War and Politics Books

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.

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!!

This is by far the best journalistic account of the torture of suspects at Abu Ghraib. This is also the best book to read after reading the books of documents, which give you the vital context for understanding Danner's book. Read them first and then this one - you will then be able to understand what really happened and why. British and US troops really did commit terribe acts against their prisoners, with tragic consequences for the reputation of both nations in the Middle East. Read Danner and the documents books to discove why. Christopher Catherwood (author of CHURCHILL'S FOLLY: HOW WINSTON CHURCHILL CREATED MODERN IRAQ: Carroll and Graf, hardcover 2004, paperback 2005)

The author strongly makes the case that the Abu Ghraib torture scandal was not caused by a few rotten apples on the night shift, but was systematic torture as policy. The Red Cross report and other valid reports are in the book so that the reader can see for himself that the torture at Abu Ghraib was certainly far more than a few rotten apples that were military police serving in the reserves that were sent to Abu Ghraib.

There was sadism at Abu Ghraib. There was a breakdown in law and order at Abu Ghraib. There was a breakdown in discipline at Abu Ghraib. This, of course, puts our entire Country and our entire military at risk.

Not only is the torture wrong, but, beyond that, torture is ineffective and many of the prisoners at Abu Ghraib had no intelligence value in the first place. Torture is very harmful to our Country politically speaking. It is certainly the case that any information that was obtained by torture would be overshadowed by the political damage caused by the activities.

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."

I met Dr. Charles "Jiggs" Weldon several times many years ago. He was somehow related to my mother (I am ashamed to admit that I haven't kept up with such things, until recently). I only wish that I really knew enough about the man at that time to sit and talk with him about his experiences in Laos, I really had no idea. Jiggs Weldon has written a fantastic book about the struggle in Laos and the futile efforts to support the Laotian people in their battle against the communists. He goes into detail about his experiences taking care of the civilians and soldiers. It is basically a collection of short stories that pieced together tell the story of his time in Laos. They had to battle the communists and fight the U.S. Government for adequate funding. This is a must read for anyone having interest in the events of Southeast Asia. Ultimately when the U.S. left Viet Nam, Laos was abandoned to the communists and the Royal Laotians were butchered by the Pathet Lao and their mentors, the North Vietnamese (who were financed and equipped by China). It was clear that Dr. Weldon loved the Laotian people and was heartbroken by the outcome. I always figured that is why he never came back to the U.S. and died in Thailand in 2002.

An amazing disclosure of the real facts of the American secret war in Laos. Dr.Charles "Jiggs" Weldon died recently. He,no doubt, deserves a prayer of gratitude from all of us for the gift of his compelling memoir.

Charles Weldon (``Doc'' to most) has done us and the future a favour by writing his account of what surely was one of the most heroic, saddest wars of the 20th century. A legend in his prime during the height of the conflict in Laos, ``Doc'' Weldon paints a highly personal, sometimes emotional picture. The book is one of the few public recollections by the small group of men and women who participated in the Laos war of the 1960s and early 1970s. Tragedy in Paradise is extremely readable.

It is a series of short chapters, each detailing an event in the Weldon tour of Laos. It details how he fought for aid money from skinflint Washington, and worked to establish a health system in a country which had nothing but a desire for one. The central figure is the crusty but kindly doctor, a caregiver by choice and administrator by order of the penny-pinching bureaucrats. Most them don't really care too much about Laos or its people, so long as the regulations are followed and the career tickets are punched. A main figure is one of those Laotian legends, Edgar ``Pop'' Buell, who could have been the model for the Ugly American. Buell made a deserved reputation as a dedicated friend of Laos, its people and particularly his beloved Hmong.

In short, though, the book describes, in startling detail, how this tragic little war was lost, in the eyes of the men and women at the sharp end of the stick. It shows the duplicity of the senior Americans involved.

I laughed, I cried, and came out wiser from reading "Tragedy in Paradise". I only wish there were another Doc Weldon out there, somewhere, who would write the sequence to the plight of the Lao people in Laos, be they Lao Loum, Lao Theung, or Lao Soung.

Doc Weldon is one of the truly heroic and most-beloved figures of the war years in Laos. He once again serves all Americans well by recording the events of his time and reminding us what it means to be an American. Great things can be accomplished even in pursuit of a lost cause.

Jennifer Van Bergen has given us a book that should be must reading for every American. If you think we might be on our way towards a Fascist state in America, you need to read this book. Ms. Van Bergen explains how the PATRIOT Act has damaged the United States Constitution. She also tells us what we must do to correct the current state of America.
The book is very well done, in easy to understand language. This book should be on the reading list of every American.

Jennifer Van Bergen has written a most important book that is a must read for all Americans who cherish freedom.
Miss Van Bergen,a member of the ACLU and The National Lawyers Guild,is a most articulate spokesperson for the point of view that under the leadership of President Bush America is drifting slowly,but surely,toward a corporate state(read fascism).She points out that it is NOT only the so called "Patriot Act"that threathens the rights of Americans(circumventing the 4th amendment)but also such things as The North Free Trade Agreement(NAFTA) and the lesser known The Free Trade of (the) Americas Agreement(FTAA),both of which deny benefits to the average person,curtails labor rights,but also hands over all kinds of new "rights" to "corporate bloodsuckers"(my term), so that they can continue to plunder the environment and enforce "wage slavery" on 90%+ of the population.She examines the state of the courts,and the three separate,but equal branches of our government,and with the GOP already claiming The Presidency and a having a majority in both houses of Congress the independence of the judiciary is in great question,and with the Democrats sitting back and allowing Bush to stack the courts with hard right thugs,the future of this country as a free democratic republic is in great jeopardy.For all their talk about opposing "judge made law",and being in favor of "strict construction"(original intent) the GOP members of Congress are making the road to fascism easier by NOT OPPOSING Bush's vision(as if he ever had a vision concerning anything)of a unitiary goverment,which if allowed to proceed will only lead to dictatorship,slavery,and death. Ms Van Bergen book was written before the (anti)immigration debate really started with its harsch provisions conerning "aid to illegal aliens".These provisions are so reactionary and hateful that key leaders of the Catholic Church(Cardinal Mahoney,of L.A.for one) urge Church members NOT to cooperate with these fear-mongering articles,of the new immigration bill.For once a Church leader standing up for the teachings of Jesus!
This 228 page book includes the very helpful Britt's List -the fourteen points common to fascist regimes,and "The Cheney Plan for Global Dominance,a truely frightening scenario.
As I write this CBS News reports that the governments wants all internet companies to keep the records of ALL internet users,in order to fight terrorism and sexual abuse cases.I sure believe that one!1984 is here!!
Ignorance is Strength.
Slavery is Freedom!
War is Peace!
This is an excellent book!!!

An attorney with the South Florida Branch of the ACLU and an adjunct faculty member at the New School for Social Research, Jennifer Van Bergen understands that making the case for her position is essential to having the American people understand the danger which we and the country remain in.

