I. David Rosenstein's Blog: Focus on Non-Fiction , page 5

Book Review: The Twilight War: The Secret History of America's Thirty-Year War With Iran

Riveting Depiction of Two Countries on the Brink of War

The Twilight War: The Secret History of America’s Thirty-Year Conflict With Iran, written by David Crist, is the story of two countries that have been on the brink of an open and potentially disastrous war since 1979.

Crist was a colonel in the US Marine Corps Reserve where he served in the first Gulf War. He then served two tours with elite special operations in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. After his retirement from the military he served as a historian for, and advisor to, the Department of Defense. Because of his own experiences and his interviews with many of the critical participants in the US/Iranian conflict he is uniquely qualified to write the story of the United States’ long-running failure to reduce tensions with the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Crist starts his story with the 1978 Iranian revolution against Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi’s brutal dictatorship. The United States had always supported the Shah because of his support of the United States in its Cold War against the Soviet Union. After the Shah fled from Iran President Jimmy Carter permitted him to travel to the United States to receive needed medical care. When Carter refused to return the Shah to Iran for trial Iranian students stormed the United States embassy in Tehran and held American diplomats hostage for over 400 days.

During the hostage crisis the United States broke off diplomatic relations with Iran. The United States and Iran have never reinstated those relations. According to Crist, the absence of formal diplomatic communications between the two sides has largely been responsible for their continuing treatment of each other as sworn enemies. But, this has not been simply a war of words that might, at some time, escalate into an armed confrontation. Instead, Crist shows that, behind the scenes, the two countries have been in an actual state of war for the entire period.

Crist meticulously leads the reader through all of the armed conflict between the United States and Iran since 1979. He describes the Iraq-Iran war of 1980-1988 in which the United States supported Iraq for the purpose of preventing Iran from expanding its power in the region. He describes the United States’ efforts to mediate the end of the 1982 Lebanon War which led to establishment of Hezbollah, the Iranian proxy terrorist group, which bombed the United States military barracks in Beirut in 1983. He describes the 1987-1989 Tanker War in which the United States Navy engaged in skirmishes with Iran in order to protect shipping in the Persian Gulf. He explains how Iran clandestinely moved its forces into Iraq after the United States eliminated Saddam Hussein in the Iraq War of 2003. He explains how Iran has expanded its influence in the Middle East by selectively supplying fighters, weapons and training to its allies. And, finally, he describes Iran’s continuing insistence on its right to develop a nuclear capability.

While Crist’s recitation of the history of the conflict is interesting what makes this book truly exceptional is his detailed descriptions of the military engagements and the attempts at policy-making on both sides. On the United States’ side he shows how factions within the Department of Defense, State Department, CIA and National Security Counsel constantly quarrel over whether to respond to Iranian provocations with diplomacy, economic sanctions, military force or all of the above. On the Iranian side he shows that, while moderate factions of the government occasionally seek rapprochement with the United States, they are constantly being overruled by the more extreme factions that enjoy casting the United States as the evil Western empire for the purpose of generating continuing support for the revolution.

Crist discusses several occasions when one side or the other has made a half-hearted attempt to improve relations. However, because of the lack of diplomatic relations and muddled policy on both sides, such attempts have inevitably been rejected or treated with inadequate respect. As a result, distrust between the two countries has only deepened.

It should be noted that The Twilight War was written in 2012, before Iran agreed to suspend its nuclear activity in exchange for lifting of sanctions. That agreement was then abandoned by the Trump administration, which demanded additional concessions from the Iranians. This “one-step-forward-two-steps-back” attempt at diplomacy is totally consistent with the prior 30-year relationship between the two parties described by Crist.

I give this book a 5 star rating and recommend it for anyone interested in understanding the current Middle East and anyone interested in understanding how challenging it can sometimes be for the United States to develop a coherent foreign policy.

Book Review: Blowout: Corrupted Democracy, Rogue State Russia, and the Richest, Most Destructive Industry on Earth

Rehash of the Sordid History of the Oil and Gas Industry

After reading Blowout: Corrupted Democracy, Rogue State Russia, and the Richest, Most Destructive Industry on Earth by Rachel Maddow I now know that, even though I might like an author, I will not necessarily like all of their books.

