Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower [Paperback]

This is an indispensable guide to the domestic and foreign policies of the US state. In Part I, Blum analyses the US state's use of terrorists, particularly those who fought in Afghanistan, and its use of mass murderers like Pol Pot. In Part II, he analyses the US uses of weapons of mass destruction - bombing, depleted uranium, cluster bombs, chemical and biological weapons. In Part III, he analyses the US role in the world, its relationships with democracy and elections.

He looks at the notion that 9/11 is explicable only in terms of evil. He cites the Pentagon's own Defense Science Board, which quoted, and contradicted, Bush when it said, "Muslims do not `hate our freedom', but rather they hate our policies." He writes, "This idée fixe - that the rise of anti-American terrorism owes nothing to American policies - in effect postulates an America that is always the aggrieved innocent in a treacherous world, a benign United States government peacefully going about its business but being `provoked' into taking extreme measures to defend its people, its freedom and its democracy."

He writes, "Throughout the period of the Cuban revolution, 1959 to the present, Latin America has witnessed a terrible parade of human rights violations - systematic, routine torture; legions of `disappeared' people; government-supported death squads picking off selected individuals; massacres en masse of peasants, students and other groups, shot down in cold blood. The worst perpetrators of these acts during this period have been the military and associated paramilitary squads of El Salvador, Guatemala, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Peru, Mexico, Uruguay, Haiti and Honduras. Not even Cuba's worst enemies have made serious charges against the Castro government for any of these violations ..." Now the US state is encouraging Florida-based Cuban anti-communist terrorists to help Venezuelan fascist to overthrow President Chavez.

Blum concludes that, to the US state, "'democracy', at best, or at most, is equated solely with elections and civil liberties. Neither jobs, food or shelter, nor education or health care are part of the equation. Thus, a nation with hordes of hungry, homeless, untended sick, barely literate, unemployed, and/or tortured people, whose loved ones are being disappeared and/or murdered with state connivance, can be said to be living in a `democracy' ... provided that every two years or four years they have the right to go to a designated place and put an X next to the name of one or another individual who promises to relieve their miserable condition, but who will, typically, do virtually nothing of the kind ..."

Mr Blum's book is well researched and well written. It is not, as I first suspected it might be, a vitriolic anti-American rant. The facts are presented with a minimum of embelishment.
No doubt there will be some who will dispute some of the arguements he presents, but much of it is beyond reproach, such as the section on the US's shameful voting at the UN.
For those of us who are concerned that the British are following the US into one mistaken action after another, it makes very sobering reading.
In his war against terrorism George Dubya needs to look no further than his own secret service to find examples of murder and coercion.
Read this book, then have a stiff drink as you remind yourself that the USA is leader of the free world.

William Blum's book is the perfect antidote to the endless pack of lies that we are presently being told by Bush, Blair and the BBC about Iraq and the constant presumption of good that is bestowed upon the USA.
In the 60's Blum worked for the State Department but could only take so much. He has since dedicated himself to trying to counter through one medium or another to mythology of US political credibility. Like all great American dissident writers he cares first and foremost about the victims of terror, torture, genocide and aggression. That may sound familiar as it is the same claim made by the usual suspects who forever appear on Newsnight BUT with one great difference. Their indignation is also about the far lesser crimes of the enemies of the USA (who almost always owe their careers to the CIA in the first place)
while Blum is concerned with the far greater crimes committed upon vastly greater numbers of people by the American Empire.
His style of writing is clear, precise, verifiable and designed for a generation of people who want clear writing that can be read on the commuter trains and time spent in airports and on planes as well as a good read at home.

The only reason I did not give it 5 stars is that should be reserved for grander works like Chomsky's YEAR 501 but this work is far accessible for a wider audience.

Excellent book.
An important account of US conduct in the world that the folks on the tele refuse to mention.