Van Bergen uses factual evidence to demonstrate how the Bush administration is eliminating democracy under the guise of 'homeland security'. Using very loaded flag-waving rhetoric, this government is attempting to have people believe that any criticism of their actions is infact support for 'the terrorists'.

The problem is that 'the terrorists' are never actually identified and remain annoymous masses in this same scenario. After all, the real focus of the Bush administration is keeping people scared so many will not question the actions of their government and there is a greater chance that those who do dissent can be labeled as 'troublemakers'.

During the 1960's the federal government used 'red menace' rhetoric to justify the wiretapping and surveliance of left wing activists. The 'remote' possibility of communist infiltration (and subsequent social impacts) in these organizations were considered enough to justify the actions. Following Hoover's death, Congress placed long-needed restrictions on the FBI's ability to place American citizens under surveliance and made that information available through public request. To read the administration's support for the PATRIOT Act honestly feels like we are ignoring all of this history and failing to learn from the past.

This failure is also how a 'conservative' administration squares the obviously expanded bureacracy against their public promotion of limited government. PATRIOT Act expansions are a big exception to their usual rules specifically because the conservatives are the ones who are doing the government expansion and surveliance. The ultimate impact on citizen freedoms is secondary (if weighted at all) to the president and his buddies getting and maintaining their absolute power over everybody else.

The conclusions in this book are chilling---and ever more accurate with each passing day. It is an accessible read for people wanting affirmation that they are not reading into things, but is also important for audiences who need to know what their government is really doing.

The one point on which Jennifer Van Bergen as author of "Twilight of Democracy" and George W. Bush agree is over the assertion made by the latter that "America has been changed forever by the tragedy of 9-11." From that point forward Van Bergen, an attorney active in the South Florida branch of the American Civil Liberties Union, and Bush travel widely disparate ideological paths.

Van Bergen shrewdly delineates the path traveled by the Bush Administration in the wake of September 11, 2001 as it declared war against terrorism and sought to acquire powers held by chief executives in totalitarian states and denied them in democratic nations. Only Congresswoman Barbara Lee of California voted against granting the executive branch the sweeping powers it sought in the wake of 9-11 as the House and Senate voted in an otherwise unanimous manner.

One important point that Van Bergen makes that has been mentioned all too infrequently is that the entire war on terror announced by Bush after 9-11, and used as an immediate basis to launch a fierce military attack in Afghanistan, is predicated on spurious constitutional and common law grounds. In any military or police action a specific nation or organizational entity needs to be identified. Bush's war on terror does not meet that important criterion since its fails the specificity test.

As Van Bergen carefully delineates, by declaring war on a non-specific entity and stating that such a conflict has no measurable end in sight, the opportunity is ripe for an octopus-like executive branch to, in the interest of preserving democracy, bring about its demise in the interest of safeguarding the nation and its people from terrorism. The instrument of accomplishment was the infamous Patriot Act, which left the Bill of Rights in tatters.

The sweeping arm of the law swooped down on innocent citizens and aliens in America who were Arabs and practiced Islam. The umbrella expansiveness of the Patriot Act permitted them to arrest suspects without a warrant and detain them for non-specific periods of time without charging them. The dangerous abrogation of rights extended beyond this slippery slope and into the constitutional guarantee of right of counsel. In instances where attorneys were permitted to speak with such defendants, authorities were permitted to listen in on the conversations, rendering the privilege of counsel essentially null and void through destroying confidentiality. Again, these tactics are hallmarks of totalitarianism and anathema to democracy.

A tactic used to circumvent dealing with defendants in traditional constitutional circumstances is to declare any individual suspected of terrorist acts or giving support to terrorist groups as enemy combatants. This has been used in the infamous Guantanamo Bay prison to evade American constitutional or international safeguards such as the U.S. Constitution and the Geneva Code. Democracy is denied on the pretext of saving the institution, a tragic contradiction through which freedoms have been trampled and America has come closer to representing apartheid South Africa than a constitutional democracy.

In addition to laying out the legal case against the usurpation of democracy by the Bush Administration, Van Bergen also lists fourteen basic points cited earlier by Lawrence W. Britt as dangerous common threads associated with Fascism.

They include such totalitarian hallmarks as excessive nationalism, media control, pervasive scapegoating, obsession with militarism and national security, protection of corporations and denial of workers' basic rights, obsession with crime and punishment, rampant cronyism and corruption, and fraudulent elections.

Americans should remember with caution the words spoken by Benjamin Franklin when he left Constitution Hall and was asked what kind of government had been bestowed on the new nation called America, t o which he responded, "A Republic if you can keep it."

Author & lawyer Jennifer Van Bergen's thought provoking book "The Twilight of Democracy" "ferrets out principles of constitutional law and juxtaposes them with ... statutes, regulations, international laws, legal strategies and actions of the Bush administration." There's no love lost here for President Bush, and the author isn't shy about giving her personal opinion. With blistering criticism of the Bush administration, Van Bergen argues that America is well on the road to fascism, and that we are experiencing an erosion of democracy through a systematic attack on the constitution. Taking Laurence W. Britt's handy-dandy 14-point guide to fascism, Van Bergen systematically examines current trends in American political, social and legal systems.

The book is subdivided into two distinct categories: Book One "Deciphering the Democratic Code" and Book Two: "The Bush Plan." Book One is basically an overview of various aspects of the constitution, international law, due process, the 1st, 4th and 6th Amendments, types of courts, etc. In Book Two, the author tears into (amongst other things) the Patriot Act, America's withdrawal from the International Criminal Court, the Abu Ghraib scandal, detentions in Guantanomo Bay, the coup in Haiti, and the Free Trade of Americas Agreement.

Of particular interest is Van Bergen's argument that there's a movement underfoot "to clear the way for the concept that 'activists = terrorists'." According to the author, it's all about the administration's goal to achieve "control, suppression, and eradication of opposition." And there are some mind-boggling examples here--including the "sailor-mongering" charge levied against the Greenpeace protestors, and the use of the Patriot Act against activists who simply express their beliefs. Van Bergen also touches on the Lynne Stewart case. Ms Stewart was the court-appointed attorney for Sheik Abdul Rahman, who was subjected to electronic surveillance, and her offices raided. This, Van Bergen argues, is a direct challenge to the Sixth Amendment rights. (Interestingly enough, after finishing the book, I looked up Stewart's case on the Internet, and I did discover that many in the legal profession are indeed concerned about exactly how one is supposed to represent a terrorist suspect after what happened to Stewart. I found many sites pro and con Stewart's case, and found it much more difficult to find out what she is actually accused of.)

The book also includes information about the MATRIX "data mining system" (Multistate Anti-TeRrorism Information exchange)--a system which according to the ACLU "is controversial because it involves not the attempt to learn more facts about known suspects, but mass scrutiny of the lives and activities of innocent people ... to see whether each of them shows any signs of being a terrorist or a criminal." The MATRIX creates a "terrorist quotient" that "measures the likelihood that individuals in the databases are terrorists." In theory, we could all have our own "High Terrorist Factor" (HTF). According to the author, those with the highest scores have their names passed on to such agencies as the INS, FBI, and the Secret Service. MATRIX is "financed and managed" by the Dept of Homeland Security. The book goes into detail about the MATRIX system, and the information here is startling. The ACLU states that the MATRIX system "constitutes a massive invasion of privacy, and a violation of the core democratic principles."