In Blowout Maddow describes, in lurid detail, the convergence of the sordid history of the oil and gas industry and Vladimir Putin’s subjugation of the Russian economy.

With respect to the oil and gas industry Maddow starts with a review of John D. Rockefeller’s creation of Standard Oil in the early 20th century. She explains how Rockefeller’s practice of minimizing costs to maximize profits translated into a general industry practice of spending as little as possible to protect the environment and public safety. Maddow then moves on to several notorious events of the last few years including BP’s Deepwater Horizon blowout in the Gulf of Mexico, payments by industry members to autocrats for the right to drill for oil in developing countries and the numerous local earthquakes caused by hydraulic fracturing.

With respect to Putin Maddow describes how he coordinated efforts with organized crime and former KGB agents to gain power in Russia and to then forcibly coerce the Russian oligarchs to transfer their ownership interest in critical industries back to state controlled companies. As a result, one of those state controlled companies, Rosneft Oil, currently controls most of the Russian oil deposits. Because post-Communist Russia has been unable to develop many profitable business ventures, its economy is heavily dependent upon the revenues derived from sales by Rosneft to other European countries. However, Rosneft’s continuing success is at risk because it lacks the technical expertise to fully develop all of its oil reserves, especially those located north of the Arctic Circle.

Maddow explains how Rosneft entered into a partnership with Exxon Mobile under which Exxon Mobile provides the needed expertise to develop the reserves in exchange for the rights to a share of the extracted oil. She makes clear that Exxon Mobile was committed to its participation in the Rosneft partnership, even after Russia, at the direction of Vladimir Putin, began weaponizing misinformation to undermine Western institutions, annexed the Crimea and supported an invasion of Ukraine. Exxon Mobile ended its work with Rosneft only after the United States, in response to the invasion of Ukraine, prohibited United States companies from providing services to Russia.

Blowout does not contain any really new information. Instead, Maddow relies heavily upon the work of other reporters. Not every book has to be “deeply researched.” But any book that relies on information provided by others should at least present that information in a way that introduces a novel perspective. Blowout is not such a book. The only perspective provided by Maddow is that oil company executives ignore public safety, the environment and even national interests in their desire to extract as much oil and gas as possible and to become as rich as possible. That perspective is anything but novel.

I give this book a 2 star rating because it is a rehash of well-known information that fails to provide any new insights.

Book Review: The History of the Bible: The Story of the World's Most Influential Book

Highly Informative and Accessible Review of Biblical Theory

Theories of Biblical history and interpretation can probably fill an entire library. But, in his book, The History of the Bible: The Story of the World’s Most Influential Book, John Barton manages to assemble a wealth of highly insightful Biblical theory into a single volume that is accessible both to readers that are highly knowledgeable and to readers that are less knowledgeable on the details of the Bible.

I read this book primarily because I wanted to know more about the Bible, a book that has been so influential to Western culture. I was not disappointed.

Barton begins with discussions of the Old Testament and the New Testament and explains how Christians and Jews differ in their interpretation of each. He then moves on to a comparison of the views of theologians on questions of inclusion or exclusion of specific books in the Bible. Barton then proceeds to an analysis of how theologian interpretation of the Bible has evolved from the early years of the Common Era up through our modern times. And he concludes with a discussion of how closely current religious practices conform to the specific dictates of the Bible.

Throughout the book Barton explores how theologians have wrestled with the following types of issues since ancient times: whether the Bible was written by God, inspired by God or written by man; whether the Bible stories are true or allegorical; who wrote the various books of the Bible; how inconsistencies or contradictions within the Bible can be reconciled; and whether and why the text of the Bible may have been changed over the years by the mistakes of scribes, theologians seeking to impose the own views or translators converting the Bible from one language to another.

The History of the Bible s a very well written and readable explanation of complex and potentially controversial subject matter. And it has inspired (an ironic word as used in this context) me to try to learn more about the Bible as a historical and theological text. I highly recommend it and give it 5 stars.

Book Review: The Nine Lives of Pakistan: Dispatches From a Precarious State

An Alarming Picture of a Mysterious Country

Before reading The Nine Lives of Pakistan: Dispatches From a Precarious State by Declan Walsh I had only a cursory understanding of Pakistan. There was the death and destruction that occurred when Pakistan was created in 1947; the separation of Bangladesh from Pakistan in 1972; the CIA’s funneling of arms through Pakistan to the mujahedeen in their fight against the Russians in Afghanistan during the 1980s; and the Navy Seals’ killing of Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad in 2011.

