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The New American Empire

by:
Rodrigue Tremblay (Author)

ISBN: 0-7414-1887-8 ©2004
Price: $21.95
Book Size: 5.5'' x 8.5'' , 365 pages
Category/Subject:

The American people never demanded that their country go to war against Iraq, just as they never wanted their country to be transformed from a respected democracy into an interventionist empire. What happened?

Abstract:
ADDENDUM

The book "The New American Empire", initially published in 2004 with Infinity, is available on Amazon [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0741418878/qid=1120655398/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/102-8470027-8697752] and elsewhere, and has been translated into French [http://www.amazon.fr/exec/obidos/ASIN/2747562875/qid=1091492755/402-8048732-4749757] by L'Harmattan and into Turkish [http://www.kitapyurdu.com/kitap/default.asp?id=127386] by Nova Publishing of Ankara, Turkey, and has therefore been distributed worldwide.

Reviews of the book can be found on the Web site for the book at:
http://www.thenewamericanempire.com/


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Customer Reviews

  Civilization's moral judgment... , 04/21/2004
Reviewer: Jean-Paul Natho
This is a very powerful book. I suggest that you read chapter 16 on Western civilization, chapter 10 on the legality and morality of the War in Iraq and chapter 5 on the political game within U.S. politics, before tackling the rest. There is a host of important information to be derived from the book. For example, there is the list of the very people who advised Dick Cheney for his 2001 energy policy, a list he went so far as to ask the Supreme Court to keep secret. I especially liked the parallel that the author draws between the (2002) Bush Doctrine and the (1968) Brezhnev Doctrine. It's scary. Do empires really last 600 years?

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  George W. Bush, EMPEROR?... , 07/17/2004
Reviewer: Jack from Florida
Who elected G.W. Bush "President of the World"? Heck, he wasn't even elected President of the United States, since he got 500,000 fewer votes than Al Gore. It's thanks to Dick Cheney's friend on the Supreme Court, judge Antonio Scalia, that Bush is in the White House. All the rest follows, as the author points out. This is a must read for everyone.

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  The Future of Democracy , 08/25/2004
Reviewer: Charles Jones
After reading this book, one is bound to ask, "Who elected GWB President of the world?" Bush thinks that "imposed democracy" is not imperialism. In fact, they are synonymous. True democracy comes from the people; imperial power comes from armaments and from the concentration of power at the top. Every American should read this book to understand what's happening in the U.S. today.

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  An Enlightened Book-a must-read , 08/25/2004
Reviewer: Anne
How did the neoconservatives currently in charge of U.S. foreign policy in Washington succeed in changing the United States from a respected law-abiding leader in world affairs into a rogue state that choses violence over diplomacy to solve international problems? The war against Iraq of March 20, 2002, was the first imperialistic war of the 20th Century, following the "New American Empire" Doctrine that George W. Bush announced on Sept. 20, 2002. This is an infamous date in U.S. history. My only regret is that the book is not longer, because it is obvious that the author has a lot more to say about the present unhealthy geopolitical climate.

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  Very good global picture of the topic , 09/13/2004
Reviewer: Pascal
This book provides a very good global picture of the topic of American Empire. This is most useful, given there is a plethora of writings on the subject. The author's point of view is most penetrating, especially in situating the problem in its geopolitical and historical contexts. He deserves particular credit for his moral/legal analysis. One would have wished, however, a more elaborate conclusion.

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  A Source for Historians , 09/17/2004
Reviewer: Al
“The New American Empire” covers all bases: On how the pro-Israel neocons succeeded in imposing “their” foreign policy on the Bush administration; on how the March 20, 2003 war against Iraq was planned over a ten-year period prior to 9-11, 2001, a cruel event which provided the “pretext” to move troops to Iraq and take militarily control of the Middle East and of its oil. Historians will like to read this book a generation from now.

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  A devastating critique of the American empire , 11/04/2004
Reviewer: "D. Johnson" (Florida, USA)
This book delivers a devastating critique of the "New American Empire" under George W. Bush. In the author's view, the domestic U.S. political market is now dominated by tax-free, rich, religious and extremist organizations, assisted by tax-free, hugely rich foundations and numerous biased media. The result is a political climate at home which is hostile to the constitutional separation of church and state and which is opposed to individuals' constitutional rights, and which favors a militarist and imperialist foreign policy abroad. That's the message of this book in a nutshell. Before the Nov. 2 elections, I was in denial of such a dire reality and would have said that the author, a Canadian economist, was surely exaggerating. I'm not so sure anymore. It seems obvious now that a majority of Americans do not seem to subscribe to the basic principles of our Constitution and its Bill of Rights, i.e. that the government should not meddle in people's religious affairs and that individual liberty from government interference should be the rule. Now, we have a born-again president who can impose his theocratic views of society by filling the Supreme Court with like-minded judges. Thomas Jefferson must be turning in his grave! Externally, the war against Iraq may be the first one in a string of foreign wars that this Bush administration can be expected to launch. I have no doubt that lies and distortions will be relied upon to persuade a gullible public that these wars are in our interests. This is frightening. When incompetent and dishonest public officials begin lying, they have to lie a thousand times to cover their previous lies. That's pretty much what has happened with George W. Bush and his militarist cabinet to justify their "preventive" war in Iraq. Now Americans are faced with the awful responsability that their government has been involved in raping, torturing and murdering prisoners in concentration camps, such as the one in Guantanamo or at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, where no laws seem to apply, not even the Geneva Conventions that the United States has signed. How could we ever let a few individuals desecrate America's values and reputation so much? This is a national disgrace. History books will go over this period with awe and disbelief. Dr. Tremblay's book is an eye-opener.

