Book Description
Robert Young Pelton first became aware of the phenomenon of hired guns in the War on Terror when he met a covert team of contractors on the Afghanistan/Pakistan border in the fall of 2003. Pelton soon embarked on a globe-spanning odyssey to penetrate and understand this shadowy world, ultimately delivering stunning insights into the way private soldiers are used.
Enter a blood-soaked world of South African mercenaries and tribal fighters backed by ruthless financiers. Drop into Baghdad’s Green Zone, strap on body armor, and take a daily high-speed ride with a doomed crew of security contractors who dodge car bombs and snipers just to get their charges to the airport. Share a drink in a chic hotel bar with wealthy owners of private armies who debate the best way to stay alive in war zones.
Licensed to Kill spans four continents and three years, taking us inside the CIA’s dirty wars; the brutal contractor murders in Fallujah and the Alamo-like sieges in Najaf and Al Kut; the Deep South contractor training camps where ex–Special Operations soldiers and even small town cops learn the ropes; the contractor conventions where macho attendees swap bullet-punctuated tales and discuss upcoming gigs; and the grim Central African prison where contractors turned failed mercenaries pay a steep price.
The United States has encouraged the use of the private sector in all facets of the War on Terror, placing contractors outside the bounds of functional legal constraints. With the shocking clarity that can come only from firsthand observation, Licensed to Kill painstakingly deconstructs the most controversial events and introduces the pivotal players. Most disturbingly, it shows that there are indeed thousands of contractors—with hundreds more being produced every month—who’ve been given a license to kill, their services available to the highest bidder.
Customer Reviews:
Perfect book on an intriguing subject.......2007-09-22
I bought Pelton's 'World's most dangerous places' a few years ago. I'm always interested in the shady world of mercenaries, contractors and hired guns so of course I wanted to buy this book as soon as it was out. And it was spot-on. This is a very well written book, it gives you a no-nonsense look into the world of the contractors and after you have read it, you know a lot more about the matter than the average newsreader. What I liked most was the parts about Sandline and Executives Outcomes. Definetely a must-read if you want to know something more about contractors and 'mercenaries', or better put: the difference between those two. I recommend it highly.
Contract Rifles.......2007-08-13
Robert Young Pelton's Licensed to Kill is a book well worthy of the time invested in reading it. Pelton illuminates the world of modern private security contracting both from the inside and from an historical perspective. He draws a distinction between the security contractor, who is essentially a defensive fighter, and a mercenary, who undertakes offensive actions. The reader meets individual contractors and a few of the men behind the organizations. Tales of trial by fire mix with broader-perspective cautionary tales about where the trend in security contracting may be headed and the gray zone between the private security company and the mercenary army. Pelton's work offers valuable perspective on a phenomenon that has erupted since the start of the War on Terror and which deserves serious attention.
Licensed to Kill is many things at once. Pelton's book is a jigsaw puzzle of personal experiences with contractors on the ground, small-picture stories about individuals in the post-9/11 world of gun-for-hire opportunities, and big-picture stories that serve to frame the pre- and post-9/11 world of security contracting. A literary critic might argue that Licensed to Kill is a postmoderist work that lacks central direction or a single message. I believe that Pelton's book is a creditworthy effort at giving a human face to security contractors while creating a context for the world in which the War on Terror contractor operates.
At the personal level, Pelton devotes several chapters to his experiences in Iraq and North Carolina with contractors. Based on his subjects, Pelton to enjoys the closest contact with the American company Blackwater--one of post-9/11 private security success stories and one of the big winners of the outsourcing of security in Iraq. Pelton describes the Blackwater people in detail. The reader is imparted the knowledge that these are real people. The author sees most of them as men of (surprisingly) complex motives: they want to fight for their country; they want to support wives, children, etc.; they don't want to put up with the Big Army's bureaucratic nonsense; they want better pay than an Army junior enlisted man gets for putting his life on the line; they fear they have no other skills, so they want to earn a living marketing what they have; many are too old to go active duty, anyway; they crave the high that comes from danger.
