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Eagle & Crescent 6 What Do Think? by Amir Taheri Unprecedented intellectual ferment in the Muslim world is likely to have a happier ending than many Westerners suppose. 19 The Irrelevance of the by Philip E. Auerswald Neither our energy vulnerability nor the danger of is all it’s cracked up to be. The Middle East just isn’t that important. 6 28 Adventures in State-Making by Harvey Sicherman The best historical analogy for understanding the U.S. predicament in Iraq is older—and more useful—than you might think. 42 Fixing Public Diplomacy by Michael Holtzman The State Department needs to do “information” better, but we should privatize the “engage and persuade” business.

Folks Like US 47 A Conversation with Amy Tan Amy Tan and Dana Gioia plumb the power of storytelling within the 108 American immigrant experience. 52 Born in the USA by Nicholas Eberstadt If demography is destiny, America’s is greater than that of any advanced nation. 60 Toolbox: A Few More Good Men by Lawrence Korb & Peter Ogden Bigger is not necessarily better. Here are four principles for enlarging the U.S. Army and Marine Corps.

Governance & Growth 119 65 Survival of the Fattest by Paul Collier Not all aspects of democracy are created equal, especially the effects of resource wealth on economic growth. 72 Toolbox: Making Aid Work by Stewart Patrick Despite reforms, the U.S. foreign aid regime is still flawed.

Summer (May/June) 2007  Potomac Tales 79 Raising Cane by James Snyder America’s “sugar daddies” may soon meet their match. 83 A Slice of Intelligence Life Adam Garfinkle, editor by James Rosen Patricia Murphy, executive editor Bolling Air Force Base can be a spooky place. Daniel Kennelly, senior managing editor Thomas Rickers, managing editor Reviews Executive Committee , chair 88 L’Enfant’s Washington Charles Davidson by Francis Fukuyama Walter Russell Mead The grand, strange and illuminating story of Washington, DC, and its eccentric genius of a designer. Editorial Board Anne Applebaum, Peter Berger, 102 in America , Niall Ferguson, by Peter Skerry Bronislaw Geremek, Owen Harries, Four new books try to strike a balance between fear and Samuel Huntington, Bernard-Henri complacency over America’s three million Muslim citizens. Lévy, Glenn C. Loury, C. Raja Mohan, Douglass North, Ana Palacio (on leave), 108 Thinking about Thinking Itamar Rabinovich, Ali Salem, Lilia Shevtsova, Takashi Shiraishi, by William Reinhardt Mario Vargas Llosa, Wang Jisi, Douglas Hofstadter’s 1979 book, Gödel, Escher, Bach, is Ruth Wedgwood, James Q. Wilson now joined by I Am a Strange Loop.

Michael McDonald, literary counsel 112 Davos 2007 Simon Monroe, R. Jay Magill, Jr., illustrators by Fred Kempe cover photo by Getty Images Klaus Schwab’s most recent extravaganza was “lite” on America. What a difference a year can make. Charles Davidson, publisher & CEO 119 Reagan’s Brandenburg Concerto Sara Bracceschi, advertising & syndication by John C. Kornblum Noelle Daly, subscriber services th Damir Marusic, marketing & web Marking the 20 anniversary of ’s “Tear Jamie Pierson, circulation & operations Down This Wall” speech.

ADVERTISING SALES Sara Bracceschi Notes & Letters [email protected] (202) 223-4408 128 The Pollbearer: A Letter from Rabat Perry Janoski by A.M. Spiegel publishing representative Notes on the pratfalls of democracy promotion. Allston-Cherry Ltd. (212) 665-9885 132 Letters to the Editor Thomas Parker, Eliot A. Cohen Imran Ahmad Adspace Sales Corporation LLC 133 Summer Note: The First Duty of Honest Men (92-21) 587-4214 by Adam Garfinkle SYNDICATION Critics of recent Administration tactics on Korea and Sara Bracceschi protest too much—sometimes way too much. [email protected] (202) 223-4408 140 Yankee Doodle

