Quote Originally Posted by Barack Dalai Lama View Post
Considering that this is titled "an introduction" and most introduction books (such as Mali: A Search for Direction that I've read recently via Questia) are over 100 pages (the Malian book is 170) yet my relatively simple work is less than 20 and could have been far bigger complete with graphs, timelines and citations, I'd say that my goal (to educate) was met.

Actually the reason I made this thread was over a discussion with coqauvin in Flames over making an AI thread. I decided that one on Stalin would be a bit too obvious from me, so I made this one instead.

Which is bullshit considering I spread it around on AIM with likeminded individuals who found it useful in debates with others, etc.

Okay, please tell me how I could, say, simplify Part X (Cuba). This is honestly the best I could do:
Is it shorter? Yes, but I omitted quite a bit.

I expected some reactions, specifically the part about Afghanistan.
Okay, I understand a little bit more where you are coming from now, but I still disagree on some points.

As far as this being an introduction, in my mind that makes it worse. Not to be rude, but you sren't writing a book (unless you are), and even if you were, unless you've done far more study on the subject than it appears, you are in no way qualified to write a book on the subject.

Keep in mind that most of us reading your post do not have the same interest in this that you do, and we don't need all of this information. Better to give us too little information and leave us wanting more and discussing than give too much and discourage posters from even reading your article.

As far as reactions, I know that I for one have neither the time, nor the motivation to sit down and read this. I wouldn't have minded debating it had I been given a much smaller portion of text, but the amount posted put me off before I even knew what the subject was. If I wanted to read a book, I'd read a book. AI is about discussion, and your excessively long post discourages people from even reading, much less responding.