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"The war on terrorism is the first political growth industry of the new Millennium."So begins Jim Bovard's newest and, in some ways, most provocative book as he casts yet another jaundiced eye on Washington and the motives behind protecting "the homeland" and prosecuting a wildly unpopular war with Iraq. For James Bovard, as always, it all comes down to a trampling of personal liberty and an end to privacy as we know it. From airport security follies that protect no one to increased surveillance of individuals and skyrocketing numbers of detainees, the war on terrorism is taking a toll on individual liberty and no one tells the whole grisly story better than Bovard.
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Customer Reviews (22)

Fantastic!
James Bovard's "Lost Rights" was very influential in the formation of my political ideology, yet after 9/11 I fell into the trap he repeatedly decries in "Terrorism and Tyranny": to trust with more power the government whose bureaucratic incompetence failed to avert 9/11 with the power it had in the first place.

Anyone sick of the current political debate in this country, polarized between Leftists who believe America is evil and conservatives who think it is divine and immune from criticism, ought to read this book. Bovard stakes out the middle, libertarian, ground.

Bush's crusade.
This book is the best,most complete book on the subject of recent American foreign policy and the war on terror. A keen critique on Bush's domestic policy also.
Mr. Bovard goes back in history to the Reagan era and the first war on terror.
Following that up with the first Bush's double-crossing of Saudi Arabia when U.S. troops remained there after the Iraq-Kuwait conflict. This has served as motivation for terrorists.
From pages 39 and 40-"In 1996 the government of Sudan offered to sieze bin Laden and turn him over to the U.S. government for prosecution."
"Maj.Gen.Elfaith Erwa,the Sudanese defense minister,warned U.S.officials that if bin Laden was not taken into custody,he would go to Afghanistan.Erwa told the Wahington Post shortly after 9/11 that the high-ranking U.S. official replied 'let him go to Afghanistan.'"
These quotes highlight the prevalent incompetence of the Clinton administration when they blew an oppurtunity. Along those lines,Mr. Bovard gave some details about "Operation Infinite Reach" where the Clintons showed that they could bomb a pharmaceutical factory.

This author does an excellent job of exposing the dangers to citizens from the PATRIOT ACT. Freedom is being sacrificed in the war on terror. The Carnivore intelligence gathering system is a chilling component used to spy on Americans' internet usage,particularly e-mail.

I found his material on John Ashcroft almost humorous! The former A.G touts the F.B.I's history of "protecting civil rights and civil liberties for all Americans" while being either ignorant of or oblivious to the infamous COINTELPRO program that actually violated those liberties and rights!

The Bush domestic policy can best be explained by looking at his(and the Republican party's)two biggest campaign contributors. That would be Exxon-Mobil and Enron!

"Bush's views on forcibly spreading freedom and democracy resemble a religious crusade."-page 324. I hadn't thought of it that way, but I think the statement is accurate.

If you are looking for an outstanding book on the subjects of foreign policy and the war on terror and it's history, I highly recommend this book!

THE MASTER OF INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM
I have read all of James Bovard's books and consider James the most thorough objective investigative journalist on the planet. His LOST RIGHTS, FREEDOM IN CHAINS, THE FAIR TRADE FRAUD, FEELING OUR PAIN, THE BUSH BETRAYAL, and latest ATTENTION DEFICIT DEMOCRACY are superb and should be used as a prioritized list of problems for immediatethink tank task force action and solution. Every collectivist socialist on the planet hates James Bovard with a passion which in my view, rates Jim 10 Stars,not 5.

Racist Trash - Supoorts Child Murder
Quote for the "book":

"When you see the photos of corpses of young children being dragged from the Qana, Lebanon rubble, remember: These are not human beings. These are terrorists."

If you think this is literarture, you're as sick as Bovard.