As a mid-thirties National Guardsman and junior NCO who served in Baghdad in 2005, I understand the men Pelton describes reasonably well. Pelton describes a run down Route Irish to BIAP (Baghdad International Airport) and back to the Green Zone. I've made that run more than once myself. Although I find Pelton's description a touch dramatic, he's very authentic when he describes the hazards of the situation. I understand completely why these men hate the Big Army way of doing business. Soldiers in Iraq--NCOs included--are treated like irresponsible children, forbidden any sort of liberties, and subjected to the attentions of bored sergeants major who think the insurgency will be defeated by proper uniforms and correctly-laced boots. The contractors Pelton describes have found a way to get into the fight while avoiding the Army's less-attractive aspects. Many of my fellow soldiers talked about trying to come back as contractors so they could make twice as much money (or more) and be treated like men into the bargain. Pelton gives the reader an idea of who the contractors, mostly prior military, really are. Seemn through Pelton's eyes, contractors are not predominantly bloodthirsty raiders looking to spill as much innocent blood as possible. They are men being paid to carry a rifle to accomplish specific tasks and trying to survive while doing it.
Pelton is clearly in the trenches with the contractors physically and sympathetically. He acknowledges as much, so we are free to take his anecdotal experience as exactly that: anecdotal.
That much said, Pelton is not a mindless promoter in Licensed to Kill. He raises questions about the legal framework of contracting. To whom do the contractors really answer? Soldiers are clearly representatives of their nation, and they are held to well-published standards of conduct. Contractors, though as former soldiers may be guided by the same moral and ethical compass as their uniformed brethren, are not bound by the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Pelton points out that contractors exist in a sort of legal and ethical limbo. This, Pelton claims, is what the US government wants. When a contractor messes up and is called to task for it, the US government can claim that the contractor does not represent the policies and intent of the United States. The contractor can be dismissed out of hand, Pelton tells us, and the government thereafter washes its hands of the whole thing. Deniability, the author claims, is one of the chief virtues of the contractor and, by extension, one of the chief moral pitfalls. What does it say about the United States of America when we engage disposable men to fight for our causes? Soldiers are expendable in that their lives may be sacrificed to accomplish a mission. However, soldiers receive a host of benefits and long-term investment as part of their service. Contractors receive pay and nothing more. Currently, they are mostly immune from legal consequences in Iraq; but when and if they do start to be charged with crimes for their activities, the US government can give them up with a clean conscience--no harm, no foul to the government. Compare this to the fallout associated with Abu Ghraib and other poor conduct by American troops, and one can see the allure of disposable, deniable contractors. Whether or not the rest of the world will buy the argument that the actions of contractors do not reflect on the government sponsoring the contract remains to be seen. Pelton's point is that the US government has been entranced by the prospect and is likely to remain so until circumstances invalidate the idea.
Pelton devotes some narrative to the world of security contracting prior to 9/11. The main point of doing so seems to be to illustrate the fact that while private security contracting is by no means a new activity, the War on Terror has completely transformed contracting and contracting companies. He also points out that the more mercenary activities of private contracting that occurred in the 1990's still exist as possibilities in the 2000's and beyond. Pelton tells us that the leadership of Blackwater in particular is interested in building a force larger, more capable, and much more powerful than the armies of a number of Third World countries. Pelton seems assured that the Blackwater leadership assumes a priori that a Blackwater army would be used only in support of American foreign interests and that this fact creates a satisfactory moral and ethical framework for the use of said force. At the same time, Pelton raises the question of what will happen when the bounties of the War on Terror cease to provide satisfactory employ for the growing mass of men and companies under arms by contract. Men like the men Pelton describes in detail in Iraq, Afghanistan, and North Carolina may find that having decided to live by the rifle in their post-military careers they are unable to resist bending their codes of conduct to take jobs that are neither entirely in nor out of line with American foreign policy and interests once the ratio of contractors-to-contracts starts to become more competitive. (Sooner or later, this will happen. The market makes it inevitable.) Where in the gray zone between security contractor and mercenary will these men then operate? This is no academic question. As Pelton points out, it is a reality being rushed along by the decision of the US government to privatize much of the security force of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Licensed to Kill is a worthy read. The men are real. The world in which they operate is filled with dangers, rewards, and uncertainties. The national policies unfolding today lead us down a road fraught with hazard and paved with the bodies and rifles of security contractors and those they have been engaged to fight. Pelton provides the reader with an interesting, informative read. Whether one agrees with him or not, Pelton paints a fascinating picture and raises important questions.