But I knew nothing about modern day Pakistan or the issues that affect the day-to-day life of its citizens. And I knew that I was not alone. Pakistan is a country shrouded in mystery. In Nine Lives, Walsh unravels the mystery that is Pakistan.

Walsh was the Guardian’s correspondent and then the New York Times’ bureau chief in Pakistan from 2004 through 2013. In Nine Lives he does not present a narrative describing life in Pakistan. Neither does he provide a chronological story of how life in Pakistan has evolved in the years since the Great Partition. Instead, he depicts life in Pakistan through a series of fascinating vignettes describing several Pakistanis, most of whom he met and interviewed during his time in Pakistan.

Walsh’s subjects include the “Father of Pakistan”, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, two former Prime Ministers, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and his daughter, Benazir Bhutto, a cleric from Islamabad, a politician from the Pashtun region, a politician from the Punjab region, a female civil rights attorney, a Karachi policeman, a clan leader in Balochistan and an army operative. His vignettes consist of short backgrounds of each of his subjects and discussions of their roles in, and their views on, Pakistani society.

Through this series of vignettes the reader gains an overall picture of modern day Pakistan. And that picture is not pretty. All of Walsh’s subjects are either famous or infamous members of Pakistani society. And all have their supporters and their enemies. It is, therefore, not that surprising that by the time that Nine Lives was written all of Walsh’s subjects had died, three by natural causes and the rest at the hands of the Army or Islamic terrorists.

By the time I finished Nine Lives I was exhausted from all the violence. I now have the impression that Pakistan is a chaotic country that is buffeted by the following competing forces: secular citizens who wish to have a freely elected secular government; the Army that continually steps in to replace the secular government; the Islamists who want to see an Islamist state; and the separatists who are from regions that would rather not be ruled at all by a central government. These forces have probably been at work since Pakistan was first created as a sanctuary for the Muslim residents of the Indian subcontinent in 1947. And Walsh does not provide much hope that the Pakistanis will ever be able to deal with them.

Declan Walsh is an engaging person who managed to establish amiable relationships with many people in a foreign culture, the members of whom have every reason not to trust Westerners. These relationships enabled him to develop the very insightful stories that are so integral to Nine Lives. Even though this book deals with complex issues and unfamiliar names and places I found it to be very informative and readable. It is definitely a worthwhile read for anyone interested in learning more about Southeast Asia. I give it 5 stars.

Book Review:Caste: The Origins of Our Discontent

Persuasive Explanation for Today’s Race-Related Issues

The race-related issues we face today are daunting. Why can policemen continue to shoot unarmed African American citizens with impunity? Why do we have white nationalists marching through our streets? Why do our schools remain segregated? Why did Barak Obama’s presidency lead to Donald Trump’s election? Why do impoverished white Americans seem to vote against their own interest? Remarkably, in Caste: The Origins of Our Discontent, author Isabel Wilkerson provides a persuasive explanation for these questions and others.

Ms. Wilkerson asserts that all of our current race-related issues derive from a caste system under which each person’s position in society is determined at their time of their birth. She explains that, under our caste system, white Americans always were, and are today, members of a dominant caste and African Americans always were, and are today, members of a subordinate caste.

Ms. Wilkerson spends a great deal of time describing the horrors of the anti-bellum slave system and the lynchings in the post-bellum Jim Crow south. I initially thought that the detail she provided was excessive. However, I ultimately concluded that the extended discussion was necessary for her to fully explain the depth of the caste system and how and why it continues to this day.

As I read the book I expected to see some sign of hope, some sign that, because of the success of multitudes of African Americans and the desire by many millions of white Americans to see an end to the current system, Ms. Wilkerson might foresee a time when the caste system would no longer exist. However, there was no such sign of hope. Instead, Ms. Wilkerson explains that, because all African Americans can still be subjected to the most humiliating criminal profiling experiences and because even the most liberal white Americans continue to benefit from the caste system, that system shows no sign of abating. It is hard to argue with her reasoning.