---a zero star rating and a waste of worthless federal reserve notes

Researchexcellentbut some sources of "wisdom"questionable
James Bovard is a bestselling libertarian author and lecturer, whose political commentary targets examples of governmental waste, failures, and abuses of power.
His Books:
The Fair Trade Fraud (1992)
Lost Rights (1995)
Shakedown (1996)
FREEDOM IN CHAINS: THE RISE OF THE STATE AND THE DEMISE OF THE CITIZEN (2000) Just finished this book and it is filled with examples of the "Statist" (politicians and bureaucrats) extorting money to facilitate their appetite for power and thus controlling as many aspects of life in these "United States"(separation into red and blue states does not make much difference). The research is excellent and the sources of "wisdom" are unrivaled. The EEOC and EPA appear to be the most outrageous of bureaus but closely followed by HUD and others; however, the Supreme Court clearly wins the "stuck on stupid" award between the three branches and the Senate is a clear choice in the Congress. Much of what Mr. Bovard relates is probably well known by the average political savvy reader, but his ability to back up his message with research, i.e. facts and sagacious quotes makes for an excellent read. Still, as one other reader stated, "What exactly can be done with the current apathy and addiction to the Welfare State by so many voters?". An excellent 5 star book.
FEELING YOUR PAIN: THE EXPLOSION AND ABUSE OF GOVERNMENT IN THE CLINTON-GORE YEARS(2001) An excellent recap of what the pervert, his enabler wife and a cast of spinners cum sycophants "got away with" during a low point for the country rivalled only by the Johnson and Carter year.The Nixon years were not that great either asthe 60s crowd, along with their "start, cut and run" Democrat friends, began to take over the country, after Watergate. Clinton and Hillary certainly lived up to their ''60s elite lawyer promise after practicingcrooked law/politics in Arkansas.As Bovard tells the story in his book, the Clintons set new records in corruption while conning their enemies and receiving unwavering support from their Democrat allies and the media! A 5 star for the details of the crimes already known.
****TERRORISM AND TYRANNY: TRAMPLING FREEDOM, JUSTICE, AND PEACE TO RID THE WORLD OF EVIL(2003) Anyone who read the two books above is bound to be a bit disappointed with this one;however, it is well written but seems to emphasize Bovard's libertarian roots too much for my taste.The topic is also a bit tough for a libertarian as they are creatures of "no government". National defense is not their bag and especially dealing with a threat on home turf.Civil rights and street radical will love to find out they were mistreated by their government even more than they thought. Bovard pull out all the stops in relating the excesses of big government spying and some of his sources such as Vermont Senator (who leaks intelligence), the ACLU and other "acronyms" appear to border on conjecture at times. Probably a 4 star mostly for the facts among too much philosophy,questionable sources of "wisdom" and "privacy" nonsense.
The Bush Betrayal (2004)
Quotes:
"Democracy must be something more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner." (1994). This is my favorite and another version could be a jackass (Dems) and an elephant (Republicans) fighting over "hay" (tax receipts) that does not belong to them. They then give some back to the "original owners" (taxpayers) after eating their "fill" (outrageous retirements, perks, etc.) and providing some to their "herd" (special interests). THIS ITEM WAS EDITED--From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia--LOG ON http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page ... Read more

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Brilliant study of the US state's use of methods of barbarism
In this important book American journalist Kristian Williams shows how the US state has institutionalised torture. President Bush asserted in February 2002, "None of the provisions of Geneva apply to our conflict with al-Qaeda in Afghanistan or elsewhere throughout the world." As the Schlesinger Report concluded, this Presidential ruling allowed US forces to increase their use of illegal interrogation techniques.

So US police, military and prison guards routinely treat detainees brutally. The repulsive abuses at Abu Ghraib are typical, not aberrant. There have been more than 400 reports of abuse in US detention camps in Afghanistan, Guantanamo and Iraq, and a hundred inquiries have been launched. There were 13 officially acknowledged murders at detention camps between January 2002 and March 2005.

The US state, with Labour's connivance, has consistently used `extraordinary rendition', kidnapping people and then transferring them to other states for torture. For example, the CIA illegally sent suspected al-Qaeda trainer Ibn al-Libi to Cairo for torture, where he apparently confessed that Iraq had trained al-Qaeda members to make bombs. Bush then publicised this confession, as did Colin Powell to the UN, even though the Defense Intelligence Agency had already warned them that the confession was unreliable.