Pelton Explores the Rise of Military Privitization.......2007-08-13
Robert Young Pelton has been reporting from global hotspots for the past 15 + years. His record of reporting from far a field is impeccable, including stints in Afghanistan, Columbia, Kashmir, Algeria, and now Iraq. Having long been acquainted with private military contractors throughout his travels, Pelton ventures to Iraq to experience first hand the move towards privatization in the US military.
Pelton spends the majority of his time in Iraq with the controversial Blackwater USA; making runs along the "highway of death" between Baghdad Airport and the Green Zone. He gives a good description of the life of a military contractor in one the world's most dangerous zones. Pelton refrains from painting a too glorified picture of contractor life, and seems more to concentrate on the motivations of men working in the field.
Pelton also describes the history of the military contractor beginning in the early 1980s with such firms as the South African Executive Outcomes, and the British Sandline. He illustrates both the perceived benefits of private military intervention, such as quelling the RUF in Sierra Leone, to the not so clean interventions in Equatorial Guinea sponsored by the wealth-seeking interests of international business and finance.
All in all, I think Pelton does an excellent job refraining from the political bias which clouds much of the recent work on military contractors. Licensed to Kill serves as a readable description of the unstoppable move towards the expansion of private military contractors, and provokes thought and discussion on this new Pandora's Box.
Fascinating read that explores the implications of private security forces.......2007-08-07
This book reflects on the history and modern evolution of private security forces, their influences on the war on terror and the implications of the acceptance of private security forces in society's future.
Beyond just a dry assessment of private security contractors in Iraq, Pelton, adds dramatic personal narratives of his interactions with security contractors, aptly painting a picture of their experiences in Iraq.
This is a must read for anyone interested in the blurring of the line between the military and privately fielded armed forces, which raises interesting questions regarding the US Military's self-sufficiency, the allegiances of private forces, the skill-drain occurring in the armed forces and the future of warfare.
Bull's Eye!.......2007-05-22
In his book, Licensed to Kill, Robert Young Pelton hits the bull's eye with a sweeping, crash course in the explosive growth of private security contractors.
Thrust from the sweltering groins of Africa, Papua New Guinea and other trouble spots around the globe where hidden treasures of oil and minerals tempt buccaneering entrepreneurs, the private security industry is now bursting in full multi-billion-dollar glory on the bloody streets of Iraq.
Pelton chronicles it all with gritty first-hand experience and a keen, knowing vision: the past is prologue and the present boom in Iraq screams a cautionary tale for tomorrow. We may be witnessing the birth of a roving, freelance warrior class in constant search for new wars. (On second thought, the world may already have one. It's called the global war on terror.)
Licensed to Kill, proves once again that Pelton gets the interviews and access that few writers even dream about. He gallops into the secret mud brick camps of Afghanistan; lifts glasses with big wheels while toasting back-room money deals; sweats through a Triple Canopy training camp in Arkansas; barrels down the dangerous highways of Iraq; explores the twisted life of a self-aggrandizing bounty hunter searching for bin Laden; and lives the daily tensions of retired cops and veterans struggling to make a living for their families back home as hired guns.
Although these blue-collar workers may earn $600 a day, they work 24/7. It is grueling and deadly work. Just ask Miyagi, one of the many characters percolating through the book. Sent home by Blackwater to his wife and nine-year-old son in Santa Barbara, an IED drove a gash through his arm and left a fist-sized hole in his [..]. Now, he's waiting for a new assignment. He says it's too tough to make ends meet for his family as a cop in California.
Others, like Erik Prince, a politically-connected former Navy SEAL, never faced those worries. As the founder of the North Carolina-based Blackwater, USA, Prince hit the jackpot a long time ago with a multimillion-dollar family fortune. Today, his company banks on government security contracts totaling $750 million or more won after the Sept.11, 2001, attack on the World Trade Center. Blackwater's success may be only the beginning. Prince envisions taking part in contracts all over the world with Blackwater's own private air force. The company claims it can deploy a private regiment of 1,700 anywhere within a 24-hour notice.
"Prince likes to think of Blackwater's relationship to the traditional military as something akin to FedEx's relationship to the U.S. Post office," Pelton observes after meeting with Prince on several occasions.