Subscriptions: Call (800) 767-5273 or visit www.the-american-interest.com. Two years (12 issues): $69 print or online; $129 for both. One year (6 issues): $39 print or online: $69 for both. Please add $14 per year for print- subscription delivery outside the U.S. and Canada. Postmaster and subscribers, send subscription orders and changes website of address to: The American Interest, P.O. Box 338, Mount Morris, IL 61054-7521. The American Interest (ISSN 1556- 5777) is published six times a year by The American Interest LLC. Printed by Fry Communications, Inc. Postage paid www.the-american-interest.com in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. ©2007, The American Interest LLC. Editorial offices: 1730 Rhode Island Ave. NW,  The American Interest Suite 617, Washington, DC 20036. Tel.: (202) 223-4408. Fax: (202) 223-4489. Email: [email protected]. that many bring to this topic. Yet Geneive Abdo, and Main Street: Muslim her very openness leaves her without a steady Life in America After 9/11 (Oxford University Press, compass by which to navigate the crosscurrents 2006), 224 pp., $26. of the contemporary Muslim American scene. Abdo does avoid the bromides of naive lib- Paul M. Barrett, American Islam: The Struggle for erals, who typically insist on treating Muslims the Soul of a Religion (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, as not so different from earlier immigrants to 2006), 320 pp., $25. America. She is convinced that there are loom- ing challenges among Muslim , but Ilyas Ba-Yunus and Kassim Kone, Muslims in the she is not very clear as to what those challenges are. She is also careful to emphasize that there is (Greenwood Press, 2006), 192 pp., “no evidence of militancy” among Muslims here, $55. by which she presumably means no signs of ter- rorist activity. Still, she highlights an emergent Steven Emerson, Jihad Incorporated: A Guide to “rejectionist movement” among young Muslim Militant Islam in the U.S. (Prometheus Books, Americans who, in her words, “are trying to cre- 2006), 535 pp., $28. ate their own world where they can find com- fort in their faith and their communities” and “are placing their Islamic identity first.” Their religious orientation, she relates, is much more Islam in America intellectual than the innocent and unreflective faith of their parents. They are “not interested Peter Skerry in blindly following the teachings of an simply because he is a religious figure.” At the udging by talk radio chatter, Americans same time, she notes, these young people “are these days are more alarmed by Mexican often more observant of Islamic practice than Jday laborers hanging out on street corners their parents. Many young women are wearing than by the prospect that Islamist terrorists headscarves, even if their mothers didn’t cover.” will blow up the Bridge. Yet large Abdo argues that these developments numbers of Americans are anxious and do feel “largely defy decades of history in a nation of threatened by Muslims around the globe, in- immigrants, and they challenge the American cluding the roughly three million Muslims liv- ideal of diverse cultures linked by a shared at- ing today in the United States. But is there any tachment to common goals and dreams.” But good reason for Americans to fear the Muslim are these trends, if true, really so different from communities in their midst? That is the fo- those of other immigrant groups—Greeks, cus of the four books reviewed here. Each in Jews, Irish, Italian and many others—whose its own way illustrates the enormous gaps in children or grand-children self-consciously re- knowledge about American Muslims that we claimed some aspect of their heritage to define as a nation have barely begun to address. For their particular American identity? If what she its insights or for what it unwittingly reveals identifies among Muslims here today is fun- about Muslim attitudes, each also adds to our damentally different from other groups, Abdo understanding. does not make the case very cogently. Geneive Abdo worked for more than a de- An admittedly dramatic episode involving cade as a foreign correspondent in Egypt and changes at a prominent in Dearborn, Iran. Undoubtedly, that experience, as well as Michigan, does suggest a degree of difference. growing up in San Antonio, Texas, in a Ma- The Dix mosque was founded in an old pool ronite Catholic Lebanese immigrant family, hall in 1937, when it was used mostly by Leba- help explain the freshness of her approach. In nese-Syrian immigrants. There were also a few Mecca and Main Street, Abdo has no axes to Yemenis, whose numbers remained low until grind, and her perspective is remarkably un- the permissive changes in U.S. immigration cluttered by the blinders and preoccupations law in 1965. “Soon, the Yemenis controlled Dix