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  "AN ORWELLIAN COALITION" , 11/08/2004
Reviewer: H.Miller (Boston, MA, USA
Now that the Republican Party has obtained monopoly power over U.S. politics by taking control of all branches of the U.S. government—the White House, the Senate, the House, the Judiciary, State Governorships and Legislatures, and soon the Supreme Court itself—it is time to reflect on this nearly complete take-over of the government by one party and by one ideology. ---A good starting point is this book about the "New American Empire" and about how an Orwellian coalition of religious zealots, militarist warmongers and supremacist conservatives have combined and united behind George W. Bush to transform America. Through their control of the news media, especially television, often with tax-free money, and with the help of subservient right-wing think tanks, they have succeeded in dumbing down the American public into believing the paranoid idea that the rest of the world is against the U.S. and that only "God", an American "God", can saved the nation. Such paranoia is frightening because in such a climate, even the Constitution can be subdued and sidelined. This has been seen before in other countries. ---Tremblay's book analyses the relationships between the elements of the far-right coalition in the U.S. and how such a coalition is upsetting the fabric of the republic and destabilizing the world at the same time. Americans will pay for this fundamental shift from democracy to empire with their liberty at home and with their blood abroad. The intrusion of government into libraries and into churches, under the cover of the "Patriot Act" and "faith-based initiatives", will slowly become an accepted fact, but individual freedom will inevitably suffer. In remote lands, US military force will be placed at the service of American interests, in violation of the principle of national sovereignty and of international law. --- This powerful book is a must for anybody who wants to understand the impact that the new American Imperial Doctrine is having within the United States and throughout the world. I definitely recommend it.

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  Neo-conservatives and Bush Foreign Policy , 11/10/2004
Reviewer: Michael P.
With the critical help of Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, a coterie of neocon ideologues currently dominates the Bush administration's hawkish foreign policy. This book is very useful in identifying the "brains" and the ideology behind this awesome shift of the United States' government toward imperialism. ...They are: At the White House, Dick Cheney's chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby and his top Middle East advisors, John Hannah and David Wurmser; at the National Security Council (NSC), weapons proliferation specialist Robert Joseph and top Mideast aide Elliott Abrams; at the Pentagon, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, Undersecretary for Policy Douglas Feith, Undersecretary for Arms Control and International Security William Luti; at the State Department, John Bolton and Paula Dobriansky; and, at the Defense Policy Board (DPB), the all-powerful Richard Perle, a former assistant secretary of defense under President Ronald Reagan and the recognized "Rasputin" behind the neocon movement. ...The cabal has received considerable support from other individuals, such as Christian moralist William Bennett, former United Nations Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick, former Navy Undersecretary John Lehman, former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director James Woolsey and former assistant secretary of defense Frank Gaffney, also founder and president of the Centre for Security Policy (CSP). ...These individuals form the core of people who are responsible for the hijacking of U.S. foreign policy and its intelligence process and who engineered the U.S. invasion of Iraq in March 2003. Many of them were instrumental in launching, in 1997, the famous "Project for the New American Century" (PNAC). From all accounts, they are the main factor behind the terrible reputation the United States is gaining all over the world as a ruthless unilateralist and militarist bully. Their movement is supported by Rupert Murdoch's media empire (Fox News, New York Post, Weekly Standard ...etc), by a handful of so-called think-tanks (American Enterprise, Heritage,...) and by very rich foundations (Bradley, Sarah Scaife and Olin). ... Most Americans ignore and do not even suspect the corrosive influence that this relatively small group of people have had on the U.S. government. The media have provided only sketchy and fragmentary information about the agenda pursued by this cabal. Even recent political books are evasive on the role this group is playing in formulating an extremist and devastating American foreign policy. ... Not this book, however. "The New American Empire" is probably the best account of this fundamental phenomenon of our times. This is definitely a must-read.

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  A Deftly Researched Book , 11/17/2004
Reviewer: MIDWEST BOOK REVIEW/NOVEMBER '04
In The New American Empire, economist and professor emeritus Rodrigue Tremblay dares to ask: what is really the motive behind the American war in Iraq? What will be its consequences, both for the United States and the world? Focusing on a critical shift that American foreign and domestic policies have taken under George Bush since September 11, 2001, viewed both in the context of modern history and as part of the evolution of Western civilization since the fall of Constantinople in 1453. The dangerous implications of a war initiated and led under false pretenses, the strategic importance of oil and its fundamental motivation in a political and worldwide power grab, emerging decadence in the West and more are all chronicles with a cautious eye and a sharp tongue. A deftly researched, deadly serious warning of the clear and present dangers of America's current uncontrolled national hubris.