Then there's Col. Tim Spicer, a former Scots Guardsman, who first plied his mercenary trade on the outskirts of the developed world by getting mixed up with coups, mineral rights and guns for cold hard cash. Today, Spicer has reinvented himself with the newly-formed Aegis Defence Services. His company holds the largest security contract in Iraq and is charged with coordinating the chaos among tens of thousands of gun-slinging contractors working for scores of companies.
But who will coordinate the chaos of private security companies after Iraq? The business is already on the prowl for new work. "The thing to watch," Pelton cautions, is if hired guns become a permanent fixture in foreign policy.
Even more troubling, is the prospect that the private warriors will begin to freelance in backing political coups -- sometimes unknowingly -- because their mission can be disguised by contracts to protect oil fields, gold mines and other corporate property.
Pelton recounts chilling incidents of this already happening before Iraq sucked up the talent from around the world and then went begging for new recruits. No one knows how many trained and battle-hardened private warriors are working in Iraq. Some estimate 30,000, others say 50,000 or more. Most of these fighters will have few crossover job skills once they leave, but they will have proven resumes showing they carry guns for hire and answer to no one but their company boss.
Licensed to Kill may be just the first chapter in what leads us to ask: what monster is this that the world has created?
Book Description
This is the first full-length account of the CIA's coup d'etat in Iran in 1953âa covert operation whose consequences are still with us today. Written by a noted New York Times journalist, this book is based on documents about the coup (including some lengthy internal CIA reports) that have now been declassified. Stephen Kinzer's compelling narrative is at once a vital piece of history, a cautionary tale, and a real-life espionage thriller.
Customer Reviews:
A must read for America in increasingly disastrous times.......2007-10-12
The insights provided in this book are masterfully presented to offer both a page turning drama and sickening clarity on the trajectories of American meddling in the Middle East. This book goes beyond serving up mundane theories and conjecture. The overall picture here illustrated is profoundly clear and evident in light of the author's supporting research. A glimpse of the future for international policy in the Middle East may well be drawn from the series of events which transpired over the latter half of the 20th century, and which are so brilliantly connected in this book. A must read for anyone keen to understand the increasingly disastrous times of America in the East.
Consequences of One Week ,Fifty Years Ago.......2007-10-04
In 1953 the United States made a momentous decision. Partially out of legitimate fear of a possible Russian takeover of the valuable Iranian Oil field, and partly as a result of incitement by British interests who sought to stubbornly maintain their imperialistic power structure, the CIA led a sinister and clandestine coup that removed the most beloved and democratic leader Iran has had in a century; Mohammend Mossadegh.
Mossadegh was replaced by the Shah Pahlavi who became so hated that a Muslim fanatical mob overthrew him in 1979. The new theocracy, well remembering the American led coup, feared that the CIA would attempt it again. As insurance they attacked the US embassy and took 52 American hostages.
This act so infuriated the Americans that they supported Saddam Hussein's horrific war against Iran. This led to Russia's invasion of Afghanistan, the rise of the Muslim fanatics who created the Hezbollah and Taliban, the empowerment of Saddam, the invasion of Kuwait, the attacks on the US in Beruit, Somalia, 911, and of course our current clumsy missions in Afghanistan and Iraq.
While America's awkward foreign policy proved disastrous in hindsight, the fear of communist control of Middle Eastern oil was a driving force in the 1950's. Blame must be shared with the British Anglo-Iranian Oil Company for their greed, the British for treating the Iranians so poorly, for the Iranian Shahs who sold Iran's concessions to fund their lavish life, and for even Mossadegh himself for becoming so blind in his justified hatred for the British that he refused any compromise offered.
Yet while the Iranians despise the US for our intrusions into their affairs and the suffering it has caused, they still honor the American institutions of freedom and democracy. These values are currently suppressed by the current theocracy.
Kinzer's well researched story reads like a first class spy novel. He avoids cynicism and anti American tirades and presents the story in a balanced light. While he does not avoid detailing the disaster we unleashed he also did not avoid the context of the anti Communist fears shared by many Americans in the 1950s.
He will make you think different about the current events in the Middle East.
