C-SPAN 1 & 2 (times e.t.)

C-Span 1. Book TV. Book TV Schedule. After Words and Q&A.

Lamb Q[uestions] & Eliot Cohen [A]nswers. Cohen, Johns Hopkins University (SAIS), Director of the Strategic Studies Program,

[d]irected the US Air Force’s official multi-volume study of the Gulf War, the Gulf War Air Power Survey.

· Served on the policy planning staff of the Office of the Secretary of Defense

· Taught at the Naval War College (Department of Strategy)

· Taught at Harvard University

Cohen will also discuss his Washington Post piece, “Second Thoughts: A Hawk Questions Himself as His Son Goes to War”. He begins:

War forces us, or should force us, to ask hard questions of ourselves. As a military historian, a commentator on current events and the father of a young Army officer, these are mine.

His feelings are clearly strong and clear, if mixed.

He concludes with

There is a lot of talk these days about shaky public support for the war. That is not really the issue. Nor should cheerleading, as opposed to truth-telling, be our leaders’ chief concern. If we fail in Iraq — and I don’t think we will — it won’t be because the American people lack heart, but because leaders and institutions have failed. Rather than fretting about support at home, let them show themselves dedicated to waging and winning a strange kind of war and describing it as it is, candidly and in detail. Then the American people will give them all the support they need. The scholar in me is not surprised when our leaders blunder, although the pundit in me is dismayed when they do. What the father in me expects from our leaders is, simply, the truth — an end to happy talk and denials of error, and a seriousness equal to that of the men and women our country sends into the fight.

On After Words (Sun at 6:00 & 9:00 pm) Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) is interviewed by Kirk Victor. The topic is Santorum’s “belief that the values of conservatism creates an appreciation for the civic bonds that unite communities.” This is the subject of his book It Takes a Family: Conservatism and the Common Good, obviously arguing against the position of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s position of the government “village,” his position is that “strengthening family ties in American society should take a higher priority over the “village” of the federal government.”

Last week’s interview of Asra Nomani by Akbar Ahmed at midnight Saturday.

C-Span emphasizes this weekend’s variety; while no great overarching theme, it does “include sixteen first run programs on topics ranging from terrorism to the estate tax to antitrust to a history of languages.”

Saturday morning the surprising increase in the destruction of the climate (John Cox Climate Crash) is followed by the tragedies and politics of Indonesia (Allah’s Torch), and then the disaster of modern culture (Dalyrumple’s Our Culture: What’s Left of It.

Have a good weekend.