Williams details torture by the US military and the US police, by US allies overseas, and in US prisons, jails and detention facilities in the USA and abroad. The US state uses torture methods like stun guns, stun belts, pepper sprays, restraints, rape and the threat of rape, `supermax facilities' and solitary confinement. The US state promotes torture in its training programmes, for example in the `Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation', formerly called the School of the Americas.

Williams reveals the US state as a machine of coercion, of organised violence - represented by armed bodies of men, the police, armed services, prisons - designed to subjugate the will of others by force. Williams proves that "The product of torture is not truth, but terror. Its strategy is not that of objective investigation, but of political intimidation."

Too many facts, not enough analysis
Kristian Williams is to be commended for thoroughly documenting our use of torture, both outside and within our own borders, and for showing that it is neither a series of isolated incidents, as the official line goes, nor foreign to our culture.

That being said, however, he documents more than he really needs to in order to make his case, to the obvious detriment of the analysis that should follow. This is unfortunate, since initial outrage turns to numbness and a nagging feeling that something is missing.

Although, he rather ominously announces at regular intervals that he will soon analyze the facts he lists and pull them together into a comprehensive discussion, he never really gets there, not even in the last chapter, entitled "Conclusion", where we are treated to some vague and rather silly statements about torture as an instrument of state power and the need to do away with said state.

Shades of Mittel Europa in the late 19th and early 20th century, I thought, and certainly not a useful concept for the USA, a country of undisciplined, state-phobic people if ever there was one.

More useful concepts to explain our use of torture, to my way of thinking, would include the deep-seated tribal and primitive urges at the core of our identity as Americans. So torture as an instrument of power, yes, but individual power, as in the alpha male who ruthlessly suppresses any challenge, perceived or real, to his supremacy. Also, why are we, as a people, so insecure and fearful, which all too often leads us to brutal overreaction?

This is a useful "just the facts ma'am" type of book, then, but a coherent, meaningful analysis of those facts will sadly have to be left to another author and another day.

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"Since the attacks of September 11, 2001, officials of the United States ... from Bagram in Afghanistan to Guantanamo in Cuba to Abu Ghraib in Iraq, have been torturing prisoners," writes Mark Danner. "This is a simple truth, well known but not yet publicly admitted in Washington." The torture was essentially given institutional approval by the U.S. government, through memoranda from the President's White House counsel, among others, opining that the Geneva Conventions need not apply to prisoners.

In Iraq, at least three different interrogation policies were used. Many soldiers and outside organizations were aware of these torture sessions. Torture and Truth includes documents outlining acceptable interrogation techniques and reports revealing prisoner abuse and torture — including a memo signed by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld concerning "Interrogation Techniques," the reports by Major General Antonio M. Taguba, and the report by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad. 20 color photographs are included.Amazon.com Review
When the Abu Ghraib torture scandal broke in April 2004, Americans and the rest of the world were stunned. President George W. Bush condemned the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. soldiers and blamed it on a few bad apples who, he said, had "dishonored our country and disregarded our values." Mark Danner, a journalist with The New Yorker, argues that a key fact was lost amid the media coverage: the torture was part of a deliberate policy of "enhanced interrogation" planned at the highest levels of the administration. But no punishment awaits the senior U.S. officials who orchestrated the abuses in Iraq and other U.S. detention facilities around the world, Danner writes. With the help of a Republican-controlled Congress, the White House and Defense Department have so far succeeded in limiting the fallout from the scandal and blaming it on a handful of overzealous, low-ranking soldiers.

Danner's 580-page book is divided into three parts. The first consists of three essays he wrote on the Abu Ghraib scandal in 2004. In them, he cites U.S. military personnel who estimate that 70 to 95 percent of the Iraqis they arrested were detained by mistake. Most were nabbed in night-time "cordon and capture" sweeps and had no intelligence value. Yet, military intelligence soldiers, under enormous pressure to combat a mounting Iraqi insurgency, worked with military police to squeeze "actionable intelligence" out of the detainees. The soldiers urinated on prisoners, threatened to rape them, sodomized them with sticks and chemical lights, deprived them of sleep, beat, kicked, and slapped them, and restricted their breathing with hoods. The rest of Danner's book consists of other essays he wrote about the war in Iraq, photos of the abuses and the texts of official reports and memos that, in grim detail, catalog both the torture and the U.S. policies that made it possible. Abu Ghraib, Danner writes, is just the tip of the iceberg. --Alex Roslin ... Read more

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How about Inglorious Basterds
If you are interested in war crimes and brutality, watch the movie Inglorious Basterds, up for an academy award. This movie celebrates a few jewish soldiers who torture their captors either by whacking them in the head with a baseball bat, or shooing them in the head, or carving a swastika into their foreheads, and lets not forget, they also scalp their victims, how nice.

