Word: al
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...Speaking of dogs, it seems that animals are a pretty pervasive theme in your work—you refer to a chimp who knows sign language in “In the Cemetery Where Al Jolson is Buried” and you even published “Unleashed: Poems By Writers’ Dogs”—an anthology of poems written from the point of view of dogs...
...Well, I love animals. I have to have them in my life, dogs in particular. I just find them endlessly interesting and funny and moving. In the Al Jolson story, the first story I wrote, I had followed ape language experiments for many years—I just was interested in them. And I got to meet Coco in California many years ago, the gorilla who was taught sign language and that was a truly life-changing experience, sitting down with this gorilla who could communicate with me. Yeah, it was extraordinary. So, I’d heard about this...
...mentioned, your first short story was “In the Cemetery where Al Jolson is Buried.” How did the idea for this story come about...
...relationship with Jundallah was never formalized, and contact was sporadic. I've been told that the Bush Administration at one point considered Jundallah as a piece in a covert-action campaign against Iran, but the idea was quickly dropped because Jundallah was judged uncontrollable and too close to al-Qaeda. There was no way to be certain that Jundallah would not throw the bombs we paid for back at us. (See TIME's photo-essay "On the Front Lines in the Battle Against the Taliban...
...Even if the skeptics are correct and a military victory over the Taliban remains unlikely, the next best option - negotiating some form of compromise with the Taliban, involving shutting out al-Qaeda and some form of power-sharing with the elected government - would require convincing the insurgents that they can't win on the battlefield. Surging tens of thousands more U.S. troops into the Afghan theater may be necessary if the goal is simply to fight this one to a tie. (Logistical constraints, however, suggest that the surge may be more of a dribble, with the U.S. currently lacking...