Eastern Cauldron : Islam, Afghanistan, Palestine and Iraq in a Marxist Mirror

Contents: Preface. Introduction: U.S. imperial strategy in the middle east. I. The resurgence of Islamic fundamentalism:  1. Eleven theses on the resurgence of Islamic fundamentalism. 2. The Swan song of Khomeini's revolution. 3. The Arab despotic exception. II. Afghanistan: quagmire of the great powers: 4. On the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan. 5. Afghanistan: balance sheet of a war. 6. The agreement on Soviet withdrawal. 7. The "Lebanonization" of Afghanistan. III. Palestine: from one Intifada to the next: 8. The Palestinian uprising. 9. The uprising's fourth month. 10. Where is the PLO going?: the long march--backwards. 11. Where is the PLO going": the state, the PLO, and the Palestinian left. 12. The dynamic of the Intifada. 13. The Washington accords: a retreat under pressure. 14. Zionism and peace: from the Allon plan to the Washington accords. 15. Hezbollah's victory. 16. Israel's military onslaught and U.S. interests in the middle east. IV. Iraq: from one war to the next: 17. The long tragedy of the Iraqi people. 18. Operation oil: why the United States wants a war. 19. The empire prepares to strike. 20. Washington and London's problems have only just begun. 21. The war in Iraq and the establishment of a "New Imperial Order". 22. Letter to  a slightly depressed antiwar activist. Notes. Index.

"The route to any coherent understanding of our time runs through the issues addressed in this collection of essays: the political meaning of Islam, the relation of the west to the Islamic world, the new form of imperialism signaled first by the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan and now by the U.S. occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq, the intractable conflict over Palestine.

This volume brings together Gilbert Achcar's major writings on these issues over the past decades. Achcar's introductory essay, reflecting on the aftermath of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, integrates these analyses in a major new account of the strategy of U.S. imperialism in the middle east and its prospects. Achcar's analyses are supple and inventive, and consistently informed by reflection on rival traditions of political thought and a deep knowledge of the region." (jacket)