CovOps
 Location : Ether-Sphere
Job/hobbies : Irrationality Exterminator
Humor : Über Serious
 |  Subject: Killing Hope: U. S. Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II  Thu May 08, 2008 9:44 am | |
| William Blum has written a book whose subject should be of interest to all Americans who believe in freedom.
This is an unbelievably-well-documented expose of American Foregin Policy over the last 50 years. Although his style leaves much to be wanting, Blum's book is filled to the brim with facts that are never discussed by traditional political analysts. Rarely does one catch a glimpse of the underbelly of America Foreign Policy, and that is exactly what Blum here provides. Some reviewers have said that he is a biased Leftist spouting agitprop, or that he is pushing an ideological agenda, but frankly I just didn't see this. If pedaling truth is an ideological activity, then I suppose they are right. The fact is, Blum is a master of weeding through and exposing the lies and propaganda of American policy makers. This is not "disinformation" (as one reviewer put it) but pure, documented facts - and lots of them. Blum comes off as an author who has committed himself to finding and providing the public straight, unvarnished truth - a very difficult project when one considers the extent of government, military and media obfuscation. Although Blum's tone can be distainful and even downright angry at times, it is nonetheless justified. As you will see in the book, the United States government has done some terrible things - things that would drive any genuine patriot to righteous indignation. Blum's findings might be difficult for the average American to swallow, but then the truth is like that sometimes. Open your mouth and open your mind. This book is food for rational thought. A timely, much needed expose of an imperialist military that has completely slipped away from public control.
Well-informed readers may already be familiar with the basic idea. In brief, the U.S. Government during the latter half of the twentieth century waged numerous secret little wars, of one kind or another, against foreign governments and groups of which it did not approve. The avowed purpose was usually to contain a perceived communist menace. In actuality, what might be called communist means were employed to achieve this end. These means involved spying, wiretapping, propaganda at home and abroad; the rigging of or interfering with elections; the granting of monetary and military aid to dictatorships and violent opposition groups; the training of same in methods of subversion, torture and terror. All this and more was done without Congressional approval or oversight. The American people were lied to by government officials to keep it that way. A complaisant media helped it happen. To some extent, it is still happening today.
The above is fairly common knowledge. However, though it breaks little new ground, Mr. Blum's book's sheer comprehensiveness makes it an invaluable resource, which is my first reason for recommending it. In 383 packed pages of narrative appended with 56 pages of source citations, Mr. Blum presents the essential facts--and horrors--of more than 55 U.S. military/CIA foreign interventions since WWII. For readers ignorant of these goings-on, the total impact will be mind-blowing. For those, such as myself, already somewhat acquainted with them, the effect is still staggering. Noam Chomsky, quoted on the back cover, calls it "Far and away the best book on the topic." I see no reason to dispute him.
My second reason for recommending this book is for what it shows about America today. And it is not that America is the Great Satan. It is true that America may be thought of, with some justice, as a terrorist country that has earned the world's hatred. But to use this fact, as do some leftists, for the sole purpose of bashing America, is unconstructive and wrong. Mr. Blum does not choose to focus on it (which does not surprise me), but the crucial message I see stamped in blood onto the pages of his book is of the disastrous consequences of our government's executive branch being unconstrained by its proper constitutional limits. This growth of executive power had several causes in the twentieth century, which the book shows in action as part of the reasoning behind the government's doing what it did. Overblown fears of communist world conquest; an altruistic desire to bring democracy to the world's benighted peoples; an ill-defined "national interest" with no objective standards to keep its pursuit in check--these all and more combined to expand the power of the executive branch to a level unknown in the history of our republic. The evils subsequently committed by the Presidency, the CIA and other executive agencies were necessary consequences of their having such arbitrary power at their disposal. If you want the real lesson from *Killing Hope*, this is it. Its 55 chapters read like case studies of what can and must happen when the exercise of executive discretion and secrecy is allowed, by Congressional and philosophical default, to grow unchecked in the foreign policy arena.
The Founding Fathers, were they alive today, would be shocked and appalled, but not surprised. As James Madison said, "The management of foreign relations appears to be the most susceptible of abuse of all the trusts committed to a Government." The Founders saw this firsthand as they fought a war against a world power that in the eighteenth century occupied a position similar, in certain relevant respects, to America's today (though America's actions have been more destructive than Great Britain's ever were); and they designed a new form of government to prevent such tyrannical abuse in the future. Mr. Blum demonstrates that perhaps millions of people--some Americans, but mostly those non-Americans who used to look to America for inspiration and hope--have died as a result of the corruption of the constitutional government the Founders designed. I believe, meaningfully, that America is the greatest country in the world--with respect to her spirit and her original founding principles, if not to what she has become today. Islamic militants and others who denounce America for her embodying Western civilization's greatest achievments are wrong. But they do have an excuse. Instead of being a beacon, lighting the way to liberty and progress, America herself has tragically become a symbol of oppression for many of the world's oppressed. As the title of Mr. Blum's book implies, the actions of America's unaccountable government are "killing" these people's "hope." *Killing Hope* shows us what is wrong with America and the kind of government we must return to if we are to fix her.