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completely, and life was turned upside down”, To an even greater degree than Abdo, Barrett writes Abdo. Eventually, the Lebanese retreated lays out the many facets of Islam in America, and established a new mosque. including the troubling undercurrents of anti- The Yemeni men of the Dix mosque typi- Semitism and anti-Americanism, as well as the cally dress in traditional garb, white gallabiyyas; possibilities for change and adaptation. More their wives and daughters in jilbabs, ankle- to the point, he does this in such a way that length dresses. They are not well educated and the reader gets a clear picture of a diverse and are economically marginal. The mosque’s all- complicated phenomenon without being over- male, mostly immigrant board has been very whelmed by detail. Without a doubt, this is the traditional and over the years has forced out most incisive and balanced analysis of Muslims several less conservative . As described by in America yet written. Abdo, the Dix mosque and those who attend it Barrett presents chapter-length vignettes of are hardly typical of their more numerous edu- seven different individuals: Osama Siblani, the cated and affluent Muslim American brothers Lebanese-born publisher of the Arab American and sisters. Abdo nevertheless points to this News, based in Dearborn; Khaled Abou El Fadl, group of Yemenis as somehow representative an outspoken UCLA law professor educated at of the broader phenomenon of Muslims turn- Yale but raised by Egyptian parents in Kuwait; ing inward in America, especially since 9/11. Siraj Wahhaj, a Brooklyn-born African-Ameri- This example, however, highlights little more than the traditionalist views of this one group of Muslim immigrants from a particularly un- Is there any good derdeveloped society. Abdo herself devotes a good deal of attention reason to fear the Muslim to how many young Muslims born or raised here gravitate away from traditionalism, even toward communities in our midst? Islamic rock and rap. If her careful chronicling of these Muslim youth currents suggests anything, can convert, named by Federal prosecutors as it suggests how absorptive American society is an unindicted co-conspirator in a plot by Is- and how adaptive Islamic faith and values can be. lamist terrorists to blow up the United Nations In the same vein, Abdo highlights how Muslim and other City landmarks; Asra No- women in America are attaining greater visibil- mani, a Muslim feminist born in Mumbai and ity and authority in and other settings. raised by Pakistani parents in Morgantown, The prime example she features is Ingrid Matt- West Virginia; Sheik Muhammad Kabbani, a son, the recently elected president of the Islamic Lebanese Sufi who has a loyal following in the Society of North America, the largest and most United States and who famously told a State traditionalist national Muslim organization. Department audience in January 1999 that 80 Mattson, by the way, is a Canadian who was percent of Muslims in America were under the raised as a Catholic, converted to Islam, eventu- influence of “extremism”; Sami Omar al-Hus- ally got a doctorate from the University of Chi- sayen, a doctoral candidate in computer science cago, and now teaches at the Hartford Seminary. at the University of , who was unsuccess- Unfortunately, Abdo never adequately helps the fully tried in Federal court for material support reader make sense of these disparate images. As a of terrorism but was ultimately deported back result, Mecca and Main Street ends up reflecting to his native ; and finally, Mustafa the anxiety and confusion of Americans about Saied, a relatively obscure Indian-born Muslim the Muslims in their midst rather than helping who joined a secretive Muslim Brotherhood cell clarify or resolve them. here in the United States but has subsequently renounced his extremist involvements. more successful effort to address the com- Barrett’s analysis is subtle and fair. For ex- Aplexity of Muslim America is American ample, he clearly delineates the notorious Siraj Islam: The Struggle for the Soul of a Religion by Wahhaj’s ties to the Saudis, but resists simply former Wall Street Journal reporter Paul Barrett. characterizing him as a Wahhabi or a funda-