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  RELIGION AND POLITICS , 11/24/2004
Reviewer: A. Moran (Philadelphia, PA USA
So, evangelical Christian groups (they make up about a quarter of the electorate—a bigger slice than blacks and Hispanics combined) were the driving force behind George W. Bush's reelection on Nov. 2. The question begs to be asked: Are we moving toward a political situation similar to Iran's, where fundamentalist mullahs are in power? Not yet but.... Many books eschew the role of religion in politics. Instead, this relatively condensed book (365 p.) identifies religion as one of the three major pillars of U.S. politics, along with the military-industrial complex and the all pervasive pro-Israel lobby. According to the author, this is the only democracy in the Western world where it is so. In theory, the U.S. is a democracy where there is a separation of church and state, not only because of the First Amendment to the Constitution ["Congress shall make no law..."], but because there is a Tax Code provision that forbids tax-exempt organizations from getting involved in partisan politics. I am grateful to the author for reminding me of a little known article in the Tax Code [article 501(c)3 ] that prohibits any group with a tax-exempt status from "endorsing or opposing candidates" in an election. As anyone can see, this law is routinely violated and our mullahs, the Jerry Falwells and Pat Robertsons of this world, and their rich TV networks, publicly tell people who to vote for, and who to vote against. In exchange, some of them receive "faith-based" funds from the very administration they have directly contributed to elect. If this is not an unhealthy situation, what is? Tremblay challenges another taboo in American politics and it is the reluctance to discuss the tremendous influence that some well-organized and well-financed lobbies have on political candidates and on public officials. There are some 30,000 lobbyists in Washington D.C., but some are more powerful than others He identifies AARP for domestic issues and AIPAC for foreign policy. The latter, for instance, organized George W. Bush's first trip abroad in December 1998, with a visit to Israel. Bush's favoritism toward Ariel Sharon dates from this trip and it has undoubtedly influenced his attitude and policies regarding the festering Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In short, those who like vigorous discussions of important policy issues will delight in reading this book. However, some readers could be taken aback by the bluntness of some of the author's arguments and conclusions. Warning: This book is not for the feeble at heart.

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  A MARRIAGE MADE IN HELL , 11/30/2004
Reviewer: "G. Smith" (Salem OR, United States)
A MARRIAGE MADE IN HELL "G. Smith" (Salem OR, United States) Bush II and the Neocons is a marriage made in hell. One thinks of oil, the others think of Jerusalem. At least, that's what the author of "The New American Empire" insinuates when he attempts to explain the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 and the "Bush imperial Doctrine" of 2002. Without this marriage of convenience, following Sept. 11, there would have been a war against terrorism and against the al Qaeda terrorist network, and against the Talibans in Afghanistan, as justified under United Nations rules, but there would probably not have been an unprovoked military invasion of Iraq, a remote country which had nothing to do with the 2001 attacks against the United States. The author also fears the consequences of the violent clash between two politico-religious fundamentalisms, the GWB type and the Osama bin Laden type. These two profoundly religious leaders rely on both the Law of the Jungle and the rule that "the end justifies the means". Killing innocent people is only unavoidable "collateral damage" that one can deplore but that one hardly takes into consideration in attacking the other camp. He quotes bin Laden who once said, "Yes, we kill their innocents and this is legal, religiously and logically...There are two types of terror, good and bad. What we are practicing is good terror. We will not stop killing them and whoever supports them." (p. 18). Then he quotes President George W. Bush who once said: "The best way to fight evil is to do some good. Let me qualify that—the best way to fight evil at home is to do some good. The best way to fight them abroad is to unleash the military."(p.47). Violence, not dialogue, seems to be the modus vivendi of both men. This goes against basic humanist morality, if not against Christian values as outlined in The New Testament. This is scary because such a lack of public morality could lead to endless wars and the killing of thousands of innocent people. This definitely is a book that makes you think, whether or not you agree with the author. It’s a good read.

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  ILLEGAL AND IMMORAL , 12/01/2004
Reviewer: "P. C. Lindsay" Pembroke NC, USA
The war of aggression that George W. Bush has been pursuing in Iraq since the spring of 2003 is illegal and immoral. That is the message sent by the author of this well-researched book. The author reviews all the tricks and tactics that the Bush II administration used to obtain some semblance of cover from the United Nations, but to no avail; the other members of the Security Council, with the exception of Great Britain, refused to authorize the military invasion of a country that posed no imminent threat to the United States. By ruthlessly pushing aside the United Nations, George W. Bush ended up behaving like Soviet communist Leonid Brezhnev, who challenged the United Nations and invaded Czechoslovakia in 1968. As George Santayana once said, "He who does not learn from history is doomed to repeat it." Over the last 100 years, other countries have attempted to build empires through a projection of their military power outside of their borders, i.e. Soviet Russia and Nazi Germany. None, however, were democracies and they all failed miserably, not before imposing immense sufferings on others. Why the U.S. would want to become a military empire is beyond comprehension. But, as the author points out, what makes no sense from the point of view of the common good and common welfare could easily be explained by the special interests of those who promote various policies. In regard to U.S. foreign policy, it is nowadays the private affair of a powerful military-industrial-religious complex. Spokesmen for these groups are the loudest proponents of an unchecked U.S. economic, political and military power all around the world. For those who want to understand the role of the U.S. in international affairs and the true reasons why the U.S. has troops half way around the world in Iraq, the reading of this book is worth a course in geopolitics. Personally, I found Mr. Tremblay's analysis most refreshing and particularly insightful, considering the primitive covering that we get from the American media. After all, there is more to life than militarism and mercantilism. Definitely highly recommended.