http://www.amazon.com/Killing-Hope-Military-Interventions-Since/dp/1567510523 |
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CovOps
Location : Ether-Sphere
Job/hobbies : Irrationality Exterminator
Humor : Über Serious
| | Subject: Re: Killing Hope: U. S. Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II Sat Jan 03, 2009 8:28 pm | |
| If you flip over the rock of American foreign
policy of the past century, this is what crawls out...
invasions ... bombings ... overthrowing
governments ... suppressing movements
for social change ... assassinating
political leaders ... perverting
elections ... manipulating labor unions ...
manufacturing "news" ... death squads ...
torture ... biological warfare ...
depleted uranium ... drug trafficking ...
mercenaries ...
It's not a pretty picture.
It is enough to give imperialism a bad name.
Table of Contents
Introduction
1. China - 1945 to 1960s: Was Mao Tse-tung just paranoid?
2. Italy - 1947-1948: Free elections, Hollywood style
3. Greece - 1947 to early 1950s: From cradle of democracy to client state
4. The Philippines - 1940s and 1950s: America's oldest colony
5. Korea - 1945-1953: Was it all that it appeared to be?
6. Albania - 1949-1953: The proper English spy
7. Eastern Europe - 1948-1956: Operation Splinter Factor
8. Germany - 1950s: Everything from juvenile delinquency to terrorism
9. Iran - 1953: Making it safe for the King of Kings
10. Guatemala - 1953-1954: While the world watched
11. Costa Rica - Mid-1950s: Trying to topple an ally - Part 1
12. Syria - 1956-1957: Purchasing a new government
13. Middle East - 1957-1958: The Eisenhower Doctrine claims another backyard for America
14. Indonesia - 1957-1958: War and pornography
15. Western Europe - 1950s and 1960s: Fronts within fronts within fronts
16. British Guiana - 1953-1964: The CIA's international labor mafia
17. Soviet Union - Late 1940s to 1960s: From spy planes to book publishing
18. Italy - 1950s to 1970s: Supporting the Cardinal's orphans and techno-fascism
19. Vietnam - 1950-1973: The Hearts and Minds Circus
20. Cambodia - 1955-1973: Prince Sihanouk walks the high-wire of neutralism
21. Laos - 1957-1973: L'Armée Clandestine
22. Haiti - 1959-1963: The Marines land, again
23. Guatemala - 1960: One good coup deserves another
24. France/Algeria - 1960s: L'état, c'est la CIA
25. Ecuador - 1960-1963: A text book of dirty tricks
26. The Congo - 1960-1964: The assassination of Patrice Lumumba
27. Brazil - 1961-1964: Introducing the marvelous new world of death squads
28. Peru - 1960-1965: Fort Bragg moves to the jungle
29. Dominican Republic - 1960-1966: Saving democracy from communism by getting rid of democracy
30. Cuba - 1959 to 1980s: The unforgivable revolution
31. Indonesia - 1965: Liquidating President Sukarno ... and 500,000 others
East Timor - 1975: And 200,000 more
32. Ghana - 1966: Kwame Nkrumah steps out of line
33. Uruguay - 1964-1970: Torture -- as American as apple pie
34. Chile - 1964-1973: A hammer and sickle stamped on your child's forehead
35. Greece - 1964-1974: "Fuck your Parliament and your Constitution," said
the President of the United States
36. Bolivia - 1964-1975: Tracking down Che Guevara in the land of coup d'etat
37. Guatemala - 1962 to 1980s: A less publicized "final solution"
38. Costa Rica - 1970-1971: Trying to topple an ally -- Part 2
39. Iraq - 1972-1975: Covert action should not be confused with missionary work
40. Australia - 1973-1975: Another free election bites the dust
41. Angola - 1975 to 1980s: The Great Powers Poker Game
42. Zaire - 1975-1978: Mobutu and the CIA, a marriage made in heaven
43. Jamaica - 1976-1980: Kissinger's ultimatum
44. Seychelles - 1979-1981: Yet another area of great strategic importance
45. Grenada - 1979-1984: Lying -- one of the few growth industries in Washington
46. Morocco - 1983: A video nasty
47. Suriname - 1982-1984: Once again, the Cuban bogeyman
48. Libya - 1981-1989: Ronald Reagan meets his match
49. Nicaragua - 1981-1990: Destabilization in slow motion
50. Panama - 1969-1991: Double-crossing our drug supplier
51. Bulgaria 1990/Albania 1991: Teaching communists what democracy is all about
52. Iraq - 1990-1991: Desert holocaust
53. Afghanistan - 1979-1992: America's Jihad
54. El Salvador - 1980-1994: Human rights, Washington style
55. Haiti - 1986-1994: Who will rid me of this turbulent priest?
56. The American Empire - 1992 to present
Notes
Appendix I: This is How the Money Goes Round
Appendix II: Instances of Use of United States Armed Forces Abroad, 1798-1945
Appendix III: U. S. Government Assassination Plots
Index
http://www.killinghope.org/ |
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