Now that is torture and to think that hollywood academy voters and others think it's worth an award, this tells you something about the whacko liberals who whine about waterboarding, or humiliation and think it compares to murder and disfigurement.

The conclusion that torture is an American POLICY is absurd. The people who do humiliate prisoners have been prosecuted, unless you suffer from Bush Derangement Syndrome and think GW and Dick Cheney, and others, need to be prosecuted for humiliation or relatively mild waterboarding.

Real waterboarding involves filling up the stomach and/or lungs with water, and jumping on the victim, or drowning them and reviving them. Read about how it was used by the Japanese during WW II against US soldiers.

Liberals -- please grow up.

A Legacy of Shame
Movies have separate ratings for violence, sexual content or language, so should books. Mark Danner's "Torture and Truth" deserves separate consideration. The book is a singular reference for the academic or historian who will try to make sense of an age when Americans acted out of fear instead of strength and confidence, and became the world's bully instead of its protector. As such, this is not for the reader who wants to be entertained. The detailed memoranda that describe intradepartmental and interdepartmental conflict will prevent that, so will the myriad of abbreviations and acronyms that will make the reader turn to the appendix again and again. A few readers will be lucky enough to know what sigint, UCMJ or CSM mean without seeking clarification, but the constant turn to the appendix will cause frustration and disrupt the continuity of reading.

What becomes apparent is that torture was considered even before we started taking prisoners or that there was "actionable intelligence" to be gained from them.Colin Powel's State Department sends a flurry of memoranda attempting to convince the Bush administration to act within the rules of the Geneva Convention.The Departments of Justice and Defense, the Office of Legal Counsel, and Bush's own lawyer write the opposite. The forces against Powell are strong. Afghanistan is declared a failed state, the Geneva Convention will be observed but not practiced, and torture is given such a narrow definition as to allow almost any practice short of permanent injury or death.

What doesn't need to be looked at in detail are the pictures of Americans acting as barbarians. It is obvious from the photographs that they were not seeking intelligence information by sitting on top of nude prisoners, torturing them in hallways, putting them on a leash, making one prisoner fellate another, stacking them nude, in human pyramids, or tying them to beds or cell doors while they were also nude. Smiling faces of American women over an Iraqi corpse may sicken the viewer almost as much as seeing the hooded man, standing on a box, believing that electrodes are clipped to his fingers. These are photos of Americans as einsatzgrûppe.

The sworn statements from prisoners and the February 2004 Report of the International Red Cross show a pattern of brutality in too many facilities to be considered isolated incidents committed by "bad apples." "Certain Coalition Forces military intelligence officers told the ICRC that in their estimate between 70% and 90%of the persons deprived of their liberty in Iraq had been arrested by mistake."

The Taguba, Fay, and Schlessinger Investigations point to a lack of leadership, command and control, logistics, training, and continuity to explain the mayhem that resulted, but no investigation is aimed at the decision-makers in Washington. Prisoners are not taken to the rear as doctrine called for because the rising insurgency means there is no rear and no central point to process detainees who exchange number and identification with each other.Soldiers operating under the dilemma of using harsh techniques to provide intelligence and act humanely were given no moral compass by leadership or command and control. In other words, who was in charge?Those who were well-led, knew SOP and policy acted professionally. Some officers, NCO's and enlisted men made it their mission to act professionally, but only some.

The U. S. does not plan for combat operations in Iraq to end as quickly as it does. It expects to turn over Iraq to a sycophant who turns out to be a double agent.The U. S. doesn't, and stays. Neither event is planned for. The administration is unprepared for an occupation, an occupation that has no front line, plenty of time for things to turn for the worse, and not enough troops to handle it when it does.