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  "THE RICH AND THE WAR" , 01/05/2005
Reviewer: "aNONYMOUS", San Francisco, CA, USA
In the NYTimes(Jan. 1, 05), Jarey Diamond says that "a society contains a built-in blueprint for failure if the elite insulates itself from the consequences of its actions." This rejoins pretty much what the author of "The New American Empire" thinks when he says that the U.S., with its aggressive war in Iraq, is "in danger of losing its honor and its credibility in the eyes of the world" (p. 180), or when he says that "the greatest success of the Islamist al Qaeda terrorists on September 11, 2001, will not have been the killing of 3,000 innocent people, but rather the transformation of a great democratic republic into a neo-conservative and neo-fascist society." (p. 224). In Iraq, America's poor are dying while its rich make no sacrifice. To the contrary, the rich profit tremendously from this war. Future generations will have to pay the huge deficits that the Bush's tax cuts for the rich created. Juicy cost-plus contracts are being awarded to Halliburton and similar companies, while Iraqi oil is being taken over by American companies. How long can this masquerade continue? Probably as long as the American people is numbed into believing the heavy pro-war and pro-empire propaganda spewed out by the neo-conservative media. I, for one, do not hold my breath, because history shows that such craziness can last a long time before tragedy results and opens everybody's eyes. Ask the Germans. - Nobody can read "The New American Empire" and keep his eyes shut. --This is a read.

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  BIG LIES AND BIG PROPAGANDA , 01/18/2005
Reviewer: C. O'Donnell
For the representatives of the fascist-leaning conservative U.S. media, facts and factual analysis do not seem to count. For some of them, they should not even be considered. Raw political propaganda is the norm. Any lie, any deception, any disinformation can be employed to numb and persuade a docile public. The 2004 presidential election will go down in history as the victory of lies, character assassinations and Soviet-style propaganda, used as tools to gain and retain power at all costs and to establish a de facto one-party state in America. The American partisan media are the most intellectually dishonest and corrupt you can find in any country, let alone in other democratic countries. The Limbaugh, O,Reilly, Hannity & Co are truly dangerous and deceitful demagogues of the airwaves. What's going on in partisan U.S. media is most frightening. -History teaches us that fascist and fanatical media will inevitably produce fascist and fanatical regimes.- This has happened in other countries before, with disastrous results. "The New American Empire" is a book I enjoyed reading. It is most instructive. It presents the facts behind the corrosive influence that dishonest and incompetent media have on U.S. politics and how, if they are left unchecked, they will end up establishing a fascist-leaning one-party system in the USA. Even if it is the only book you read in 2005, you will learn more about U.S. politics than by reading a dozen other books. This remarkable book asks the right questions and gives the right answers. Kudos.

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  WARS AND POLITICS , 02/01/2005
Reviewer: Ted Feldman
This is a book to read. -According to the Census Bureau, there were 24.9 million military veterans in the U.S. in 2004. Add 1.4 million active personnel, their spouses, children and relatives, and those who work in military industries, and you have a very significant political bloc of voters with a vested interest in a bloated military budget ($447 billion in 2004). -This is a feature of U.S. society that earned the attention of President Dwight Eisenhower, 45 years ago, when he warned us against what he then called, the "military-industrial complex". As the author of "The New American Empire" reminds us (pp 90-91), on January 17, 1961, President Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890-1969) made a farewell speech in which the former general warned us agaisnst the following danger: ---"In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exist and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes."--- How come we do not have an Eisenhower these days to warn us against the danger of becoming a militarist society? To the contrary, what we hear is a quasi-religious neocon rhetoric about the need to be a supremacist military power and on the alleged right that we seem to have acquired to intervene anywhere in the world whenever our "great" supreme leaders see fit. Are we a democracy or an empire? --We should, to quote the author, be truly "modern and democratic humanists". I enjoyed reading this book.