All the Shah's Men.......2007-08-08
I think this is a book that every American should read because it explains so clearly the little known facts about the overthrow of the very first democratically elected prime minister in Iran. The seeds of democracy were there - just waiting for a little water but because Mossadegh was a nationalist and didn't want to be indebted to any foreign power including the U.S., we initiated this clandestine covert operation which brought the Shah back to power. At the time of the hostage crisis, I couldn't understand why the Iranian's hated us so much. Now I see that scenario with complete clarity. Regime change by any other name is still meddling in the affairs of foreign countries. Even if we don't care about what happens to that country, it always comes back to haunt us because it's bad foreign policy - bad for the U.S. in the worst possible ways.
Excellent crash course in the root of US/Iranian problems.......2007-07-17
I was recommended this book by a friend who is Persian. He considers himself Persian because he does not want to be identified as an Iranian due to misperceptions of the people in the United States. He also does not want to be lumped in with being the government that currently exists in Iran.
The book itself is a relatively quick read that can be done in a day or two. But the wealth of information that Kinzer has packed into what I would consider a short book is astounding. He chronicles the history of Iran dating back to the days of Darius and Cyrus albeit briefly. Then eventually focuses on several key events of the late 19th century and moves into the 20th century. The main focus of the book is the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company and their nationalization by Mohammed Mossadegh in the mid-part of the 20th century. This eventually paved the way for the British to coerce the United States Government under Dwight Eisenhower to green light covert ops against Mossaedegh to remove him from his position of Prime Minister of Iran. This led the way for the Shah to assume authoritarian control over the country, which eventually culminated in the 1979 Revolution.
It is an incredibly fascinating story and goes to show how the United States in a sense created their own problem with Iran due to the desire to have oil flowing from the country. They got 26 years worth of it only to create a bigger problem by leading the way inadvertently for the fundamentalist government that is there now. It becomes clear why Harry S. Truman is so greatly appreciated these days due to his ability to make decisions that were and would have been better for the long term. He opposed any US action against Iran. If only that advice had been followed, who knows what might have been in the Middle East.
For those wanting to know why the current regime in Iran supports terrorist groups and is so vehemently anti-Western? This is the book to read. It does an excellent job of explaining why and how we got to the this point we are at currently.
Imagine that Iran would try to dictate the US at which prices and to whom they can only sell their products and own resources..........2007-07-14
This book shows the kind of info that is not found, as usual, in the mainstream media. It shows you how the US along with other countries like the UK have tried to control the oil resources of a sovereign third country like Iran. They have used any tool for achieving their goals, even the coup de etat. At the beggining of the history, through the middle ages and until the discovery of America the main excuse for conquering and destroying countries and for genocide was the religion, like happended with the religion wars in Central Europe, in America with the Spanish Catholic Kings and with the English purintans, in France with the hugonots... Then it was the liberty, equality, etc, like with the wars of Napoleon or with Russia and the poor republics that suffered its influece after the war of the October's Revolution. Then it came the race with Hitler. And nowadays the excuse is the democracy. But, always, it is just an excuse that hides the real motivation: economic interest. Nowadays the Western countries while keeping their own population uninformed and sort of drugged with the everyday work and consumption needs, try to convince them to go to war with the excuse that the objective is to spread liberty and democracy. They do this at the same time that they incentivate and protect dictatorships and antidemocratic regimens like they do in most of the Arab countries (there is/were such regimens not only in Iraq or Iran, by the way, just look at the bunch of allies of the US and the UK in the Persian Gulf like Oman, Dubai, Soudern Arabia, Kuwait, Katar, etc.. where the lack of freedom of speach or of democracy does not take the American politicians to go these countries to give them the present of democracy by the force of war). This book is an example of the whole lie, cinism and hypocrisy that the international foreign Wester policies are about. Like alwasy, it is not about virtues but only about money and geostrategical control. For this according the report of the worldwide reputed medicine magazine The Lancet, and published by the American University of John Hopkins, about 660.000 Iraqi people have been killed in Iraq by the middle of the last year, most of them by artillery and air strikes by false called "coalition" forces. For this reason the puppet government of Iraq has announce at the beginning of this year that they will not disclosure more figures of deaths caused by the war. Obviusly the occupants are frighteened by the fact that today, one year after that report, we may have reached already one million deaths, something that if the people of the US and of the UK would be well informed and aware of it they would jump to the streets to stop their goverments spreading the democracy in Iraq. A democratic country of dead people with the second largest oil reserves of the world, a very easy country to control. Whoever that can not understand that it is not democracy or liberty should find the information that is there and that is not provided normaly by the mainstream media. I recommend everybody to read the book of John Perkins, Confessions of an Economic Hitmank, to understand what it is going on behind the nice words of our politicians.