Ms. Wilkerson does not propose any concrete solutions to end the caste system in America. However, she makes a very compelling argument that the issues raised in her book should be used as a starting point for discussions aimed at finding solutions.

While I found this book to be very profound and recommend it for anyone hoping to understand, and to find solutions to, our current race-related problems, I would be remiss if I did not mention certain negatives about this book. Specifically, I thought the numerous comparisons of our caste system with the caste systems found in India and in Nazi Germany were unnecessary. Each time that Ms. Wilkerson made one of these comparisons I found myself trying to determine whether I agreed or disagreed with her position. This proved to be an unnecessary distraction from her very powerful explanation of our own caste system.

I included Caste in my list of the Best Books of 2020 and recommend it as a must read for anyone concerned with the race-related issues in our society. I gave the book 4.5 stars rather than 5 solely because of the above described unnecessary and distracting comparisons of our caste system to the systems in India and Nazi Germany.

Best Books of 2020-History

In The Quiet Americans: Four CIA Spies at the Dawn of the Cold War – A Tragedy in Three Acts author Scott Anderson tells the story of four of the first agents to join the CIA after the end of World War II. All four thought they were going to help the United States spread democratic ideals around the world. But they found that they were being asked to overthrow democratically elected officials in third world countries, to train emigres for suicide missions within their own native Eastern Bloc countries and to support fascist dictators who were allied with the United States. This is a poignant story of the people who fought on the front lines of the CIA’s clandestine 1950’s war against Communism. See my full review of the Quiet Americans in the Post dated October 16, 2020.

The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz by Eric Larson, which has made everyone’s Best Books list of 2020, is the story of Winston Churchill’s leadership during the German blitz of London from September, 1940 to May, 1941. What struck me most about this book is the realization that there was a time when our elected officials could actually act like heroes.

The Daughters of Yalta: The Churchills, Roosevelts, and Harrimans: A Story of Family, Love and War by Catherine Grace Katz is both a story about the negotiations at the Yalta summit when the United States, Russia and Great Britain tried, but ultimately failed, to find a path to lasting peace at the end of World War II and about the intimate relationships between Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill and Averill Harriman and their respective daughters who accompanied them to the summit. Katz is flawless in her juxtaposition of a World War and close interpersonal relationships. See my full review of The Daughters of Yalta in the Post dated October 21, 2020.

The Golden Thread: The Cold War Mystery Surrounding the Death of Dag Hammarskjold by Ravi Somaiya is a mystery arising out of time in the 1950s when African colonization was changing to self-rule. When the Congo gained its independence from Belgium in 1960 the southernmost province, Katanga, declared its own independence from the Congo. The United Nations sent in troops to support Congo’s effort to reunite the country. In September, 1961, United Nations Secretary General, Dag Hammarskjold flew to a meeting in Rhodesia with the hopes of negotiating a peace settlement. However, his plane crashed on its approach to the airport. While the initial inquest found that the crash was caused by pilot error, The Golden Thread describes hidden evidence, flawed investigations and motiviations of multiple parties that support continuing theories that the plane was sabotaged. See my full review of The Golden Thread in the Post dated October 3, 2020.

In Money for Nothing: The Scientists, Fraudsters, and Corrupt Politicians Who Reinvented Money, Panicked a Nation, and Made the World Rich author Thomas Levenson manages to tie together Isaac Newton’s development of differential calculus, England’s unending wars with France and Robert Walpole’s term as Prime Minister of England to explain the origins of the South Sea Bubble and how it almost brought down the British financial system in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. This book is both a good history of early modern England and a primer on how financial markets work and how easily they can fail. See my full review of Money for Nothing in the Post dated October 22, 2020.

Best Books of 2020-Biography/Memoir

MBS: The Rise to Power of Mohammed bin Salman by Ben Hubbard describes the rise of Mohammed bin Salman (also known as MBS) from an unknown prince to heir to the throne of Saudi Arabia. While he appears to project a somewhat Westernized view for the future of Saudi Arabia, the book shows that MBS’ actions also have a much darker side. See my full review of MBS in the Post dated October 7, 2020.