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  RELIGIONISM AND WAR , 03/01/2005
Reviewer: Dick Knowland
"I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute- where no Catholic prelate would tell the President (should he be Catholic) how to act, and no Protestant minister would tell his parishioners for whom to vote- where no church or church school is granted any public funds or political preference- and where no man is denied public office merely because his religion differs from the President who might appoint him or the people who might elect him."- President John F. Kennedy, September 12, 1960. #- When one reads the above quotation from President John F. Kennedy, taken from a speech he delivered, 45 years ago, to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association, one realizes how far George W. Bush has gone in undermining the foundation of the American system of government. #- The current president has created a faith-based and a "you are with-us-or-against-us" presidency, with religiosity playing a central role in his gvoernment. He has even allied himself with archconservative neo-Christian fundamentalists who would like to have the Bible replace the Constitution. #- This is most surprising and worrisome. As Dr. Fl Stern warned in the NY Times (Jan. 6, '05), such a development should not be taken lightly. Seventy years ago, in prewar Germany, another leader, Adolf Hitler, saw himself as "the instrument of providence" and fused his "racial dogma with a Germanic Christianity". In the end, the mixing of religion and politics destroyed Germany. #- The mixing of religion and politics has long been endemic in Muslim countries. Unitl 9-11, nobody paid much attention to this fundamental trait of Islamic nations. In many backward Islamic countries, for example, the government has a department of religious affairs, and often, the imams or the mufti work for the state and are paid by the state. #- Now that the United States seems to be following these countries in mixing religion and politics, the world should take notice. The U.S. government under Bush II is deeply involved in religious matters, with its faith-based initiatives and its financing of church-related activities. The President's main speechwriter is even a theologian! #- George W. Bush considers himself a messianic President. Talking about his motivations for attacking Iraq, he said, "Going into this period, I was praying for strength to do the Lord's will...In my case, I pray to be as good a messenger of his will as possible." #- As a messianic politician, Adolf Hitler also declared that he was invading other countries with God's support for launching preventive wars: "But there is something else I believe, and that is that there is a God...And this God again has blessed our efforts during the past 13 years." And, he would ominously add: "I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator...I am fighting for the work of the Lord." --Talking of his boss Hitler, Hermann Goering could exclaim: "God gave the savior to the German people. We have faith, deep and unshakeable faith, that he was sent to us by God to save Germany."-But as a result of this fool's actions, fifty million people lost their lives during World War II. #_ It is hardly surprising but very frightening, that some warlike leaders are obsessed with God and claim God is on their side. This seems to remove any personal responsibility for the terrible acts they are about to commit. #_ In "The New American Empire", Dr. Tremblay does not hesitate to draw a parallel between 1930's Germany and 2000's America when he writes: "Armed with this doctrine (of preventive wars) if it is not vigilant, the United States could be in the 21st Century what Germany was in the 20th Century, that is, a danger to the world.(p.11) This is strong and provocative stuff! #-No other book to my knowledge raises these issues so bluntly and with such clarity. This is political writing at its best. Dr. Tremblay's book is a refreshing compendium of analyses and is a strong antidote to fascism and totalitarianism of any kind. Right or left, everybody should read this enlightening and solidly documented book.

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  SOBER ASSESSMENT OF THE CHOICES , 03/25/2005
Reviewer: S. Black, (Arlington, Virginia, USA)
***** Since the year 2000, a new kind of politician has risen to the top of the political pole, that is to say that we seem to be getting the best politicians that money can buy. Case in point: George W. Bush is the living proof that it is true that anybody can become president. It does not require culture, talent or judgment; only gall and the support of rich and powerful friends. We are far away from the "philosopher kings" that democracies must have to survive and prosper. Indeed, the world has tipped in 2000, with the election of GWB to the presidency, with fewer votes than Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore. And, of course, bin Laden did the rest with his fanatical attacks against the U.S. on Sept. 11, 2001. That's where Tremblay's book, "The New American Empire", picks up. After this gratuitous attack, the U.S. government had choices: - It could have attempted to isolate the small group of lunatic Muslims of the bin Laden type and pursue them to their most remote hideouts. In fact, the overthrow of the extremist Taliban regime in Afghanistan, in 2002, raised the hope that this was the correct response to apatrid terrorists who could not be expected to operate without some territorial base. ---Instead, a less civilized choice was made. Before the operation was completed in Afghanistan (bin Laden and his gang are still at large), G.W. Bush and his neoconservative right-wing allies thought this was too good an opportunity to be missed. The war against al-Qaeda would have to wait, while all the efforts were redirected toward a country which had nothing to do with Sept. 11 and nothing to do with the religious fanatics of al-Qaeda. This country was Iraq, "a country [in the words of Paul Wolfowitz, Rumsfeld's deputy secretary of Defense] which is floating on oil." Now, we are at a crossroads as a democratic republic: Either we go the imperial way and reject the rule of law in favor of the rule of force, -or we come back to our better senses and start behaving as democratic and law-abiding citizens of the world. Tremblay, being a world-renown Canadian economist, sees clealy the consequences, for the U.S. and for the world, of either choice. At the end of the book, he cites Ben Franklin and his seven "great virtues" for America: aversion to tyranny, support for a free press, a sense of humor, humility, idealism in foreign policy, tolerance and respect for compromise. ***** Let us all hope this message will be heard. This is a thumping good read.