It is also apparent that America had come full circle since 1945. It had become the invader instead of the liberator. It had become the brute and the bully instead of the protector. It now leads other nations through domination and coercion, instead of by example and cooperation.

This book was written in 2004. To date, no national policymaker has been held accountable for what happened.

Chilling! A great book!!
This book offers a chilling rendition of the events that occured at Abu Gharib. It fairly reviews the events through official reports, which are quite chilling! A must read!!

The Forgotten Victims of the War on Terror
I bought Mark Danner's TORTURE AND TRUTH several months ago from Amazon, and find it ever more relevant to current events.For the numbers of people detained and tortured in the War on Terror-- many of them believed by reputable individuals and organizations to be innocent-- continues to rise, and extends far beyond Abu Ghraib.The very fact that the majority of these people have never been formally charged with involvement in terrorist activity nor tried seems to prove their innocence, for it would be very easy to keep someone in jail these days if one could present solid evidence of their involvment in terrorism.Those who object that the tortures inflicted on these detaninees is not as bad as that which some totalitarian governments inflict upon their victims ignore the fact that the "soft torture" techniques in development since the end of World War II have been found to be more effective in "breaking" victims than simple brutality (see Alfred McCoy, A QUESTION OF TORTURE: CIA INTERROGATION FROM THE COLD WAR TO THE WAR ON TERROR). The suffering of these wretched detainees keeps me awake at night, yet to this day most people seem unconcerned about their plight.Danner's comment from the Introduction to his book still holds true: "Like other scandals that have erupted during the Iraq War and the war on terror, it is not about revelation or disclosure but about the failure, once wrongdoing is disclosed, of politicians, officials, the press, and, ultimately, citizens to act."

Torture and Truth: America, Abu Ghraib and the War on Terror
Like its companion, The Torture Papers: The Road to Abu Ghraib, Torture and Truth is an essential resource for scholars or researchers on this subject.However, because of its length (500+ pages)and scope it is an excellent choice for the more general reader.It is a compilation of reports and letters, mostly from the Bush Administration, on the Iraq War and torture issues.Because of its primary source components, it is invaluable for anyone doing research on the subject. It is well-organized, and will find a place in many dissertations in the years to come. ... Read more

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When the American media published photographs of U.S. soldiers abusing prisoners at Abu Ghraib, the Bush administration assured the world that the abuse was isolated and that the perpetrators would be held accountable. Over the next three years, it refined its narrative at the margins, but by and large its public position remained the same. Yes, the administration acknowledged, some soldiers abused prisoners, but these soldiers were anomalous sadists who ignored clear orders. Abuse, the administration said, was aberrational-not systemic, not widespread, and certainly not a matter of policy.

The government's own documents, obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union, tell a starkly different story. They show that the abuse of prisoners was not limited to Abu Ghraib but was pervasive in U.S. detention facilities in Iraq and Afghanistan and at Guantánamo Bay. Even more disturbing, the documents reveal that senior officials endorsed the abuse of prisoners as a matter of policy-sometimes by tolerating it, sometimes by encouraging it, and sometimes by expressly authorizing it. Records from Guantánamo describe prisoners shackled in excruciating "stress positions," held in freezing-cold cells, forcibly stripped, hooded, terrorized with military dogs, and deprived of human contact for months. Files from Afghanistan and Iraq describe prisoners who had been beaten, kicked, and burned. Autopsy reports attribute the deaths of those in U.S. custody to strangulation, suffocation, and blunt-force injuries.

Administration of Torture is the most detailed account thus far of what took place in America's overseas detention centers, including a narrative essay in which Jameel Jaffer and Amrit Singh draw the connection between the policies adopted by senior civilian and military officials and the torture and abuse that took place on the ground. The book also reproduces hundreds of government documents& mdash;including interrogation directives, FBI e-mails, autopsy reports, and investigative files& mdash;that constitute both an important historical record and a profound indictment of the Bush administration's policies with respect to the detention and treatment of prisoners in U.S. custody abroad.