Summer (May/June) 2007 103 mentalist. He points, for example, to Wahhaj’s His God tells him to bomb the World Trade friendly relations with public officials and black Center. Your God tells you, bomb Baghdad. Christians, emphasizing that a “full-fledged No difference. You’re the same.” Wahhabi would refrain from such ties.” As Bar- Obviously a loose cannon, Siblani never- rett observes of Wahhaj, “Some of his sermons, theless continues to be courted assiduously by opinions, and past personal affiliations betray Democrats and Republicans alike. His outra- an affinity for fundamentalism. But the roots geousness and inconsistencies should be familiar of his anger at American society trace more di- to anyone who has spent time at the grassroots rectly to the condition of American blacks than of American politics. One of Barrett’s strengths to grievances grounded in the Middle East.” here is presenting such views straightforwardly Similarly, Barrett traces how Wahhaj’s dis- and allowing them to speak for themselves. turbing ties to the notorious “blind sheikh”, Barrett is perhaps at his best when dissecting Omar Abdel-Rahman, mastermind of the 1993 the story around the reputed terrorist webmas- World Trade Center bombing, led to his being ter, Sami Omar al-Hussayen. Again, we have named an unindicted co-conspirator by Federal a model of clear-eyed, even-handed analysis authorities. But he also points out that on one that will disappoint anyone looking for a slam- occasion Wahhaj actually assisted Federal pros- dunk case. Barrett persuasively manages to lay ecutors by testifying in the trial of four Muslim out this Idaho-based Saudi’s troubling ties to extremists with ties to al-Qaeda, individuals Islamist terrorists without declaring him guilty. who were then convicted for their involvement At the same time, he dissects the many flaws in the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in in the government’s unsuccessful case against Kenya and Tanzania. him. Indeed, he offers a useful and balanced ac- Barrett’s portrait of Lebanese-American counting of the Federal government’s less than publisher Osama Siblani is similarly nu- anced. Siblani is a Shi‘a who, even after 9/11, has been heard loudly supporting Hizballah. As he declared to the Detroit News, “How could you not support a group that has driven an occupier from your country?” Barrett goes on to point out how this prominent Muslim Amer- ican, who supported George W. Bush in 2000 and in 2004, once said to him: “I support the resistance to an occupation, not only in Lebanon, but anywhere in the world. . . . In fact I support right now the Iraqi resistance against American forces there.” Barrett recounts the scene at an Oc- tober 2004 banquet celebrating Siblani’s political action committee’s endorse- ment of John Kerry. With members of Congress and Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm present, Siblani de- clared, “George Bush betrayed us! Take our country back from those Taliban in Washington!” On another occasion Si- blani tells Barrett a joke about a ficti- tious meeting with Bush in which the publisher says, “What’s the difference Ingrid Mattson, president of the Islamic Society between you and ? of North America