Another fascinating chapter is devoted to the Patriot Act, which, the author argues, allows the government to stomp on the Fourth Amendment (right to be free of unreasonable searches and seizures). By redefining the standards of "terrorist investigations", categories are expanded and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Acts (FISA) allows investigators "without probable cause to get your library records, your educational, financial, or medical records as long as an FBI agent" claims the records are required "in connection with an ongoing foreign intelligence investigation."

The book finally, and appropriately ends with a chapter on torture and abuse, and the author touches on the historical significance of the Geneva Conventions (they were never called the Geneva Suggestions).

There's a mine of information here, and it's a good thing the author follows the text with scrupulous chapter-by-chapter notes. I'm not a lawyer, so I can't defend or oppose the merits of the legal arguments here, but I would be fascinated to see how lawyers feel about the book's arguments. As a non-lawyer, however, I can honestly say that I learned a great deal from reading this well-written, eye-opening book---displacedhuman

Jeff Pasley's "The Tyranny of Printers" is a fresh look at American politics and journalism in the early Republic. The traditional narrative of journalism in the early Republic is that a weak press tyrannized by political parties produced some of the most subservient and unfree journalism ever seen in America. Pasley turns this narrative on its head, arguing that printers and newspapers in fact created the modern party system. Far from being party stooges, printers were in fact politicians with a major stake in the issues of the day; far from politically subservient, printers provided the organizational glue that held the early parties together.

Pasley argues that newspaper editors provided the crucial ideological and organizational tools that were needed to negotiate the chaotic political waters of the early Republic in part because printers were the only truly professional politicians of the time. Parties lacked permanent organization in the early Republic; campaign season brought political operatives and candidates out of the woodwork, but for the rest of the year it fell to editors to mediate between politicians and constituents.
Newspaper offices, which often doubled as local post offices and as reading rooms for out-of-town papers, were logical locations for official party meetings and informal affairs. Editors were uniquely placed to gauge public opinion because of the volume of other papers that passed through their offices. By reprinting accounts of party rallies, toasts, speeches and marches, newspapers spread the party's message to many more people than ever could have seen the event in person and created an "imagined community" of party followers spread over the entire nation. The printing of toasts and speeches also allowed editor-politicians to simultaneously forge a national party ideology and to tone down the parts of that ideology that might not play well in certain states or regions.

Pasley argues that the first party to understand and use newspapers in politics was Thomas Jefferson's Republican party. The Republicans were able to deploy the press effectively as a weapon at least partly because of their willingness to let a certain class of people into the political arena - artisan printers. The Federalist newspapers that sprang up to counter the Republican press were generally run by young aristocrats who wrote and copied articles from other papers but didn't actually do the hard manual labor of setting type and printing papers. Republican editors, by contrast, tended to be printers themselves, raised in a declining artisanal tradition and realizing that the road to success might lead them down an untraditional path. By understanding artisanal editors to have played such a large role in the birth of political parties, Pasley provides fresh new evidence for the idea of a great democratization of politics occurring in the early Republic. The party editors of Jefferson's and Jackson's days were certainly not of the lowest class of people, but they were manual laborers who conformed to an old, hard-drinking tradition that was anathematic to refined Federalist or neo-Federalist aristocrats.

The most revolutionary aspect of Pasley's book may be found in the way it understands the relationship between journalists and politicians. The received wisdom of the journalism world focuses on notions of objectivity and partisanship; the era of the political press is seen as a low point of American journalism. Pasley's argument suggests that printers of that era may well have had more influence over politics and that ordinary voters may have been much more well-informed than voters are today. The union of journalism and politics that Pasley describes is one that held many advantages for both the printers and the parties of the day.

This fascinating book traces the evolution from a relatively apolitical printing trade to a highly politicized press, from the founding of the republic up through the Jackson administration. While the book is a solid contribution to historical scholarship, it is written in a highly accessible style, providing plenty of context for those of us who have forgotten many of the details of high school US History class. But what makes the book most readable is Pasley's style of substantiating his general accounts of demographic and political trends with numerous engaging mini-biographies of specific printers, a colorful lot of characters, to illustrate his points. For me, the book also went beyond forgotten high school history to explain things I never knew about the development of party politics, about the "Federalists" (who stood for the opposite of what is called "federalism" today) and the "Republicans" (the precursor of the modern Democratic party). Given today's highly polarized political climate, it is especially interesting to read about the founding fathers' fears of party politics. In 18th century elections, it was considered quite unseemly for a candidate to campaign or promote himself in any way. Thomas Jefferson was conflicted in his views of the press, working behind the scenes to encourage a pro-Republican press, while making every effort to personally disassociate himself from newspapers.

This book first came to my attention in the course of my family history research, as it turns out that my great-great-great-great-grandfather Charles Holt is one of the printers given biographical treatment in the book. Holt served as an example of printers who became politicized by the infamous Sedition Act under John Adams' presidency. He started publishing his newspaper intending to be neutral, printing all viewpoints, but quickly discovered that the Federalists who utterly dominated Connecticut would not countenance a newspaper that published any viewpoints other than their own. Just for publishing diverse views, he was labeled "a Jacobin, a Frenchman, a disorganizer, and one who would sell his country." (Sound familiar?) Frustrated in his attempts to be a neutral printer, he dug in, editorializing:

There are generally *two sides* to every subject. To the
public opinion, in a free country, there ever will and should
be. And it is the duty of an impartial printer to communicate
to the public on *both sides* freely. But nine tenths of the
newspapers in Connecticut are decidedly partial to *one side*,
and keep the *other* totally out of sight. This is not
fair.... The public may therefore rest assured that so long as
my brethren in this state print on *one side only*, so long
will I print on *the other*.

(In other words, Holt anticipated by a couple of centuries Rush Limbaugh's quip that "I am equal time.") Eventually, Holt was convicted under the Sedition Act, heavily fined, and jailed for six months. But as Pasley shows through Holt's example and many others, the Sedition Act, which criminalized criticism of the government, and which intended to stifle the much-feared evils of a politicized press, instead had the opposite effect. A whole generation of printers became more politicized than ever before, and The Sedition Act was not only repealed, but a newly energized explicitly Republican press put Thomas Jefferson into office.

It is amazing how timely and relevant some of the issues of 200 years ago seem, with parallels to today's politically divided climate. (Just as one example, I was struck by Pasley's comment on a trend in the wake of Jefferson's election: "there was a sudden awakening of libertarianism among some Federalists now that some of the weapons of state were in Republican hands." Not unlike our present-day Democrats who are rediscovering federalism, and our Republicans who think government should be small except when they're in control of it.) I really enjoyed getting to know the many colorful characters who enliven this history. I think anyone who enjoys politics and history will greatly enjoy this book.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch chose "Tyranny of Printers" as one of the best books of 2001 in its November 25 edition (...).