seeConfessions of an Economic Hit Man
Amazon.com
After the terrorist attacks of September 11, many Americans yearned to understand why Muslim extremists felt such passionate animosity toward the Western world, particularly the United States. Since that historic attack there have been many books and discussions about this very question, but few of them offer such a readable and relevant response as this excellent offering by renowned historian Bernard Lewis (What Went Wrong?). For modern Westerners, Islam is an especially foreign religion and culture to understand. For instance, Westerners typically dismiss things as unimportant when using the expression "that's history." But for those raised in Muslim households, history—even ancient history—is just as important (if not more important) as the present. And to better understand the hostilities rooted in this history—one could start with recognizing the long-standing resentment the Islamic community harbors from having its homelands torn apart and re-packaged into random political states by occupying Europeans (Westerners). Or stretch back in time to the brutality of the Crusades. Or go straight to the U.S. political meddling in the region throughout the latter 20th century. This is not a pity fest for Muslims. Lewis even-handedly explores the sources of Islamic antagonism toward the West while also explaining how a supposedly peace-worshipping religion could be so distorted by violent extremism. He notes that the American way of life—especially that of fulfillment through material gain and sexual freedom—is a direct threat to Islamic values (which is why night clubs—places where men and women publicly touch one another—are targets of bombings). But it is basic Western democracy that especially threatens Islamic extremists, notes Lewis, because within its own community more and more Muslims are coming to value the freedom that political democracy allows. For anyone wanting an intelligent and accessible primer on the Islamic-Western conflict, this is an excellent place to begin. Gail Hudson
Book Description
In his first book since
What Went Wrong? Bernard Lewis examines the historical roots of the resentments that dominate the Islamic world today and that are increasingly being expressed in acts of terrorism. He looks at the theological origins of political Islam and takes us through the rise of militant Islam in Iran, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia, examining the impact of radical Wahhabi proselytizing, and Saudi oil money, on the rest of the Islamic world.
The Crisis of Islam ranges widely through thirteen centuries of history, but in particular it charts the key events of the twentieth century leading up to the violent confrontations of today: the creation of the state of Israel, the Cold War, the Iranian Revolution, the Soviet defeat in Afghanistan, the Gulf War, and the September 11th attacks on the United States.
While hostility toward the West has a long and varied history in the lands of Islam, its current concentration on America is new. So too is the cult of the suicide bomber. Brilliantly disentangling the crosscurrents of Middle Eastern history from the rhetoric of its manipulators, Bernard Lewis helps us understand the reasons for the increasingly dogmatic rejection of modernity by many in the Muslim world in favor of a return to a sacred past. Based on his George Polk Award–winning article for The New Yorker,
The Crisis of Islam is essential reading for anyone who wants to know what Usama bin Ladin represents and why his murderous message resonates so widely in the Islamic world.
Customer Reviews:
Crisis of Islam? What Crisis? .......2007-09-28
Sophmoric reasoning, innuendo, and misleading "facts" characterize "The Crisis of Islam" by Bernard Lewis, the US's best known scholar of the Middle East.
The first 60-70 pages of this brief book are a relatively dispassionate examination of why the Muslims are different from Christians. There are insights here worthy of attention -- although hardly original or brilliantly insightful. But the last 100 pages take on the character of a gradually building diatribe against the Islamic countries.
To give just one example of Lewis's misleading the reader, he characterizes the statistics about economic progress and quality of life in the Islamic countries as "devastating" (page 114). He reels off several pages of statistics to prove his point. Let's take just one set of figures and apply a degree of objectivity to it. The most widely accepted comparison among countries of quality of life is the "human development index" of the UN. Lewis portrays it as a "dismal picture" that Muslim countries do not rank higher. Brunei ranks 32, Kuwait 36, Bahrain 40, Libya 66, etc. But how bad are those rankings? Well, better than India, China, and Brazil -- which are often cited as the coming super-powers. And better than Russia, and better than more than 100 other countries in Africa, Latin America, and Asia. (The Human Development Index rates 177 countries in its latest version. The US ranks 8.)
