Edward Said was a controversial figure right until his untimely death of Leukemia in 2003. He was an obdurate critic of Israeli and American foreign policy in the Middle East and an ardent supporter of Palestinian statehood. His supporters eulogized him as one of the “most gentle and thoughtful defenders� of the Palestinian cause (Dirlik 2003). On the other hand, his opponents knew him for heated exchanges and “famously rude, insulting, slanging polemics� (Freund 2001). Among other things, Said’s membership in the Palestine National Council (until 1989), his close relationship with Yasir Arafat, and a widely-publicized photograph showing him throwing a stone at Israeli soldiers, earned Said such titles as: “Ideologue of Terrorism� and “Professor of Terror� (Alexander 2000). Said himself recalls being treated as “a diplomat of terrorism, with a place at the table� (Quot: Economist 2003). Still, for every person who dirtied Said with invective, another was quick to lavish unblemished praise.

The Post-Cold War story, according to some, goes like this: The United States spent decades, after the World War II, wielding its economic, political, and military might to protect the world from expansionist communism. It lifted high the torch of liberty and dazzled the earth with its light. It opened the reservoirs of freedom so an ocean of opportunity could inundate the planet, restoring peace and prosperity to the parched land. Even the moon proudly waved a star-spangled banner. American submarines and spy-planes governed the sea and the sky; and American troops filled the earth. Heroically, and at great cost, they subdued communism. As the dust from the Berlin Wall settled in the last decade of the twentieth century, the United States finally emerged from the Cold War as the world’s only superpower. Then—now!—the American people surveyed the work of their hands and what they had toiled to achieve, and they saw that it was good.