The Tyranny of Printers is a history book that accomplishes a lot at the same time. On one hand, it offers a new and fascinating look at journalism during the Revolutionary Period. Pasley essentially argues that rather than being tools of the parties, journalists themselves were responsible for dictating the rise of party politics.

The book is very well-written and manages to be entertaining enough for a general audience but also incredibly useful for the academic world, which is very tough to do. Pasley mainly uses a series of biographical portraits to construct his narrative, which makes the book easy to digest but does restrict his ability to apply his conclusions to a larger population, but I never doubted his findings.

As with any book, Pasley obviously takes sides. The newspaper men emerge as the true heroes: bold and fearless spreaders of democracy who had a fundamental role in the rise of party politics of the period. Extending that, the Jeffersonians (and not the currently chic Hamiltonians) are the politicians who were more in tough with spirit of democracy that the nation was founded on, and this propellem them to their dramatic victory in the election of 1800.

Pasley's book is inventive, enjoyable, and highly informative. I suggest to any casual or serious student of the Early American Republic. It is a welcome antidote to the current trend in Founding Father hagiography.

The Tyranny of Printers: Newspaper Politics in the Early American Republic written by Jeffrey L. Pasley is a book that gives an overall picture of the power of the press in our early American Republic from the Revolutionary period to the Jacksonians. Newspaper based politics is a term used much in this book to describe the type and level associated with the local party.

The classic case of newspaper-based politics was when Thomas Jefferson used one paper in Philadelphia to do his bidding against Alexander Hamilton... not to mention that Jefferson got caught. Newspapers were the central source of news, outside of word of mouth, and a network of newspapers really gave both the candidate and the paper momentum and political life. The late eighteenth and early nineteenth century was a real hotbed where newspapers breathed, newpapers were the republic's central political institutions, working components of the political system rather than just commentators on it. This was true all the way to the end of the Jacksonian era of democracy.

This book has a narrative that flows quite well and keeps the reader well informed and is full of anecdotes. Jefferson, Madison and Monroe all used the press to their collective advantage as they striped the power away from the Federalists, but not only is this book about how they politician used the press. The most interesting story is how the author enlivens his narrative with accounts of the colorful but often tragic careers of the individual editors.

There is a companion web site that readers should consult at: [url] serving as an extension of the book... this site contains important supporting material information. The book has endnotes rather than footnotes concentrating all of the supporting information toward the back of the book. There is a very good bibliography with this book that supports the writing very well.

As time marchs on... reading this book give us a glimpse in the window of a time where political goals were linked to the newspapers and their editors making the full circle of the political process, linking parties, voters and the government together... the newspapers were the linchpin of early political power. This book is very informative and gives a rare look into the life at times of some of the more interesting minor players of early American Politics the editors.

I enjoyed reading this book as it still had a familiar theme but the players were the most interesting as the Americian political process still worked, a very interesting book, indeed.

War and Politics by Other Means is a graceful book. We should expect one who has been writing news (and in some cases, making it) for so many years to be able to tell a story and tell it well. but what is most wonderful about Scates is that he cares. Any reporter who has lived with what he calls the "rough mixture of altruism, venality, petty feuds or state government either has to go under, turn cynical and calloused, become a boozer, or have something special called Hope. Obviously, Scates has the latter..... Scates is, thus, a reporter of the old school. He is honest and he is driven, and he is too,more than a little corageous. We know this from his off had descriptions of his war reporting. You should go out and get the book at once. War and Politics by Other Means!...

Shelby Scates has a rare talent as a storyteller. Reading his memoir, you can imagine sitting at the kitchen table ( a bottle of booze within easy reach ) as he relates these tales gathered during his eventful life. Scates stories benefit greatly from the writer's exactness. Most remarkable is the noticable forward movement to his prose, a sense that there is more good stuff coming, a sentence, a paragraph, a page ahead and Scates rarely disappoints. A must read! James Bush, Seattle Weekly

Shelby Scates acts like a journalist, he talks like a journalist, he even looks like a journalist. Scates has the world-weary look of someone who has traveled and covered a lot of ground. He says what he wants and doesn't mince words. His newest book " War and Politics by Other Means, a Journalists Memoirs" was recentlyn published by the University of Washington Press. It spans Shelby Scates' entire career from going into journalism covering sports in Dallas to his careers in the wire services such as United Press International and the Associated Press before going to the Seattle Post Intelligencer. He left the newspaper in 1991 to work on books. The stories in the book make you feel like you're on the scene. It's written in the sparse prose of a lifetime reporter - short sentences that are always to the point. It is a fascinating must read book....

For 29 years Shelby Scates was a presence in regional politics, first for two years as a writer for Phil Bailey's splendid Argus weekly and later as a reporter and columnist for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Since his retirement from the P.I. Scates has kept busy, writing the first full-length biography of Warren Magnusen and now his memoir, "War and Politics By Other Means". It is an interesting read. From a lifetime of writing for newspaper readers, Scates knows the scarcity of reader time and newshole space. He tells his tales briskly, emphasizing his encounters with the famous (Robert Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, etc.) and those who played small but interesting roles in history. A publisher should encourage Scates to start a new project.

"Too bad Ben Hecht never met Shelby Scates, a journalist's journalist. His memoir is an enchanting crackle of political history ( I especially loved the stories about Earl Long and JFK),war chronicles in the Middle East and Cambodia, and other treacherous adventures like his white-knuckle climb up the Karakoram moutain range in Pakistan. And it is all so elegantly written you'll despair when you finish it, as I did. A real friend of a book."

Written by James R. Mancham (the founding President of the Republic of Seychelles, a small island nation in the Pacific), War On America: Seen From The Indian Ocean is a cold, hard, factual look at American foreign policy and its ramifications since the 1960s, from this island nation's point of view. Covering events up to and including the September 11 terrorist attacks, War On America is a straightforward, candid, outside perspective that reveals the sometimes arbitrary and self-serving aspect of America's view toward the world, and its repercussions. Informed and informative, War On America is strongly recommended as a very insightful book and important, timely reading for students of contemporary international studies in general, and the non-specialist general reader wanting background information on how we as a nation became embroiled in a long term war upon "stateless" terrorism.

In a letter dated 31st March addressed to the author President Chirac of France wrote " It is with great interest that I have noted your analysis of the international situation against the background of your experience and wisdom. Like you I aspire that be built, from day to day, a world which is more balanced, equitable and peacful. In this way, France contribute, where ever she can, to promote priciples essential to peace and to the well being of our humanity."
Weekend Nation Seychelles 4th May 2002.

I loved your book!

It is a masterpiece of inspiration, historical relevance, and the candid reality of post modern politics.

War on America As Seen from the Indian Ocean is a must read and must be discussed handbook for every Academic Honors Program student and demands its own course within America's High Schools and Universities as a study of Global Politics, Global Economy, Global Human Rights, and the Global cry of a people through her founding President and impassioned leader...my friend, HE Sir James Mancham.