The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X is Les Payne’s extremely well researched biography of civil rights icon Malcolm X. In his time, Malcolm X was feared and criticized for his advocacy of an approach to civil rights that was more violent than that of his contemporary, Martin Luther King, Jr. However, as shown by Mr. Payne, history now reveals that Malcolm X’s true impact was to convince African Americans that they were not inferior to anyone and that they should take their civil rights rather than wait for white America to give them. See my full review of this book in the Post dated December 14, 2020.

All About the Story: News, Power, Politics and the Washington Post is Leonard Downie, Jr’s memoir of his 44 year career at the Washington Power which included 23 years as Executive Editor. Downie reviews all of the great news stories of the late 20th and early 21st centuries and provides behind the scenes views of how the Post puts out its paper and stands up to pressure from the powerful. See my full review of this book in the Post dated December 24, 2020.

In God’s Shadow: Sultan Selim, His Ottoman Empire, and the Making of the Modern World by Alan Mikhail uses the life of sultan, Selim the Grim, as the backdrop for his larger story of the interactions between the Ottoman Empire and the Western world during the late 15th and early 16th centuries. The events and times described by Mikhail established much of what was in place in the world when World War I commenced in 1914. See my full review of this book in the Post dated December 8, 2020.

Best Books of 2020-Non-Fiction

Black Wave: Saudi Arabia, Iran, and the Forty-year Rivalry that Unraveled Culture, Religion, and Collective Memory in the Middle East by Kim Ghattas describes the impact on the Middle East of the competing forms of Islam that are being sponsored by Iran and Saudi Arabia in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Ghattas, who tells the story from a very personal perspective, is the perfect author for this narrative.

Caste: The Origins of Our Discontent by Isabel Wilkerson is a vivid description of the relationship between white Americans and African Americans since the first slave was brought to this continent in the early 17th century. She makes a compelling argument that, to this day, white Americans are unwilling to give up benefits they reap as the dominant caste, over African Americans, as the subordinate caste. Everyone may not agree with her conclusions. But this is the book around which important discussions should take place.

Putin’s People: How the KGB Took Back Russia and Then Took on the West by Catherine Belton describes how Vladimir Putin and his compatriots from the KGB have returned Russia to the days prior to the fall of the Iron Curtain. However, instead of threatening the West with arms shipped to third world allies around the world Russia is now using its participation in the market economy to quietly buy influence in Western nations. In my review of Putin’s People in a Post dated October 7, 2020 I referred to this as a book that should be read by all Americans.

We Have Been Harmonized: Life in China’s Surveillance State by Kai Stritttmatter explains how the Communist Chinese Party uses modern technology to monitor its citizens and coerce their conformance with approved behavior and thought. It goes on to explain how the Chinese are using their international economic power to try to coerce the same such behavior and thought from those outside of its own borders. In my review of We Have Been Harmonized in a Post dated November 22, 2020 I indicated that, like Putin’s People, this is a book that should be read by all Americans.

Lights Out: Pride, Delusion, and the Fall of General Electric by Thomas Gryta and Ted Mann is the story of General Electric’s financial collapse during the 16-year period when Jeff Immelt was CEO. As a former corporate executive myself I have a special place on my bookshelf for books that take the reader into the corporate boardroom where the directors try to fix a company that is failing before their eyes. General Electric’s is a story of hubris in which the GE directors ignored the obvious problems at the company and remained absolutely sure that their management team was smarter than anyone and was always on the verge of turning things around. See my full review of Lights Out in my Post dated September 26, 2020.

Book Review: All About the Story:News, Power, Politics, and the Washington Post

All About the Story: News, Power, Politics, and the Washington Post is Leonard Downie, Jr’s memoir of his 44 year career at the Washington Post. Downie starts his story with the anecdote of how he was accidentally hired as an intern with the Post in 1964. His first assignments led to articles on abuse, influence and bribery in the Washington, D.C. court system. This experience with investigative reporting inspired much of his later work as both a reporter and editor.

Downie describes his experiences as a reporter, both national and international, and his progression up the editorial ranks until, in 1991, he succeeded Ben Bradley as Executive Editor of the Post. He fills the book with details of the Post’s coverage of the well-known stories that occurred during his career. These include Watergate, the Jonestown Massacre, the capture of the Unibomber, the multiple recounts and court battles after the Bush/Gore election, the 9/11 tragedy, the Afghan and Iraq wars, the leaking of the name of CIA agent Valerie Plame and the revelation of the United State’s extreme interrogation practices at sites in several Eastern European countries.