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impressive prosecutorial record against Islamist as that of other people from the develop- terrorists since 9/11. ing countries—plenty of good jobs, higher At the end of American Islam, Barrett pres- wages, higher standard of living, quality of ents an overview of the challenges facing Mus- life including a democratic system of govern- lims in America, arguing persuasively that ment, equality before the law and freedom of “moderate Muslims must speak up and act speech, which are rare commodities in the forcefully to protect America—and American Third World in general and in the Muslim Islam—from a tiny minority capable of doing World in particular. harm.” But he also argues that non-Muslims need to acknowledge the pressure that Muslims Like most Muslims I have encountered, the au- here have been under since 9/11. As he puts it, thors emphasize America’s tradition of religious “Publicly acknowledging this psychic burden liberty: “Like the followers of all other faiths in and showing some empathy would improve re- this secular society, Muslims have been able to lationships with Muslims of all stripes and be- practice their faith more freely than it is possible gin to counter accusations that Americans seek to do so in many Muslim countries.” to persecute followers of Islam.” Moreover, Without ignoring anti-Muslim In this regard, Barrett praises President Bush incidents before and after 9/11, Ba-Yunus and for having made “a decent effort to distinguish Kone nevertheless offer this rather startling ob- Islam and Muslims generally from the targets of servation—startling, that is, coming from the the antiterrorism campaign.” But he also urges halls of contemporary academia: Bush and other national figures to “speak out against Islam-hating Christian fundamentalists” Americans are generally nice people. To say such as Pat Robertson and Franklin Graham. “thank you” or “sorry” to someone, to hold Their silence in this regard, I can report from my the door for someone, for instance, are Amer- own discussions around the country, has had a ican cultural traits. . . . Most Americans, ir- powerfully negative impact on Muslim Ameri- respective of race or religion, are neighborly, cans. Finally, Barrett calls for the Justice Depart- friendly, and charitable. Despite a great deal ment to upgrade its performance in the prosecu- of opposition to immigration, most ordinary tion of terrorists, and for an end to abusive and Americans go out of their way to accommo- discriminatory treatment of Muslim inmates date new arrivals in their midst. Newcomers and detainees. Hard to argue with that. are often invited to churches, into homes, and are befriended. he conflicting and confusing images of TMuslims that Barrett sorts through so Such observations come with some real in- carefully are exemplified by Muslims in the sights about Muslim life in America. For exam- United States, a book by two immigrant Mus- ple, contrary to popular understanding, Ba-Yu- lim social scientists, Ilyas Ba-Yunus and Kassim nas and Kone point out that the typical imam is Kone, both affiliated with the State University typically just an employee of the mosque board of New York at Cortland. Theirs is a flawed and therefore typically in a precarious position. but frequently insightful and invariably honest By contrast, African-American imams—not study that is perhaps most useful as a document unlike many black Protestant preachers—are illustrating the multifarious views among Mus- often powerful figures. lims in America today. Ba-Yunus and Kone also present some in- Non-Muslim Americans will be gratified teresting findings about Muslim women in the to hear Ba-Yunus and Kone echo what I have United States, highlighting for example the heard many Muslim immigrants recount about high divorce rate, especially among less-educat- the United States: ed, foreign-born Muslim women in their forties and fifties. Similarly helpful is the authors’ em- Why do Muslims want to migrate to the phasis on the many sources of disunity among West, especially to the United States? Per- Muslims here, including the highly contentious haps their motivation to migrate is the same matter of hilal, which refers literally to the new

Summer (May/June) 2007 105 or crescent moon. Because the Islamic calendar cans, Ba-Yunus and Kone are surely, albeit dis- is lunar, the sighting of the new moon is criti- turbingly, correct. cal to the timing of key religious observances. Most troubling, however, is how these two But how this is to be done—where in the sky, otherwise discerning Muslims readily excul- at what time of day, with the naked eye or sci- pate terrorists of moral responsibility for their entific instruments or with astronomical calcu- actions: lations—is a surprisingly divisive issue among American Muslims, hailing from varied cli- Today the United States is only one of the few mates and traditions across the globe. unconditional supporters of the state of Israel Despite its virtues, Muslims in the United despite all the atrocities that it continues to States has some real problems. There are disturb- commit against rock-throwing Palestinians ing factual errors. Malcolm X was assassinated who are now forced to become suicide bomb- in , not in New Jersey. Immigra- ers—terrorists in the jargon of the American tion restriction began with an act of Congress in government and the media. [emphasis added] 1921, not 1920. The liberal immigration policy legislated in 1965 was not “hastily withdrawn in ould any of this surprise Steven Em- 1970 under the Nixon administration.” There Werson, the indefatigable investigative are other such mistakes, too numerous to list. who has spent more than a decade Much more troubling is Ba-Yunus’ and documenting the activities of Islamist terrorists Kone’s treatment of the Palestinian issue. To and their supporters in the United States? His their credit, in their straightforward manner latest book, Jihad Incorporated: A Guide to Mili- they put the matter front and center, empha- tant Islam in the U.S., makes the case that mili- sizing its critical importance to Muslims in the tant Islam is a pervasive force in contemporary United States and indeed around the globe. America. Emerson is an anti-jihadist muckrak- But Ba-Yunus and Kone themselves demon- er who piles fact on fact on fact to produce this strate the evasiveness and moral obtuseness 535-page encyclopedic tome with an attitude. about this topic that Barrett highlights. At one Rather artlessly, by accretion if nothing else, point, they bizarrely equate Saddam Hussein Emerson earns the attention of his readers, even with the Israelis: skeptics to the possibility that there is cause for concern—that there are Islamist terrorist orga- Saddam Hussein was a bad man, we were nizations operating in the United States either told, because, among other things, he broke relying on our liberties and generosity to raise at least a dozen U.N. resolutions. How many money for criminal activities overseas, or for U.N. resolutions did Israel choose to ignore operations against us here. during the same period that the media did Emerson’s most impressive brief is against not care to discuss? former University of South Florida engineering professor Sami al-Arian, whom Federal author- They go on to defend as “a Palestin- ities charged with raising funds for the terrorist ian organization that has nothing to do with group Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ). Al-Arian Osama Bin Laden. It is never known to have was eventually acquitted of several of the counts hurt any Americans and is never known to against him. Yet on the basis of the remaining have engaged in any anti-American policies.” deadlocked charges, he did accept a plea agree- Acknowledging Hamas’ reliance on suicide ment providing for his deportation in exchange bombers inside Israel, Ba-Yunus and Kone for acknowledging his involvement with this highlight the organization’s social service pro- terrorist organization—a relationship he had grams and conclude: “It is beyond most Arab strenuously denied for more than a decade. and Muslim Americans as to what is wrong in So no, Emerson would not be surprised by helping a people who never tried to harm the the sympathy expressed for Palestinian terror- United States.” However questionable these ists by Ba-Yunus and Kone. Indeed, he claims various claims may be, on this last point about to have evidence of active support for such ac- the sympathies of Arab and Muslim Ameri- tivities across a variety of Muslim-American