At times I cried as I walked through the pages of your experience...

Unless our nation's Honors Students comprehend the complexity of a visionary's role in making history with desirable outcomes for the greater good, and step into that role, even to make a brief wrinkle in the fabric of time, our students are destined to repeat small town thinking, small town politics, small town isolation...and end up somewhere that is called nowhere with no one to care...

The major themes in 'War on America seen for the Indian Ocean' are woven around two key themes: 'Seychelles' strategic location and the naivete of US foreign policy. It describes the recent past of the country at the height of the Cold War and the enormous sacrifice paid by the First President, Sir James Mancham, who was forced into exile following a Marxist-inspired coup that could have been prevented in the first place had the then US Administration paid a little more attention to its smaller allies. The author believes that Seychelles can serve as a model for other countries that are grappling with post-colonial divisions amid a unipolar world. More than simply a political statement and argument on a flawed US foreign policy, this book is also an affirmation of Sir James' love for the people of Seychelles in its quest for peace, stability and reconciliation. Small island countries should take note. An excellent publication.

This timely book is written by a former president with personal experience with the projection of US interests overseas. It looks at America's capability to lead the world in a campaign against terrorism after September 11. He uses sources friendly to America, or Americans themselves--including Henry Kissinger's "Does America Need a Foreign Policy?" to show why America needs to ground the use of its power in a consistent moral policy, promoting peace and human rights not by caprice but by willing acceptance in a world desperate for true leadership.

I had the privilage to have COL Hughes my Battalion Commander during OIF1. This book does great justice to all of the soldiers of the battalion. Leadership emanates off of COL Hughes and you can not help but follow this American Patriot.

No F*@kin Slack!

In "War on Two Fronts," Col. Christopher Hughes provides a raw, honest account of not only what transpired during the invasion of Iraq in 2003 but also a rare glimpse into the inner workings of the Pentagon. Written with clarity and closeness, he brings us along for a look into a very different world than what was many times presented in the mainstream. After all, few writers or commentators bear as much responsibility for their actions as a man in Hughes's position. Written with refreshing honesty, Hughes is neither cheerleader nor detractor; he merely tells it like he saw it.

It is a work that shares with us a view from high enough on the "Food Chain" to provide a broad perspective of operations, but at the same time close enough to the ground to smell the cordite. We at once see the larger strategies of his commanders that he is tasked to carry out, while at the same time feel the jarring discomfort of trucks designed for a dozen men carrying twice that number. We can walk the ground as actions with global impact play out in an area ground the size of a typical city block. We share the palpable relief when conventional ground fighting ceases, but feel the stress as the daunting task of being responsible for the civil welfare of a population across an area of 11,000 sq kilometers is suddenly thrust upon one man. And this has to be performed with less than 1,000 men. Then, from the dust and flies into the polished halls of the Pentagon...and it's oftentimes even more polished, Byzantine ways.

Such is the unique fate of infantry battalion commanders.

Throughout, Hughes presents his odyssey with a clarity and frankness that makes this one of the most educational books on the Iraq conflict to date. Whatever your position on Iraq, "War on Two Fronts" will give you fresh perspective on the realities of war on the ground amidst an ancient and complex civilization, and the mechanisms of one of the largest, and deadliest, organizations ever build by man.

You will find it hard to put down.

I met Chris Hughes in June of 2002 at Ft. Campbell when he and No Slack (2/327th INF) were preparing for the deployment that would become "OIF" the following March.

As a Vietnam Veteran of No Slack having served with its Alpha Company in 1969 & 70 I was impressed with the soldiers who were filling the boots of my old unit and its sister battalions (1&3/327Th) that comprised the 1st Brigade (The Bastogne Bulldogs) of the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault).

I left LTC Hughes that day knowing that he and his troops were ready to write their own pages of No Slack's history. This book is an eyewitness to that history. It speaks well of the resourcefulness of the finest Army America and the world has ever seen. From the confusion of having an imbedded terrorist strike just days before the war begins to the resourcefulness of the men and their leaders as they adapt to the ever changing situations that comprise combat. Reading the first half of the book made me proud of my old unit and to be an American. But there is so much more here.

Chris's analysis after he returns to the states, what we are doing right, what needs to be changed and what he and others who are serving have proposed to ensure that we win is insightful. Much of what Col Hughes lays out in this piece is already operational and current events have proved him to be right in his assessment and planning.

You will not be able to put War on Two Fronts down once you start reading it. It's a historical record and a look at the future as we continue the fight against America's deadliest enemy, fanatical Islam.

To "The Hammer", I thank you for your continued service and for this outstanding book.

No Slack, Sir!
Yankee Jim

I highly recommend this book to any Patriot, man or woman, who wants a vivid insight on the true account of one hero's experience on and off the battle field. You won't regret reading this.

How do you meet an Ayatollah? Chris Hughes had to find an answer and fast.

Anyone who knows Chris appreciates the extraordinary nature of this sterling man: a natural and gifted leader of great poise, keen insight, swift reactions and a profound sense of humanity, the last of which pours out of his account of his campaign in Iraq and service at the Pentagon and at the National War College.

As the commander of "No Slack" (2nd Battalion 327th Airborne Infantry) in the 101st "Screaming Eagles" Chris relates about how the families girded for the deployment by sewing patches on the new camouflage uniforms in an ad hoc organization that came to be known as the "Stitch and Bitch." He then recounts the fragging of his brigade commander and staff, how he led the liberation of an-Najaf, securing the Mosque of Ali and ensuring the safety of Grand Ayatollah Sistani, who invited Chris to a private meeting which got spoiled by a near riot in the marketplace. "Take a knee, and smile," Chris calmly ordered his men, as the world's media looked on. He defused a tense situation, and though he never got to meet the seniormost Shiite cleric, did get a fatwa from the clergyman instructing the Shiites to stand aside and let the Americans continue their mission. One of Chris' most powerful assets was his translator/advisor, Kadhim al-Waeli, who now serves as senior cultural advisor to Lt Gen Ray Odierno, in Baghdad.

Chris then writes about starting the first post-Saddam municipal government, while avoiding the trap of appointing "bad guys" to that governing body. Up country with the rest of the division, Chris and his colleagues organized the national wheat and barley harvest and he set up a regional council of municipal mayors, known as "The Tigris River Valley Council," giving those delegates all the honors the president receives on "Marine-1." He also recounts an effort to put a stop to Kurdish looting from the refinery in Beiji.

In Part II -"A Footstool at the Seat of Power," Chris recounts efforts to set up the Army IED Task Force and the Iraq Cultural Advisory Task Force with help from Kadhim and "Major Bob" Bevelacqua. He also writes of the cancellation of the Comanche helicopter program and some of the pitfalls in the Pentagon system.

