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Rogue State - A Guide to the World's Only Superpower

Rogue State - A Guide to the World's Only Superpower
From the Introduction:

"If I were the president, I could stop terrorist attacks against the United States in a few days. Permanently. I would first apologize - very publicly and very sincerely - to all the widows and orphans, the impoverished and the tortured, and all the many millions of other victims of American imperialism. Then I would announce that America's global military interventions have come to an end. I would then inform Israel that it is no longer the 51st state of the union but - oddly enough - a foreign country. Then I would reduce the military budget by at least 90% and use the savings to pay reparations to the victims and repair the damage from the many American bombings, invasions and sanctions. There would be enough money. One year of our military budget is equal to more than $20,000 per hour for every hour since Jesus Christ was born. That's what I'd do on my first three days in the White House. On the fourth day, I'd probably be assassinated."

In this bone-chilling book, William Blum supplies us with the facts about:

* The numerous foreign leaders whose assassinations were plotted by the U.S.
* How the U.S. supported Pol Pot but helped incarcerate Nelson Mandela
* The U.S. government's extensive connection to torture
* How the U.S. has been a haven for foreign terrorists and human rights violators
* The War Crimes Tribunal that will never be: How the U.S. squelched the charges of war crimes against its own and NATO's leaders in 1999
* How the U.S. has perverted dozens of foreign elections; and much, much more.

With information such as this available in the public realm, Blum asks, how does the United States get away with it? A major reason, he concludes, is the world's long-running love affair with the mystique of "America," the world's adoration of what it believes to be the relentless devotion to the cause of freedom and human rights that is America. This adoration has not been of immaculate conception but stems, rather, from the United States as the inventor and perfecter of modern advertising and public relations. The United States is the world's only information superpower - and, according to Samuel Huntington in the journal Foreign Affairs, the United States is a "rogue superpower," at that.

Blum also theorizes about why this cruelty is so inherent in U.S. foreign policy. He relates it to the "Peter Principle": "...in a foreign policy establishment committed to imperialist domination by any means necessary, employees tend to rise to the level of cruelty they can live with."

Learn about decades of ubiquitous U.S. cruelty, kept - remarkably - from penetrating world consciousness or shocking world conscience. Though generally known as "the world's greatest force for peace", William Blum shows that our Rogue State is really a marauding Western brute in great need of fundamental change.

Voices:
Critics will call this a one-sided book. But it is an invaluable corrective to the establishment portrait of America as the world's greatest force for peace. Even confirmed opponents of U.S. interventionism can find much in this important book that will both educate and shock them. -- Peter Dale Scott, former Professor at UC Berkeley

Whatever we think we know about U.S. foreign policy, Rogue State makes it clear that we don't know nearly enough. This book's grisly content may seem to require a strong stomach, but reading its words is nothing compared to what has been done - and keeps being done - with our tax dollars and in our names. Whether we read Rogue State as a historical narrative or use it as a reference book, William Blum has put together a horrifying and infuriating piece of work. The footnoted information between these covers is enough to make any awake reader want to scream with rage. This is a truly subversive book because it demolishes the foundations of basic illusions about the United States of America as a world power. -- Norman Solomon, author and winner of the George Orwell Award
Details
Author William Blum
Type Quality Paperback
Year 2005, Third Edition
Pages 400
Illustrated no
Our price: $18.95
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