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individuals and organizations. For example, he who did not wear the hijab, or headscarf. Stron- identifies the aforementioned Islamic Society of gest in Southern California, MPAC maintains a North America (ISNA), an umbrella organiza- network of full-time Muslim elementary schools tion of over 300 mosques whose annual meet- there that include in their curriculum art and ing brings together at least 30,000 Muslims, music, unlike more traditional Muslim schools. as a “radical Islamist organization.” Emerson As a matter of explicit policy, MPAC has always similarly identifies another national Muslim or- rejected funding from foreign sources. None ganization, the Muslim Public Affairs Council of this fits with the Wahhabist label Emerson (MPAC). Indeed, he accuses MPAC’s guiding pastes onto it. spirit, Maher Hathout, with using “Wahabbi To be sure, these differences fade quickly tactics” to redefine moderate, mainstream Is- when it comes to controversies over individuals lam. Emerson makes similar charges against like Sami al-Arian, who has been supported by the Council on American Islamic Relations both CAIR and MPAC. But is this because they (CAIR), which is now the largest Muslim- share his radical Islamist ideology? Or because American advocacy group. they sympathize with the Palestinian cause? Yet the organizations Emerson paints with Or because, as Muslims in America, they feel the same radical Islamist brush differ in im- a bond with another Muslim who has felt the portant ways. CAIR is most obviously rooted prosecutorial force of the Federal government— in radical . Its key leaders are of Pal- estinian origin and come out of an organiza- tion called the Islamic Association of Pales- Emerson is an anti-jihadist tine (IAP), with clear ties to Hamas. CAIR is fundamentalist in its interpretation of Islam, muckracker who piles but it is moderating under the influence of American-born Muslims. The organization fact on fact on fact. also receives funding from the Saudis and other Gulf sources. Yet, as Emerson rightfully at a time when others among them have also felt emphasizes, such critical details are routinely that force, not always appropriately? ignored by academics and journalists, who These are difficult questions, to which in- often refer to CAIR as simply a Muslim civil sufficient attention has been paid. Yet Emer- rights organization. son has a ready-made response: “These groups ISNA also has ties to the Saudis—not sur- have acted as the self-appointed spokespersons prising, since the organization emerged out of of ‘mainstream’ Islam and were established in the Muslim Student Association (MSA). The the United States with a very specific political Saudi government supported the MSA in the Islamist agenda that is not mainstream.” In 1960s as a means to reinforce Muslim identity other words, these organizations are misrepre- and combat socialist tendencies among Mus- senting and distorting the views and interests lim students studying in the United States. of Muslim Americans. And if we delegitimize Today, those ties are attenuated. With Matt- their leaders, then the more benign main- son, its newly elected female president, ISNA’s stream will emerge. religious orientation is hardly fundamentalist. If this scenario sounds familiar, it is. It I have heard its leadership publicly denounce parallels what Americans were told before the intolerance and bigotry of Saudi religious we invaded Iraq: Just get rid of Saddam and authorities. No such developments get any at- his Ba‘athi thugs and the natural democratic tention from Emerson. moderation of the Iraqi people will emerge. Finally, MPAC legitimately claims to be the Yet as the works of Barrett and Ba-Yunus most progressive Muslim-American organiza- and Kone suggest, the Muslim mainstream tion. It is certainly the most self-consciously in America, while hardly radical, is more oriented toward assimilation into the American sympathetic to defenders of the Palestin- mainstream. The organization’s former spokes- ians—including Islamist terrorists—than we person was an American-born Muslim woman typically acknowledge. As dire as Emerson’s