Chris then narrates his experiences at the National War College, where he and his classmates forced change on the faculty, in order to refocus on the problems of insurgency and counter-insurgency and away from the Cold War. That coup produced an anthology,Fresh from the Fight: The Invasion and Occupation of Iraq: An Anthology of National War College Studies by American Combat Commanders.

The book concludes with serious thoughts on how to counter Iraqi IED bombing teams and how to plan and execute an orderly withdrawal from our current war-time footing in Iraq.

War on Two Fronts includes dispatches from reporters, some e-mails and an interesting monograph on field sanitation from one of his NCOs that flesh out the narrative. In all, this is an incredibly insightful book (and with a lot of good photos), produced by an ordinary guy from Red Oak, Iowa.

What a great look at our nations wars from the political perspective. Pearlman's writing style and personality pull you in and give you the impression that you are getting a look behind the scenes of American history. This is an important piece of work for those that want to understand the why of many wartime decisions.

This profound study, worthy of an Einstein, a Kafka, or a Monica Lewinsky, is the most important thing that has happened to the evolution of the universe since the discovery of the Milky Way; I men the galaxy, not the candy bar. Everybody alive (and 90 percent of those dead) should buy at least five copies, every other week. Oh yes, if you have trouble sleeping, you might try reading this book, not just buying it.

This book is original, well written and well researched. It tells the story of how domestic political decisions have affected American war-making since the Revolution. It must be read by anyone who is interested in defense, politics or history. Engagingly written with eye-opening revelations on each page, this book is one of the few books on any subject which can truly be said to be indispensible.

From my review of this work published in the Naval War College Review, Spring 2000:

Warmaking-the pursuit of political objectives by military means- ineluctably involves trade-offs not only in determining appropriate goals but also in determining the means by which they may be best pursued. While recent military action in Kosovo highlights the truth of this statement, the struggle to achieve a coherent military policy is not simply a contemporary problem for this nation. In this work, Michael D. Pearlman, a historian and associate professor at the U.S. Army's Command and General Staff College, traces this problem from the pre-Revolutionary colonial wars through to the present, providing a comprehensive survey not only of America's wars but of the continual push and pull between the practitioners of military art and the politicians who direct them. In doing so, Pearlman demonstrates the difficulties faced by a pluralistic democracy in obtaining a consensus on either the most effective means for fighting a war or on justifiable ends of the wars being fought. While pursuing an explanation of the sources of these difficulties, he also illuminates a warmaking goal that is perhaps peculiar to America-that of fighting in order to banish doubts that a democracy can win its wars.

The timeliness of this work can not be overlooked. It sheds light on the recent debates on the use of force in Kosovo, as well as on the general discussion about the effectiveness of the application of military power in the pursuit of limited political goals, by opening up new avenues of understanding into the formation and execution of military policy. Written in a highly readable style that eschews both political science jargon and "military-speak," this work is a valuable addition to the bookshelf of anyone interested in seeing how strategy has been determined in the actual rather than the abstract/theoretical world. It is essential reading for those who would understand the why of military strategy as well as the what.

This is a splendid and original book. It examines the faultline between military strategy and political considerations. It is an engagingly written product of a superb and fairminded thinker and thorough researcher. No matter how much you have read about military history, you are guaranteed to learn many new things. I have two faults with it - both major, but localized: first, in his analysis of WWII, he does not discuss the allocation of resources enough. Joel Davidson showed how we ended the war with a larger Navy and a smaller Army than we should have had, largely because of FDR's Navy bias, Adm. King's aggressiveness and Gen. Marshall's willingness to back down, even when he was right. I would have liked to see Mr. Pearlman direct his considerable talents to this subject. The second failing is somewhat perplexing: the author's willingness to accept the argument of a handful of JFK partisans that JFK wanted to abandon South Vietnam after the 1964 election. The only sources for this canard are a handful of intensely loyal Kennedy insiders who made these claims only after the war had become unpopular. If there were any truth to these claims, they would have surfaced when these same people were in counsels of war with the reluctant hawk, Lyndon Johnson. I'm not saying that these people are liars exactly, but that they so wanted JFK to have done the popular thing, that they created these conversations in their subconscious and came to believe them as gospel. Recent studies suggest that JFK ordered the coup against Diem because Diem was talking to Ho Che Minh; surely JFK would have let that continue if he planned to pull out. At any rate, once he had had the CIA depose Diem and completely disrupt the established government of an ally, there was no way he could bail out. Forget getting Bobby elected, there were too many people committed to Vietnam and who were privy to the coup to let JFK pull such a stunt without facing an impeachment. Despite these two shortcomings, this is one of the best works of military history that I have ever read.

This book is outstanding both as autobiography and as historical political journalism. Bill Blum has been active--and activist--since an early age, and has a consequent wealth of stories to tell. He was one of the founders of the Washington Free Press, a member of the former alternative press that was illegally harassed and suppressed by the US Postal Service and the FBI-led COINTELPROL operation during the sixties and seventies. He has met Oliver Stone, CIA agents posing as radicals, and former kidnapper/comrades of Patty Hearst, among many others. He's not a "name dropper," though, and this book is neither a People-style cavalcade of the rich and radical, nor one of those waste-of-trees volumes that declaims about "the masses" and "historical forces."

What it is, is an entirely understandable account of his life as a person who cares very much about his world and the people in it. He describes the routine (why is it routine? ever wonder?) poverty he witnessed in his travels through Latin America, his sojourn in Chile before its democratic government was overthrown by the US-engineered coup that ushered in the (truly) fascist regime of General Pinochet, his meetings with the ex-CIA agent, Philip Agee, and much more. He has been around, both geographically and in his efforts to expose and oppose the wrongdoings of a long series of US governments.

One of the attractive things about this book is that most people can relate to it. He's known some really crazy people as well as some sweet and compassionate characters. He describes them all, using his combination of humor and intelligent grasp of what makes people tick. He describes without embellishment his frustrations and happiness with his succession of girlfriends, and his great joy at finally having a child with one of them. He has lived most of his life in various stages of poverty, so he knows the reality of the lives of real people unfiltered by the distance and ignorance of the well-to-do. He is a fellow who lives with few illusions.

Mr. Blum is the author of a well-selling book available here, Killing Hope, and has authored several additional books since that volume. He continues his activities by issuing a periodic email bulletin analyzing current events, and doing public speaking at various events. He's a person worth reading and his life has been a positive contribution to our world.

This book relates the Homeric battle, not between the few and the many, but between the few powerful (who are in control of Imperialist America) and one individual (the author).
Nearly all his fellow travellers left the noble cause. But he persisted and brought us such important and extremely revealing and painful books as 'Killing Hope' and 'Rogue State'.
More, he is amazed that some fellow travellers were CIA infiltrators! Or, that Big Brother lurks nearly permanently over his shoulder.
It was not only a battle against the powerful, but also against himself: his strife to live an easy life (as he says himself: his true, greedy capitalist nature), instead of more or less one of an outcast.

At the end, he is disillusioned ('As a member of the human race, I was embarassed that the 20th century was ending the same way it began, with wars and violence') and scared ('that my own government, responsible for more of the misery than any other human agent, would scare me'). Nevertheless, he continues to fight.