Lewis insinuates that all the Middle Eastern Muslim countries rank near the bottom in terms of industry, education, life expectancy, and other quality of life indicators. That's plain wrong. A careful and objective scholar would have evaluated the statistics with more fairness. The Middle Eastern ountries as a group might be better described as "middling" or even "above average" in quality of life compared to the hundreds of millions of destitute poor in economic "powerhouses" like India and China or in truly poor countries in Africa.
Not that the Middle Eastern countries don't have problems. An unbiased scholar would note that they lag behind the West and several Asian countries in social and economic development. He might have a defensible case if he called their progress in the last 50 years "disappointing" compared to, say, South Korea. But for Lewis to throw all -- or even a majority of -- Middle Eastern countries into a pot of despair, poverty, backwardness, and evil is silly, wrong, and misleading. He's describing the half-empty glass, without giving the other side, the half-full glass. Fifty years ago Dubai was a flyspeck. Today, it's vying with Malaysia, another Muslim country, to construct the world's tallest building and buying chunks of the NASDAQ and the LSE.
Scholars of the Middle East like to talk about the Arab "street." If such a "street" exists, Lewis hasn't found it. Unfortunately, he has been influential over the decades in building up a body of biased scholarship.
Smallchief
Great Book.......2007-05-18
Does a great job explaining the Middle East SNAFU, unlike any News Media channel!
Bernard Lewis is a Right-Wing Neo-Con sellout, but he knows a lot:.......2007-05-07
Whether you lean on the right or left side of the paradigm is your own personal business, but I have to say after reading this book. I can now say without a doubt that I have a better grasp of the issues that engulf the Middle East. Bernard Lewis is a historian with impeccable credentials. In the book Lewis takes you through Middle Eastern history and explains the politics that metastasized from it. You won't believe that a 169-page book could pack so much information.
I'm not going to give away too much info, but I have to remind you to be circumspect when reading this book his opinions are in favor of the Zionist.
In chapter 3 of the book Lewis writes about the capture of Jerusalem by the Crusaders in 1099 AD. To get the other side of the story I recommend "Arab Historians of the Crusades" translated by Francesco Gabrieli.
Moreover, chapter 3 then takes you through the second Turkish siege of Vienna, in 1683, which was a defeat for the Ottoman Turks, and by 1914 Germany allied themselves with the Muslim element in the British, French and Russian empires, which paid off in 1933 when the Mufti of Jerusalem allied himself with the Nazis.
In chapter 4 Lewis writes about the early encounters between the Muslim world and America. He ends chapter 4 in 2002. Only a scholar like Lewis could meticulously cram so much info in such a little book.
This was a great book, but don't believe everything in it. For example, Al'Qaeda doesn't really exist, and Osama bin Laden is really working for the CIA. Lewis will never divulge that information because of what side of the fence he dwells on. So if you want the complete story I recommend "The Terror Conspiracy" by Jim Marrs.
Even still, Bernard Lewis like Noam Chomsky is required reading.
The threat from Muslim extemists in a nutshell.......2007-05-06
If you don't have time to read hefty books about Islam then this 164 page book is perfect. Only an expert like Bernard Lewis would know how to boil such a complicated subject down to the essentials.
Understanding Islam.......2007-04-03
I am enrolled in an Air Force program that required reading three books off of the Chief of Staff Reading List. I chose this book to try and help me understand the Middle East and it has. It has raised more questions for me than answers, which is a mark of a good book to me. I spend time thinking about it after I've read a chapter and I can't say all books stick with me like that. It is an easy read and helps someone not familiary with the Middle East to understand the way they think and where their animosity towards the West comes from. Very interesting and thought provoking read, I would suggest it.