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  THE HIDDEN HARD TRUTH , 03/30/2005
Reviewer: "Jack F.", (Los Altos, CA., USA)
As Hitler once said: "The victor will never be asked if he told the truth." And George Orwell, a student of politics, defined "political language ... [as] designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind." Indeed, for some leaders bent on waging war, Machiavellian manipulation is the rule. Historians will recognize that the reasons given to Congress and to the American people by George W. Bush for launching a war of aggression against Iraq on March 20, 2003, were false and invented, that facts were manipulated to fit a predetermined agenda and that intelligence data to support the decision were falsified. What were these false pretenses to defy international law and world opinion and to invade a sovereign country? Historians will focus on George W. Bush's famous "mushroom cloud" speech, on October 7, 2002, in Cincinnati, in which he asserted that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, as well as ties to "international terrorists," and, moreover, was working feverishly to develop nuclear weapons with "nuclear holy warriors." In his words, Iraq, a country ravaged by 12 years of military surveillance and starving under an economic embargo, was assumed to pose an imminent threat to the United States. Nobody believed that, except the pro-war American media. Historians will also remember how Colin Powell, the Secretary of state, abased himself on February 5, 2003, in a United Nations speech filled with falsehoods, and which contained many statements which previously had been debunked by the government's own intelligence agencies. As it turned out, none of the official reasons to go to war were true. They were complete fabrications uniquely designed for propaganda purposes. It was undignified of a great democratic country and it has done immense damage to the United States' credibility and legitimacy in the world. But, if the official reasons for war were bogus, what were the real reasons for the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq? The protection of Israel? The securization of oil supply? The establishment of additional military bases in the Middle East in order to intimidate Iran and Syria? Or, the desire to shore up the U.S. dollar against the euro in the international oil market? In fact, all of the above played a role in the Bush administration's decision to invade Iraq, but none was publicly debated. The author of this book places paramount emphasis on the rationales that Bush's neoconservative and Likudnick advisers had to use the U.S. military to implement with what was in fact Israel's foreign policy. He also produced the official reports that said clearly that the control of oil supply in the region was a fundamental motivation for the war against Iraq, especially at the Vice-president's office and at the Pentagon. The Pentagon was also anxious to move some of its bases out of Saudi Arabia and relocate them in a central Middle East country such as Iraq. It is hard not to agree with the author's compelling analysis because facts are difficult to dismiss. After reading this book, it is clear that the war against Iraq and the subsequent occupation were undertaken for strategic reasons. The only problem is that the rush to war was illegal, immoral, ill-planned and ill-conceived. Sooner or later, the American people will learn the hard hidden truth. Let us all hope that the damage to America's reputation could then be repaired. This is highly recommended reading.

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  A pro-democracy and anti-imperialism book , 05/02/2005
Reviewer: A. C. O'Brien, (Boston, MA, USA)
This a book which is both analytical and polemic, with strong views. It's a pro-democracy and anti-imperialism book. There is no doubt about it. It rejects the neocon Hitler-like doctrine of preventive wars and militarism, and especially, it denounces the cabal in favor of merging Israeli and American foreign policies. I personally agree that a Bush-Sharon Axis of Evil does not serve either America's national interest or those of the world as a whole. There is however some validity to the concealed motive for U.S. intervention in the Middle East to secure oil supplies. But natural resources belong to their owners and no country has any right to attack another for the purpose of controling its resources, whatever the pretext. As the author is keen to point out, national sovereignty is a fixture of international order ever since the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. Nevertheless, as Michael Klare noted ("Resource Wars"), the 21st Century may see more wars for resources than one would like to envisage. Maybe this is a question that the United Nations and the international community should tackle before things get out of hand. Whether or not you totally agree with the author's conclusions, (that the deflection of the war against terrorism into a war against Iraq was a result of an unhealthy mix of primitive revenge, pro-Israel pressures and oil interests, all supported by fundamentalist Christians and servile media), it is a must-read for anyone interested in U.S. politics and in U.S. foreign policy at the beginning of the 21st Century. "The New American Empire" is a great contribution for a reasoned political debate regarding U.S. foreign policy. Read this book.

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  A PROPHETIC BOOK , 06/19/2005
Reviewer: M. Jennessy, New York, NY, USA
On page 180-81, the author of "The New American Empire" wrote: --" In the spring of 2002, George W. Bush had already decided to "invade Iraq no matter what". Indeed, it was revealed by Richard Haass, the director of the policy-planning staff at the State Department, that George W. Bush had made the decision to invade Iraq well before July 2002. He was told by Condoleezza Rice, Bush's National Security Advisor, during the first week of July 2002, "not to waste his breath... the decision has been made." New information makes it more likely that the decision to attack Iraq was made within days after the September 11th suicide hijackings of 2001, eighteen months before the event.— Well, this is precisely what highly classified British documents, published last May 1st (2005), have revealed. Half a dozen official memos and option papers, written by top aides to British Prime Minister Tony Blair, have indeed provided the definitive proof that President George W. Bush and his neocon advisors had decided to invade Iraq and oust Saddam Hussein, whatever the circumstances and whatever the costs, as early as the fall of 2001, and even before. That's the reason the author could say that the entire diplomatic exercise of going to the United Nations during the fall of 2002 and in early 2003, supposedly to avoid a war, was truly a charade and a deception. As a matter of fact, the Bush administration and Bush himself were lying openly when they repeated ad nauseam that war was their choice of "last resort". We now know that war against Iraq was rather their first choice. Sir Richard Dearlove, the Head of the British CIA (called the MI-6 spy service) confirmed, after a visit to Washington, that the Bush administration was fixing "the intelligence and facts ... around the policy", which was to invade Iraq, whatever the legality or the morality of such a policy. They [the Bush administration] were "scrambling to establish a link between Iraq and al (Qaida)" and that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, knowing full well that this was false. But that's what they told Congress and the American people. Bush and his Neocons knew from the start that they were going to have to manufacture excuses to justify a war against Iraq. What now? A lying President? a duped Congress? a misinformed American electorate? an illegal and immoral war? "The New American Empire" is an eye-opener. Its author succeeds admirably in placing everything in the proper context, so the reader has a complete picture of the real motives behind a war which has already killed 1,700 American soldiers (13,000 wounded) and brought death to as many as 100,000 Iraqis. I encourage you to read this book.