Customer Reviews (2)

Required Reading for Bush Apologists
You won't find many of the usual right wing nut jobs reviewing this book, because it is very hard to libel documentary evidence. In law, we say "res ipsa loquitor," or "the thing speaks for itself." And this book has delivered the goods: documentary evidence in spades. If you don't come away from this book convinced that at the very least there is a prima facie case for indicting the US military high command, up to and including the shrub and Darth Cheney, on charges of aggravated war crimes and crimes against humanity, then you just haven't paid attention, or, worse, you are part of that portion of humanity--Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Pinochet, Pol Pot, etc.--that thinks there is nothing wrong with torture and that, in fact, we should use it more. If that is the case, you will find plenty to warm your heart here.

Very Informative
This book is a great collection of the records of the Bush administration's torture policy. Seeing as it is a collection of documents obtained through FOIA some of it is redacted. This redaction lends the book that air of "what are they trying to cover up." This book would be great for research.

The introduction sets it all out in a nice brief synopsis. Thus, this book has little author influence as to opinion. It allows you to see for yourself. ... Read more

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A Guide To the New World Order
It's a new world order in which the public infrastructure, productive public assests - water, electricity, transport(roads/freeways), telecommunications(internet), health services, education, natural resources(parks) - assets the American government is supposed to hold in trust for the people it represents, assets that have been built and maintained w/public money for generations - are being sold to private corporations. To steal these away & sell them as stock in private companies is beginning. U.S.A. Pvt. Ltd. is on its way to being owned by a few corporations and major multinational$(allegiance to no country). The CEO$ of theses companies will control the country, its infrastructure and its resource$, its media & its journali$t, but will owe nothing to its people. They are completely unaccountable(Blackwater) - legally, socially, morally, & politically. Soon, democracy will be just theater.
The role of government$ in the New World Order of globalization will be increasingly authoritarian, loyal, & corrupt.

In Russia, they say the past is unpredictable.
The U.S.A. is not far behind.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED !!!!!!!

Grass roots resistance to globalist corporatism
Arundhati Roy is a social justice advocate with solid non-violence credentials and a lucid view of globalist corporatism. When Ordinary Persons' Guide to Empire (OPGE) came out, it was received as an anti-Bush/Cheney polemic. Given the September 2004 release date (right before mid-term elections) that may be understandable, but it is erroneous. Although much of OPGE does relate to the conflict in Iraq and Bush's "war on terror", trying to force this book into the framework of partisan politics completely misses the point. For one thing, there is no significant difference between Democrats and Republicans on these issues. More importantly, Iraq and the war on terrorism are incidental to the overarching chronicle of the Empire Roy describes. The Empire is not America, or even "the West"; it is an interlocking network of stateless predatory finance/defense/media conglomerates. If the Empire seems to have a strong American character lately, it is only because America currently holds the strongest node in the network. Before that, it was Britain (see The House of Rothschild: Volume 1: Money's Prophets: 1798-1848). In the future it may be China.

In point of fact, nation-states and supranational organizations (e.g. the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, and World Trade Organization) do not drive the Empire. They are merely tools to carry out a geopolitical agenda. Through lobbyists, campaign donations, and purchase of treasury notes, corporations garner great political power. Under this perverting influence, nations can be steered in unexpected directions... frequently onto paths contrary to citizens' best interests, which may violate national ethos, or contravene founding principles. John Perkins and Alan B. Jones describe the mechanisms of predation in Confessions of an Economic Hit Man and How The World Really Works, respectively.

That is not the focus of this book. OPGE is about ground-level resistance, particularly in the realm of information exchange. Speaking truths is the bedrock revolutionary act from which all other forms of opposition follow. Speaking truth to power is part of this, but even more important is speaking truths to each other. Pointing out the hypocrisies, lies, and inconsistencies of Empire is an empowering act. Roy tells plenty of truths in these pages, pulling back the curtain on the coalescing corporatist global order. The challenges of rebuffing our would-be oppressors are great, but readers should be inspired. The financial and political might of the Empire cannot stand in the face of an informed civil society. Radio host Alex Jones frequently refers to the "infowar" ("there is a war on for your mind"). This includes the struggle to speak and spread truths outside the controlled mainstream media. Arundhati Roy is one of the bright shining stars in the constellation of info-warriors exposing the Empire.