This is a book by a courageous idealist, who continued to defend his political ideals in the face of many defeats, which he took terribly at heart.
As the Magistrate in Coetzee's 'Waiting for the Barbarians', he personifies the conflict between personal conscience on the level of the human race in its totality and the conscience of the member of a specific clan. In other words, it is the battle between the only Just and patriotic bloodthirstiness.

This is not to say that there are not some weaker points in this book: no mention of the fact that the URSS crushed revolutions in East Berlin, Budapest and Prague, or his total despise of social democrats or his big confidence (or should I say, illusion) in the real nature of mankind.

Of course, this autobiography contains a lot of strictly personal facts destined to the '(un)happy few', but I still learned a lot, e.g. Eisenhower, Patton and MacArthur crushed the Bonus Marchers of 1932 and got big promotions!

An exemplary account of a dissident life. Not to be missed.

A very well written, witty, interesting book. A fascinating history of a very turbulent time. A surprisingly honest history of the author's experiences, critical observations of the state, himself and people in general. A really good read.

Blum's worthy autobiography is a departure from his previous books, Killing Hope: US Military and CIA Interventions since World War II, and Rogue State: A Guide to the World's only Superpower. Whereas the earlier works are serious and scholarly, full of meticulous research and documentation, WBD is an airy narrative of hilarious wit, struggle, despair, and ultimately the equivocal triumph of a rebel and dissident.

Here the politics are incidental to the story and the man, as well as a large cast of characters. We see Blum grow from a gung ho, salute the flag American, who, when events such as the kidnapping of two United States Ambassadors dumbfounded him, couldn't understand why others couldn't "see what was so plain to me: that the United States had been a kind of Salvation Army to the rest of the world, disbursing freedom (and) democracy...to all the poor, ignorant and diseased peoples, and keeping communist darkness from descending upon them."

There is no question but what Blum is a bitter critic of US foreign policy. But then he's joined there by Nelson Mandela, who has called the US government the greatest threat to world peace; and for what it's worth, this writer. Blum challenges the reader to defy that upon rational examination, a socialist government is the only best alternative. He also comes to believe passionately that the economic system is the sine qua non of American imperialism, and its trampling of human rights around the globe. The politics are no less powerful for being a secondary focus of the narrative. Because they are expressed from an emotional rather than a documentarian perspective, Blum here expresses the same kind of despair and outrage in three paragraph bursts that he previously had taken chapters and whole books to achieve.

Blum worked as a contractor to the military at Planning Research Corporation early in what he hoped would be a career as a Foreign Service Officer in the State Department. Later he worked at the State Department and the White House. He jettisoned his ambition as he acquired a growing awareness and revulsion at what the US government was really doing in Vietnam and elsewhere.

There is no clear break between the patriotic and dissident Blum. It is rather a growing through one and evolving to the other. In the early sixties he is shocked and incredulous when a pen pal informs him that the US government has recently overthrown governments in Brazil and Guatemala. He is exposed to the teaching of the American Friends Service Committee, an organization he admires deeply to this day. By 1965 Blum is still naïve enough to listen with pride at US power to casualty reports from Vietnam. He is enough of a half-hearted Jewish liberal however, to attend some public functions of the Communist Party, the Socialist Workers Party, the Fair Play for Cuba Committee, and other organizations. He also begins to leaflet and organize against the war even as he's working at the State Department. Blum refers to this era later as his "beloved sixties." Although he is glad to have been part of what he considers to be an important mass movement, ultimately he laments the fact that the movement only mitigated, and only slightly, the vast carnage.

During his "time at the State Department - December 1964 to March 1967 - my employers, the government of the United States of America, had seen fit to subvert elections in Italy, Chile, and Greece; suppress movements for social and political change in Peru and Bolivia, save the day for military dictatorship in the Dominican Republic and Guatemala; support armed attacks against Cuba; overthrow the government of Ghana; drench itself in the blood of half a million hapless human beings in Indonesia, and bomb the people of Laos back to the Paleolithic Age. Not to mention a place called Vietnam." Observations such as these are as common to Blum's books as the sun to a summer day. Blum's books, wittier and breezier here as a narrative rather than a treatise, despite the subject material, are therefore a delightful encounter with a devotee of truth; and something of an isolating burden in the depoliticized culture and willful evasion of the media wasteland that is the United States.

Along the way we meet Jerry Rubin, the "celebrated Berkeley activist;" Willie Brandt, attributed in Patty Hearst's book to have been responsible for more than 40 bombings of protest; an old friend elected to the House of Representatives, and subsequently indicted for conspiracy and bribery; the pompous Norman Mailer; Allen Ginsberg, who has the last word at a party in an argument with a supporter of the war by exposing himself; Oliver Stone, who hires Blum in a failed effort to turn his earlier books into documentaries; and many others.

This book is not all wit and piety. Blum drops LSD at work for IBM; if he is to be believed, stays just this side of criminality in protest; becomes involved with an interesting assortment of women (not all virtuous) including one with whom he falls in love and has a son; and many other adventures that are vicarious thrills, leavened with just a trace of vice.

This is the autobiography of a writer, no? We also get to know the growth, travails, travels and triumphs of a writer as important as Chomsky, Vidal, or Parenti. Blum cites Parenti as a huge influence even though his thought reads like Noam Chomsky.

An early journalistic escapade for Blum along with comrade Sal Ferrera, was to fake a flat tire outside CIA Headquarters in Langley. There they copied down license plates of employees, identified them, and published the names in the Quicksilver Times, an alternate weekly in Washington. Blum later learns from Philip Agee's landmark book about the CIA, that Ferrera actually worked for the Agency. Blum also works at the Washington Free Press, which took an early principled stand against the Vietnam War but still "marked by its anti-intellectualism," and the Berkeley Barb, "the granddaddy of the underground press." An article he began turns into a four-year project resulting in Killing Hope. It documents more than 60 US military interventions of appalling criminality, Vietnam being only the most egregious. It was published in 1986, and has had seven printings. These chilling insights into the machinery of US foreign policy make the events of September 11. 2001, look like an ice cream social. Blum also wrote news copy for KPFA radio in San Francisco, contributed to Covert Action Quarterly, and completed another book, Rogue State.

The election of Socialist Allende in Chile, 1972, is a watershed, for good and ill. Blum travels to Chile to witness a genuine socialist government. As he nears Chile after a long journey he hears that the US government has imposed an economic blockade of Chile. Blum gives a compelling witness to the Allende government and its achievements, along with an analysis of its failures, obstacles really, not yet overcome by the soon-to-be-assassinated Allende.

Kissinger and Nixon secretly plotted the economic warfare on the socialist government, an economic alternative to capitalism, and an example of what might be, absolutely anathema to US imperialism. A month after the assassination Kissinger was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize along with Le Duc Tho. The day of Allende's assassination just happened to be September 11, 1973, a coincidence so monstrous just for its trivial significance, as to go unmentioned in the corporate mainstream media. "In Chile," laments Blum, "the military boots had marched, as they have always marched in Latin America."