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  A PROPHETIC BOOK , 06/27/2005
Reviewer: Mary Jennessy, New York
On page 180-81, the author of "The New American Empire" wrote: --" In the spring of 2002, George W. Bush had already decided to "invade Iraq no matter what". Indeed, it was revealed by Richard Haass, the director of the policy-planning staff at the State Department, that George W. Bush had made the decision to invade Iraq well before July 2002. He was told by Condoleezza Rice, Bush's National Security Advisor, during the first week of July 2002, "not to waste his breath... the decision has been made." New information makes it more likely that the decision to attack Iraq was made within days after the September 11th suicide hijackings of 2001, eighteen months before the event." --Well, this is precisely what highly classified British documents, published last May 1st (2005), have revealed. Half a dozen official memos and option papers, written by top aides to British Prime Minister Tony Blair, have indeed provided the definitive proof that President George W. Bush and his neocon advisors had decided to invade Iraq and oust Saddam Hussein, whatever the circumstances and whatever the costs, as early as the fall of 2001, and even before. That's the reason the author could say that the entire diplomatic exercise of going to the United Nations during the fall of 2002 and in early 2003, supposedly to avoid a war, was truly a charade and a deception. As a matter of fact, the Bush administration and Bush himself were lying openly when they repeated ad nauseam that war was their choice of "last resort". We now know that war against Iraq was rather their first choice. Sir Richard Dearlove, the Head of the British CIA (called the MI-6 spy service) confirmed, after a visit to Washington, that the Bush administration was fixing "the intelligence and facts ... around the policy", which was to invade Iraq, whatever the legality or the morality of such a policy. They [the Bush administration] were "scrambling to establish a link between Iraq and al (Qaida)" and that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, knowing full well that this was false. But that's what they told Congress and the American people. Bush and his Neocons knew from the start that they were going to have to manufacture excuses to justify a war against Iraq. What now? A lying President? a duped Congress? a misinformed American electorate? an illegal and immoral war? "The New American Empire" is an eye-opener. Its author succeeds admirably in placing everything in the proper context, so the reader has a complete picture of the real motives behind a war which has already killed 1,750 American soldiers (more than 13,000 wounded) and brought death to as many as 100,000 Iraqis. I encourage you to read this book.

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  THE BIG LIE , 06/28/2005
Reviewer: James M. Nelson,
Can a president, bent to launch a war of aggression on his own, lie to Congress and the American people, and use those lies to gain congressional approval for his predecided military action? That's pretty much what President George W. Bush did in deciding to invade Iraq on March 20, 2003. It is all documented: The Bush administration made a policy of war, then altered, twisted and distorted the facts to fit that policy. For that, they used disinformation and psychological warfare against the American public. Their main objective was to make enough arguments connecting Iraq to terrorism and bin Laden that the American people would believe Iraq was behind the 9/11 attacks. And, with the active help of conniving media, it worked. This has been a concerted and blatant effort to manipulate the truth and fool the American people. The New American Empire is a book that documents the long string of lies by the Bush administration on the way to its ugly bloody war against Iraq. First, the Bush administration fabricated intelligence to back up its decision to go to war. Later, it would manipulate the results of Iraq's elections, waiting three long weeks to announce the results, in order to prevent the Shiites to have an absolute majority. Second, the Bush administration scared the American public to death by pretending that Iraq was hell-bent on getting WMD and atom bombs, and that, when it did, it would give them to religious fanatics to use on Washington, D.C..- To "prove" that, they invented the story of the uranium from Niger and pretended some aluminum tubes were for uranium enrichment. This was false. Then, Secretary Powell went to the United Nations and pretended that some trucks were biological labs. That was false. The President himself used this false information in a speech in Cincinnati, on October 7, 2002, and added that Iraq had drone aircraft that could possible deliver chemical weapons into the United States. This was a fabrication. Third, we learn from the official British Downing Street Memos that Bush launched a secret war against Iraq on September of 2002, more than a month before getting Congress's authorization. All this smells very badly, indeed. When President Bill Clinton engaged in some illicit sexual misconduct, the Republicans asked for an investigation and for his impeachment. Now that President George W. Bush has engaged in lies and deception to launch an illegal and immoral war, with 1,750 Americans and tens of thousands of Iraqis killed, the least the Democrats could ask is an investigation and a possible impeachment. ---This book Is a Must Read.

