all Muslims venerate Mecca above all cities, and Shi’ites also value Qom in Iran.

Besides the adventures in Iran with Agent Shirazi, we follow Marseille, an old family friend who may become his girlfriend. Those guys attempt to have a personal life, but it is not easy. We also get some drama from Najjar, a nuclear scientist whom Shirazi helped to escape from Iran.

We also follow President Jackson. Jackson had studied in an Islamic country for grad school, so he believes he understands Muslims. He also feels the United States should go along with the United Nations more, even on Israel. This may make him a little more naive about both Iran and the Mahdi. But if you negotiate with people who call you the Great Satan and whose crowds shout, “Death to America,” what can you expect?

In this case, expect a techno-thriller with a somewhat realistic apocalyptic connection.

For what it is worth, this is probably the first book I have read not associated with Clancy that actually tells a story in a way similar to what he did.

Anton Chekhov. The Duel and Other Stories. Translated by Constance Garnett, Project Gutenberg, 6 June 2013.

This was a freebie both on Project Gutenberg and Amazon which I decided to download because I like some of Chekhov’s stories and plays, and the libraries and bookstores are closed.

The Duel is a novella of about a hundred pages. The main characters are a couple living in sin on the Black Sea in a Russian Caucasian province in the late nineteenth century. The woman has left her husband, and they both left Petersburg to start over. Things move slowly but inexorably toward the duel of the title. Today the story is probably mostly of historical interest because we are reminded of the variety of nationalities and even religions within the old Russian Empire. We also see that social standing based on birth was still primary in the old aristocratic system.

One of the main characters is an impartial doctor who may be a stand-in for Chekhov himself. At one point the doctor notes:

“Faith without works is dead, but works without faith are worse still—mere waste of time and nothing more.” (82, cf. James 2:20)

The most pointed and probably most relevant story today is “The Princess.” The title character is, indeed, a princess. The tale contrasts the way she sees herself with the way others see her. Maybe like an American from inside the Beltway today, she not only has an inflated view of herself and, simply, does not understand anyone outside her class. One line in particular should get us thinking today about how the rich spend their money:

Can you possibly go on thinking of your philanthropic work as something genuine and useful, and not a mere mummery? It was a farce from beginning to end; it was playing at loving your neighbour, the most open farce which even children and stupid peasant women saw through! (175)

That is spoken by one person who is dangerously brave enough to speak his mind. Perhaps it is something we should all be paying attention to.

“The Mire” is probably the funniest or, at least, the most ironic. Here we meet the heiress to a vodka distillery who is Jewish. Like many other places in Europe, usury laws made it more convenient for Russians to borrow money from Jews and vice versa. In this case our protagonist Lt. Sokolsky is trying to get Susanna Moiseyevna Rothstein to pay the two thousand or so rubles that she owes his cousin so that he can get married. I wonder if it inspired Fitzgerald at all.

If Keats’ “La Belle Dame Sans Merci” were a farce rather than a horror story, you might end up with “The Mire.” My grandfather used to say, “Women—you can’t live with them and you can’t live without them.” I once heard a character on television say, “Men—you can’t live with them and you can’t shoot them.” Somehow, both apply to this tale.

Other stories in this collection are worth reading, too. They give us a sense of the Russian middle and upper classes in the two or three decades prior to the Communist revolution. Even then, there is in many of the stories a sense of resignation: We are stuck on the steppes, and there is not much we can do about it. Fifty years later they might be stuck on the collective farm or factory, but how much had changed?