The obscene accumulation of power
power
The key notions in Arundhati Roy's texts are also the key elements in the history of mankind: power and powerlessness.
Power means survival, physically and morally, in the struggle for life on the political, economic, social and, of course, individual front.

means
Those in power have the means to survive, to extend their hegemony or to crush the opposition: wealth, weapons (of mass destruction), armies, media monopolies, transnational corporations and national and international long arms (intelligence services and secretive institutions like the IMF, the World Bank or the WTO).

policies
Through their media monopolies the powerful create a `controlled' reality, `a lunatic asylum'.
They send their hypocritical rhetoric of `free markets, justice and freedom' all over the world. But in the name of freedom and justice, they wage war and kill millions of human beings.
Free markets are protecting `western markets and force developing countries to lift their trade barriers, the poor are getting poorer and the rich richer.' More, free markets undermine democracy: transnational corporations `cannot push through highly profitable deals without the active connivance of the State machinery of corrupt authoritarian governments in poorer countries.'
There is no globalization of human rights, but only of money, patents, goods and services.
There is erosion of freedom: civil liberties are being suspended in the name of protecting democracy under the veil of `The War on Terror.'

opposition, democracy
But, (non-violent) dissent had already clear results: it forced the powerful to drop their masks. It made them stand naked.
`The corporate revolution will collapse if we refuse to buy what they are selling. We are the many and they the few. They need us more than we need them.'
Ultimately, the only means to break the stranglehold by those in power is true democracy (one man, one vote).

We need Arundhati Roy's mighty voice.
This book is a must read for all those who want to understand the world we live in.

A Book to Make you Squirm
Roy is a controversial writer.Her insights and conclusions often make the reader, if from the west, uncomfortable about the unfolding economy and world relationships with India.Having traveled in India a number of times, and having many Indian friends, this book highlights little understood cultural and economic issues taking place in one of the world's exploding economies.Whether you agree with Roy's conclusions or not, a reader wanting to be more aware of the expanding global economy on the Subcontinent will find this book a starting point for reflection and informed connection with India and its complex cultural relationship with the west.

Illogical, Barbaric thoughts translated into writing!
I was recently reading this book 'An Ordinary Person's Guide to Empire' by Arundhathi
Roy.

I have heard a lot about her writing, but this was my first read of her products.
To say the truth , I am very disppaointed.

She keeps on arguing about some childish matters, not looking at the global picture.
For example, her arguments against globalisation in India is meaningless.Indian CEOs
make profit by paying less to their employers. This has been the case for the last 50
years or so. Only when the foriegn companies entered India with their aggressive
recruitment drive, people are getting paid decently. Looks like Roy wants us to make
the India rich CEOs, richer. She is hell-bent on proving that America deserved a
september 11, saying that US participated in killings in Iraq, Vietnam, and Afghanistan.
Isn't it a cyclic argument? If US deserved a 9/11 in 2001 for those killings, then She'll
argue in her next book that Afghanistan deserves US-led invasion in 2006 for 9/11.
Now you can guess her next book's main topic.

I think she wants to act as though she does not belong to any country, or is not
behind any government. To show this explicitly, her arguments slowly move towards Kashmir
and Gujarath. She does not know what to speak of here, as her nose lengths into these
topics. She blames the government, RSS, security forces, etc. What she does not understand
is that Kashmir has been like for almost 40 years. This topic has been well-studied, and many many
books written about it. In this case, just providing incomplete data that security forces
were responsible for some killings in Kashmir by no means proves anything.I would like to ask
her the following question: "How did you define 'responsible for'? how about suicide bombings?
or number of people killed by terrorists supported from acorss the border? Don't you remeber
the fact that terrorists killed 100 people in a single night during Bill Clinton's visit? "

Coming to Gujarath incident, I agree with whatever she is saying. Though I've not checked
the figures she has provided, I do believe that the state government headed by Modi
was irresponsible.

However, I strongly condemn her again for deliberately missing the information on
Mumbai blasts. She talks about number of muslims killed, etc, but then
how about the serial blasts? Weren't they executed by the muslim terrorists?
Why doesn't Roy provide the whole figure on number of blast victims?
If She argues that 3000 innocent US Citizens deserved to die on 9/11 just because
their government did bad in many aspects in the past, then why you are against
1000 muslims dying as only the muslim terrorists organized serial blasts in Mumbai
to kill 3000 innocent people?