Summer (May/June) 2007 107 scenario of hundreds of terrorists operating tern that sounded as magnificent as it was in the shadows is, the more mundane reality mathematically elegant, and could even end up of some three million American Muslims is making musical reference to itself. This possi- in some respects even more troubling—and bility of self-reference is key. certainly more complicated. Escher was the pre-eminent artist of visual paradox. His drawings and etchings are pro- Peter Skerry is professor of political science at found and realistic depictions of “realities” that Boston College. cannot exist in three-dimensional space. Look- ing at any small piece of Escher’s worlds causes no trouble, but the pieces don’t coalesce properly when taken as a whole. They can even contain themselves within themselves. This visual and Douglas Hofstadter, I Am a Strange Loop (Basic paradoxical “looping” provides a visualization Books, 2007), 384 pp., $26.95. of the complexities and contradictions of TAT. What did the logician Kurt Gödel have to do with TAT? Plenty, as it turns out. To start at the end, so to speak, Gödel ended the dream of early 20th-century mathematics that “everything Thinking about could be axiomatized”—that all of mathematics, and then all of everything, could come spilling Thinking out of an all-powerful computer once “fed” the right (and assumed to be simple) axioms. Some William Reinhardt of these axioms were from number theory, these being necessary to understand and “prove” things n 1979, Douglas Hofstadter, a 27-year-old from 1+1=2 up to Fermat’s Last Theorem. Be- mathematician-turned-computer scien- ginning with these mathematical first principles, Itist, and an expositor of sublime original- it was hoped, we could deduce the full natures ity, produced an extraordinary, Pulitzer Prize- of chemistry, biology or any of the natural sci- winning bestseller entitled Gödel, Escher, ences—including psychology. Indeed, perhaps Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid. Written as only a few more such axioms would allow us to a series of word games, dialogues and skeins fathom the mind and consciousness itself. One of symbolic logic (with actual mathematical could then really think about thinking, system- symbols!), it was a tour de force presentation atically and scientifically, too. of “thinking about thinking”, or what, in the This expectation presumed a certain phi- style of Hofstadter, I will call TAT for short. losophy of mathematics, and a certain wider He exemplified TAT through the mathemati- cosmology. Before Gödel, mathematics was cal implications of the work of three unique taken to be both the descriptive and predictive geniuses: the 20th-century logician Kurt language of physics, astronomy and cosmology. Gödel, the artist M.C. Escher, and the com- And why not, since mathematics and the physi- poser Johann Sebastian Bach. cal sciences use the same machinery: the human The relevance of Bach and Escher to Hof- brain, with its extraordinary abilities to concep- stadter’s TAT project was not intuitively obvi- tualize, formulate and generalize? It was further ous, but Hofstadter’s unique gift was to bring supposed that mathematics was the unambigu- it all into easy focus. At the height of the Ba- ous language through which to communicate roque period, Bach managed to produce music about the natural sciences. It was less prone to of complexity and beauty within the confines the ambiguities and misunderstandings of ev- of rules so constraining that others less brilliant eryday human languages. Logically speaking, could not make a fugue proceed past the fourth mathematics had a place for everything and put voice; Bach succeeded with six. Bach’s genius everything in its place. was to loop his music’s voices around and past If mathematics gives us a precise and ex- each other, creating an evolving recursive pat- haustive means of describing the natural world,

108 The American Interest