He spends several chapters describing the evolution of the media’s coverage of the private lives of public figures during the 1980s and 1990s. He explains that the media was historically reluctant to report on the private lives of public figures. But, he says, everything changed with the coverage of Gary Hart prior to the 1988 election. This change played to his strength as an investigative reporter. He describes how, as Executive Editor, he managed investigations of public figures including Marion Barry, Robert Packwood, John Towers, Wilbur Mills, Wayne Hayes and, of course, Bill Clinton. And he explains what standards he used to determine when these stories needed to be published.

The strength of this book is in Downie’s detailed description of behind the scenes activities in the Post newsroom related to how stories are assigned, how management deals with pressure from powerful outsiders, how editors decide which stories to print and how stories are finally edited. Since I was generally familiar with the stories themselves, hearing how they were covered was very enlightening.

Unfortunately the book also had its weaknesses. Throughout the book Downie maintains the voice of a dispassionate newspaper reporter. As a result, the reader never really gets to know Leonard Downie, Jr. We learn about his stories, his career and his awards. But we know very little about his personal thoughts regarding the events and people about whom he wrote.

There were times when he tried to display his inner feelings, such as when he witnessed the return of the American hostages from their captivity in Iran. He said that it was very emotional and that “there was a tear in my eye.” I saw his words, but I did not get the feeling from his writing.

He does not seem to be some type of resolute newsman who is unable to write in a voice other than that of a newsman. In fact, I really felt his sadness in the last two chapters of the book where he describes his departure from the Post and the subsequent sale of the Post to Jeff Bezos. I just wish that he had revealed more of himself elsewhere in the book. Instead, as the title of the book says, Downie made his memoir “All About the Story” and not about his feelings.

Notwithstanding the fact that I would have liked to have seen more of the inner Leonard Downie, Jr., this was a very good book for anyone interested in late 20th century American history or the newspaper business in general. I give it 4 stars.

Book Review: The Wax Pack: On the Open Road in Search of Baseball's Afterlife

An Enjoyable Coast to Coast Ride in Search of 14 Ex-Baseball Players

The Wax Pack: On the Open Road in Search of Baseball’s Afterlife is written by Brad Balukjian. As a boy, Mr. Balukjian was a non-athletic baseball card collector. As a 34 year old, Mr. Balilkian is a college professor looking for a subject for his next book. He decides that it might be fun to open a new pack of baseball cards from the time of his youth and to interview, and write a book about, the random players found inside.

Mr. Balukjian buys such a pack on e-bay and commences what turns out to be an 11,000 mile coast-to-coast trip in search of his 14 “Wax Packers.” He finds that most of the players are willing to meet with him and that some even invite him to spend time with their friends and families. He dedicates a separate chapter in his book to each ex-player where he describes discussions that cover the players’ relationships with their fathers, their careers, their marriages sacrificed for a baseball player’s travel requirements and their lives following the ends of their careers.

But the book includes much more than interviews with ex-baseball players. Mr. Balukjian has a lot of down time on his trip and he spends it comparing his life with the lives of the Wax Packers. The reader learns about his own relationship with his father, his inability to enter into a long-term romantic relationship and his struggles with obsessive-compulsive disorder. Thus, the book is part sports biography and part the author’s own memoir.

Mr. Balukjian has lived a fairly unremarkable life. If it were not for the interviews with the ex-baseball players his is a memoir that would probably not be written. But Mr. Balukjian is a unique person. He is an engaging writer and he is personable enough to ingratiate himself with these ex-baseball players with whom he probably has little in common. By the end of the book I found that I liked him and was interested in his personal story filled with all of his self-doubts and neurosis.

My two tests for whether I like a book are (1) whether the story is compelling enough for me to want to continue to turn the pages and (2) whether I continue to think about the story after I have turned the last page. The Wax Pack met both tests. I recommend it to anyone looking for a short diversion from our current stressful world. But I think it is a must read for anyone who, like Mr. Balukjian, ever held an unopened pack of baseball cards in their hands and anticipated the taste of the stale gum and the identity of the players to be found inside. I give it 4 stars.