All she does in this book is providing information to prove whatever
she thinks is right. I have not read a write-up before such as this one,
so cruel, violent, barbaric, and illogical. Just because she has got some award, don't
assume she is good. Don't even think of buying this book, such a wast of time,
effort and money.
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World War III - The intent of this book is to foster a warning about the Muslim Invasion currently taking place in the United States of America. To call attention to the overall agenda of the Islam Hoard embattling our nation and the negative impact this invasion will have on American Freedom. Islam fosters a Champaign of submission and hate, you either join or you’re killed. The intent of the Islamic program is to take over the USA with out a fight and the war has already begun. look around you, Islamist are already demanding rights and privileges they have not earned, they are depleting our social system, demanding financial assistance in programs they never paid into, demanding bilingual classes, bi-cultural teaching, prayer time and demand their culture be respected in public schools. These are rights they have not earned, they are not Americans, they pay no taxes, someone might remind them this is not their country and if they are unhappy with the United States, perhaps they should go back to where they came from and complain, oops, that’s right they can’t, they’d be killed in there own country, therefore they come to ours.
As a nation we have enjoy the separate on of Church and State but with Islam there is no separation and you do or die, that is a fact; that is what’s happened for hundreds even thousands of years in Iran, Iraq and most all other Muslim nations that’s why they have fled to the United States.
These are not the musings of a deranged hate monger, these are the facts, this is what I saw, this is my life story.These are the events as I lived them, as they were coldly reported and published around the world, America wake up, Islam is at your door and it doesn’t bring peace. Instead, what you will find is war, murder, honor killings, the subjugation of women and the slaughter of the innocent.Islam by its own actions, is nothing more then a murderous cult spreading hate and murder wherever it lands. Europe has felt the sting of Islam, it has seen the destruction of its cities and social structure at the hand of Islamist, America is next.
Authors Unedited Proof............
Other titles by this Author are:
Ride Em' Cowboy - Train Robbers
Tarzan's First Love
The Making of A Gay American Spy
Ride Em' Cowboy - The Store Clerk
Growing Up Gay
Soldiers - Prisoner of War
Islam - Religon of Hate
The Islamic Wars
Ride Em Cowboy-Cum Ride My Phony
Soldier-Prisoner of War
Soldier-Prisoner of War - New Edited
Frankenstein - For the Love of a Man
The GAY Vampire
The Cliff House Vampire
These Are My Children
Finding Simon
Ride Em' Cowboy – Dodge City
The Gay Vampire – The Journey Home
A Romance in the Wilderness
From Boys to Men
Ride Em’ Cowboy – The Grizzly
Sinbad – The Balloon Kingdom
Tarzan – The Awakening
Alien Encounter
Cum Ride My Pony
Drag Queen – Alice in Wonderland
Edward
Ghosts and Nightmares
Jane Eyre – My Brother James
Weathering Heights – Conclusion
Ride Em Cowboy – The Dude Ranch
Ride Em Cowboy – He Lived to Tell the Tale
Ride Em Cowboy – Indian Affairs
The Cliff House Vampire
Sinbad the Gay Sailor
Whispers in the Night

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Customer Reviews (1)

Shocking, real, made me think
This book was one I could not put down, the editor is up front that this is his unedited proof, I hope it does well as it an eye opener. Stnning, shocking, war is hell type of book, get it, read it !! ... Read more

Product Description
One of the most important dynamics of the post-Cold War period consists of simultaneously downsizing the armed forces and assigning them new roles. As a result, military-civilian humanitarianism-the coming together of military forces and civilian agencies to deal with the human suffering from complex emergencies-is on the rise, despite recent setbacks in Somalia and Bosnia. Is it possible and worthwhile to use the military in conjunction with humanitarian action to thwart violence and mitigate civilian suffering? This timely book seeks to answer this question by looking at the contemporary context and history of military-civilian interactions, developing a framework for assessing military costs and civilian benefits, and examining in depth the five most prominent cases-Northern Iraq, Somalia, Bosnia, Rwanda, and Haiti. It further suggests how multilateral military operations could expand or contract in the future to the benefit or peril of war victims. ... Read more