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  The Neocon coup d'etat after 9/11 , 08/05/2005
Reviewer: D. M. Rice
A legitimate debate has been censored, even suppressed, in the U.S. about the key role played by pro-Israel Neocons in providing faked intelligence reports and in persuading the Bush-Cheney team to launch an unprovoked aggressive war against the country of Iraq. What role did Richard Perle, (Deputy Secretary of Defense) Paul Wolfowitz, Douglas Feith, William Luti and others, play in this illegal and immoral war, a war based on false pretenses? Why was the Pentagon's Office of Special Plans, nearly completely staffed with Neocons, so central in planning and implementing the war? Who appointed all these Likudniks in such high positions of authority, many of them at the crucial level of deputy under Secretaries? How come so many of them came from agenda-promoting pro-Israel think tanks, such as the American Enterprise Institute , the Middle East Media Research Institute, the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, and the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs? Why have the Neocons taken nearly absolute control of the Department of Defense? What political deals were made in the shadows? Is treason involved? What will be the costs for young Americans in the armed forces, for the U.S. taxpayers and for our democracy? Only a thorough and intensive investigation would allow us to get to the bottom of this sordid affair in U.S. history. Should we wait for historians to unearth the truth, or shouldn't Congress do its job? In "The New American Empire", economist Tremblay writes that "What is worrisome is that the events of recent years have allowed a radical right to take complete control of the U.S. government."(p. 11-12). He adds that there are " ...dangerous ideological underpinnings for a U.S. foreign policy aimed at controlling militarily Arab and Muslim countries, in its own interests and in those of Israel. From there also originates the idea that the United Nations should be cast aside, because it is too "obsessed" with the Arab-Israeli conflict." (p. 66) "The New American Empire" is brilliant , factual, revealing and straight to the point. It can be read along with Imperial Crusades (Cockburn) and The Politics of Anti-Semitism (Cockburn). Anybody who was initially in favor of this war has no leg to stand on after reading this book.

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  The Fourth Branch of Government , 08/31/2005
Reviewer: Patrick B. Jonavan
"Our country is now geared to an arms economy bred in an artificially induced psychosis of war hysteria and an incessant propaganda of fear." General Douglas MacArthur In the 1976 movie "Network", a TV network makes money by putting on the air a lunatic, yelling commentator. Thirty years later, how many radio-TV networks make money by having lunatic yelling characters in their programming? It is a fact that the American mainstream conservative media ("MSM") have become an embarrassment for the United States and for our democracy. They have become what Pravda and Izvestia (News) were to the former Soviet Union, i.e. mouthpieces for the government's propaganda. They publish and air fake news and ignore news that doesn't fit their pre-determined political agenda. Their only preoccupation seems to be to control and manipulate public opinion. They are comfortably "embedded" with the government and they act as shills for it. Who are these corporate propaganda machines? Well, suffice to say that a few global corporate giants such as Time-Warner, Disney, Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, Viacom, General Electric and Vivendi own and control most media in this country. They own and control the powerful propaganda machines that have the ability to turn outright lies into accepted truth. A good example of corporate journalism deception: On May 9, 2005, former chief United Nations weapons inspector Hans Blix spoke at the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review conference in N.Y. and proposed a Middle East ban on uranium enrichment, covering both Iran and Israel, as a compromise solution to the so-called Iran threat. Guess what? His comments were completely ignored by the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal; they were cited only by the LA Times. Then there were the famous May 1st Downing Street memos which proved, without the shadow of a doubt, that Bush II lied his way to his pet war against Iraq. What happened in the U.S. media world? Silence. Their defence: We knew from the start that Bush was lying; therefore, this is "old" news! Here is how John Swinton, former Chief of Staff at the New York Times, qualifies this sort of corporate journalism: "The business of the journalist is to destroy the truth; to lie outright; to pervert; to vilify; to fawn at the feet of Mammon, and to sell the country for his daily bread. You know it and I know it and what folly is this toasting an independent press. We are the tools and vassals of the rich men behind the scenes. We are the jumping jacks, they pull the strings and we dance. Our talents, our possibilities and our lives are all the property of other men. We are intellectual prostitutes." In his book, Tremblay stigmatizes American media as having "abdicated their responsibility for critical inquiries into government affairs and have become instead an integral part of the government propaganda machine." (p. 95) When are we going to have an independent investigation on how corporate journalism is destroying the very institution of a free press in this country? Meanwhile, read "The New American Empire" and read also D. Brock's "The Republican Noise Machine". These two books complete each other.

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  Geopolitics and Morality , 10/16/2005
Reviewer: Arthur M. Singer
Can politicians declare war without good cause? Of course not. But, according to the author, that's pretty much what President George W. Bush did when he decided on his own to invade militarily the country of Iraq. "The New American Empire" is a book that explains why we got into that mess.

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  The "Bush-Cheney" Quest for Oil , 12/03/2005
Reviewer: F. B. Douglas, (Glen Burnie, MD USA)
When Tremblay writes that "in Bush and Cheney's minds, the need for a secured access to Middle East oil was not an option, but almost a strategic and economic necessity" (p. 80), he hits the nail right on the head. If you can only read one book, read this one.

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