Like all Blum's books, this fascinating memoir is immensely readable, lucid and free of jargon.

Like so many good people, Blum gained his political understanding through opposing the US state's criminal war against Vietnam. Blum reports that the anti-Vietnam war movement was not pacifist in general terms but specifically opposed the US attack on Vietnam.

Blum saw that time and again the US state intervened abroad not to back democracy but to smash it: the war against Vietnam was not an aberration, but it was typical and endemic to the capitalist system. How can anyone believe that the January elections in Iraq are about empowering the Iraqi people?

The anti-Vietnam war movement soon learned that "it was ridiculous to appeal to the President as if were some unaware innocent bystander who needed only to be `enlightened' before he would see the error of his ways." They saw how the CIA infiltrated the trade unions and the anti-war movement, and Blum notes that Blair's friend Bill Clinton snitched to the CIA about the anti-war protestors he joined in Britain.

Blum was in Chile from August 1972 to May 1973. In March 1973 the left gained 7% more votes in the congressional elections. So the ruling class, aided by the US state, decided that they could only get rid of Allende through a coup, which they duly carried out on 11 September.

Based on vast amounts of evidence, from official documents, rulers' memoirs, and investigative reporting, Blum's books are probably the best introduction to the US state's real role in the world. His first was The CIA: a forgotten history: US global interventions since World War II, published in 1986. Common Courage Press published a new edition of this, entitled Killing hope: US military and CIA interventions since World War II in 1995. In 2000, Zed Books published The rogue state: a guide to the world's only superpower and in 2004 Common Courage Press published Freeing the world to death: essays on the American empire.

Compiled, edited, and with an introduction by poet, novelist, editor, literary critic, and social activist Daniela Gioseffi, Women On War: An International Anthology Of Writings From Antiquity To The Present showcases women's observations predicting war, suffering its toll, finding the courage to resist, surviving against impossible odds, and so much more. A powerful and unforgettable work transcending eras and borders, Women On War is recommended for Women's Studies, Military Studies, and Social Issues reading lists.

The first edition of this anthology, published in 1988, was subtitled Essential Voices for the Nuclear Age and won an American Book Award. This second edition is certainly well timed. While it still addresses issues of the nuclear age and the further past it seems to speak directly to today's conflicts. Ranging widely in time and place, the over 150 women featured here (e.g., Anna Akmatova, Marguerite Duras, Virginia Woolf, Toni Morrison, and Emily Dickinson) include professional writers in several areas as well as activists (such as members of RAWA, the Revolutionary Association of Women) and "ordinary" women. Well-known names such as Indian writer Arundhati Roy might jump out, but readers may be most affected by some of the first-person accounts which can, however, be difficult to read--both for their graphic descriptions and for their sheer heartrending poignancy. Editor Gioseffi's introduction nicely contextualizes the wide-range contributions.

WOMEN ON WAR, edited with an introduction by Daniela Gioseffi--American Book Award winning poet and non-violent peace activist for many years--is "an eloquent response to global violence that sweeps through time and across national boundaries," said Doris Jean Austin, Reviewer in THE NEW YORK TIMES, of the first edition. Austin added. "This is a book one hopes will be translated into all languages of humankind." This all new edition contains such illustrious contributors as Jane Addams, Anna Akhmatova, Daisy al-Amir, Fadwa Tuqan, Gwendolyn Brooks, Alice Walker, Toni Morrison, Gace Paley, Claribel Alegria, Isaabel Allende, Maya Angelou, Simone de Beauvoir, Helen Caldicott, Rosalie Bertell, Carolyn Forche, Emma Goldman, Nadine Gordimer, Kimiko Hahn, Molly Peacock, Rochelle Ratner, Pwu Jean Lee, Tsai Wen Ji, Ch'iu Chin, Robin Morgan, Gabriela Mistral, Linda Hogan, Adrienne Rich, Denise Levertov, Vandana Shiva, Arundhati Roy, Wislawa Symborska, Luisa Valenzuela, Christa Wolf, Muriel Rukeyser, June Jordan and 100 others including Daniela Gioseffi herself who writes an insiteful and politically astute overview, as well as contributing a moving poem and an apt story. There is an extensive bibliography for further reading on this vital subject, as well, and extensive headnotes on all the authors. An immensely rich collection for a nominal price! And from a not-for-profit press, The Feminist Press with N.G.O. status at the United Nations--a press with the expressed mission of getting women's voices from all cultures out into the wide world in order to improve the status of women in all walks of life and endeavors.

This new edition of Daniels Gioseffi's unique and splendid collection is urgently needed now. Framed by Gioseffi's brilliant overview of the world's crisis, these vivid and visionary writings--poetry, history, politics and prose--inspire and galvanize. This book offers the great gift of hope and understanding on every page.

Blanche Wiesen Cook, author of ELEANOR ROOSEVELT

In his recent book "War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning," Chris Hedges argues that many of us find war alluring because it gives our otherwise humdrum and centerless existences a sense of meaning. We feel part of something greater than ourselves, and as a consequence feel larger than life. Of course, this sense of deep meaning is illusory, but it does account in part for why so many men find themselves attracted to something as terrible as war.

One of the great merits of Daniela Gioseffi's multi-merited "Women on War" is its documentation of the other side. In our obsession with battlefield glory and stories of combat heroics, we too often forget that women and children are the forgotten victims of war. Already extremely vulnerable, they become even more so when societies are ripped asunder by the mayhem of armed conflict. In listening to their voices, we are reminded that the allure of war too frequently blinds us to what it does to those who can least afford its violence.

Gioseffi's book collects women's perspectives on war from all corners of the globe and from ancient to contemporary times. The book is divided into four thematic sections: "Prophecies and Warnings," "Violence and Mourning," "Courage and Resistance," and "Hope and Survival." The entire collection is prefaced with a superb introductory essay, "Cassandra's Daughters." As suggested by the thematic section titles, the selections go beyond expressing the suffering and torment experienced by women in wartime. Just as importantly, the selections also include women's voices of resistance and women's voices that offer alternatives to the madness of war. Some of the selections are heart-breaking, others are inspiring, none are superfluous or redundant. if war in part arises, as Hedges maintains, because of our alienated need for meaning, one solution to the problem of war is to figure out how to live nonalienated existences. The selections in this collection, especially in the final two sections, offer either direct or indirect suggestions for celebrating rather than destroying life. One of my favorites is the "I Have All the Passion of Life" by Puerto Rican poet Lolita Lebron:

"...Whoever denies life its joy,
the wealth of its complexity,
its rainbow-like countenance,
its downpour and its universe
of beauty, its generous giving,
the caress, the grain
with fruit and delicacies,
the bud, the flower, pain and
laughter;
those who deny life its measure
of joy
are the unseeing ones." (p. 300)

In short, a superb resource for anyone concerned about creating an alternative to the war system. Highly recommended for both individual and group reading. Would be an ideal text in any peace studies course.