Amazon.com
King Leopold of Belgium, writes historian Adam Hochschild in this grim history, did not much care for his native land or his subjects, all of which he dismissed as "small country, small people." Even so, he searched the globe to find a colony for Belgium, frantic that the scramble of other European powers for overseas dominions in Africa and Asia would leave nothing for himself or his people. When he eventually found a suitable location in what would become the Belgian Congo, later known as Zaire and now simply as Congo, Leopold set about establishing a rule of terror that would culminate in the deaths of 4 to 8 million indigenous people, "a death toll," Hochschild writes, "of Holocaust dimensions." Those who survived went to work mining ore or harvesting rubber, yielding a fortune for the Belgian king, who salted away billions of dollars in hidden bank accounts throughout the world. Hochschild's fine book of historical inquiry, which draws heavily on eyewitness accounts of the colonialists' savagery, brings this little-studied episode in European and African history into new light. --Gregory McNamee
Book Description
In the 1880s, as the European powers were carving up Africa, King Leopold II of Belgium seized for himself the vast and mostly unexplored territory surrounding the Congo River. Carrying out a genocidal plundering of the Congo, he looted its rubber, brutalized its people, and ultimately slashed its population by ten million--all the while shrewdly cultivating his reputation as a great humanitarian. Heroic efforts to expose these crimes eventually led to the first great human rights movement of the twentieth century, in which everyone from Mark Twain to the Archbishop of Canterbury participated. King Leopold's Ghost is the haunting account of a megalomaniac of monstrous proportions, a man as cunning, charming, and cruel as any of the great Shakespearean villains. It is also the deeply moving portrait of those who fought Leopold: a brave handful of missionaries, travelers, and young idealists who went to Africa for work or adventure and unexpectedly found themselves witnesses to a holocaust. Adam Hochschild brings this largely untold story alive with the wit and skill of a Barbara Tuchman. Like her, he knows that history often provides a far richer cast of characters than any novelist could invent. Chief among them is Edmund Morel, a young British shipping agent who went on to lead the international crusade against Leopold. Another hero of this tale, the Irish patriot Roger Casement, ended his life on a London gallows. Two courageous black Americans, George Washington Williams and William Sheppard, risked much to bring evidence of the Congo atrocities to the outside world. Sailing into the middle of the story was a young Congo River steamboat officer named Joseph Conrad. And looming above them all, the duplicitous billionaire King Leopold II. With great power and compassion, King Leopold's Ghost will brand the tragedy of the Congo--too long forgotten--onto the conscience of the West.
Customer Reviews:
The other side of the White Man's Burden.......2007-10-15
Not since Joseph Conrad's "The Heart of Darkness" have we seen the cold-blooded truth about the cold-blooded atrocities that were all too commonplace during the era of "the white man's colonization of Africa." Here "the art of despotism Western style" was perfected and perhaps reached its apotheosis through the evil but almost Teutonically calculated machinations of a petty and vile King of Belgium.
Examined from inside the hermitically sealed inner chamber of horrors of a forgotten and almost unrecorded, and still seldom acknowledged 20th Century holocaust, the author lays bare -- atrocity-by-ugly-atrocity -- the moral and humanitarian horrors of the subjugation of the "Belgian Congo." It is a crime of such monumental proportions that it will forever stain the character of the entire Belgian people.
Yet, despite the fact that these horrors, in almost every respect rivaled the European holocaust committed against Jews and other "so called undesirables," until this volume, the atrocities of the Belgium Congo had remained a carefully ignored and much repressed - if not subtly rationalized and protected part of Western history.
Just as Hitler disguised the last train ride to Auschwitz as a vacation to an idyllic labor camp, so too did Leopold's henchmen -- which, as usual, included a sizable contingent of the Christian clergy - also disguised their perfidy under the cloak of "civilizing the barbaric Africans." If it does nothing else, this book finally reveals who the real savages of Africa were.
Adam Hochschild shakes the moral conscience in more than just one way: The key subtext of his book is that there is no final justice in this world. The strong, the greedy and the powerful continue to murder and otherwise ravage the earth with impunity; and then as King Leopold II did, they rewrite history to cover their crimes. Overtime, even those who know the truth are unable to come to grips with what they know and with what they have seen. In order to retain a modicum of their conscience intact, they learn that it is much healthier to pretend to forget. Otherwise, how else can they sit idly by and watch the dead rest peacefully, when the unremitting Christian-backed moral hell on earth continue to rage unabated above their heads?
The other subtext is equally chilling: This revelation gives a whole new meaning to Rudyard Kipling's poem, or William Easterly's book of the same name: "The White Man's Burden." It is that the white man's greed and crimes over the past half millennium -- in the Americas, against all of Africa and most of Asia - under the guise of doing good for the less civilized -- has bequeath to us all a moral "scorched earth." All of humanity has been compromised and greatly diminished by the white man's rampant quest for his version of civilization and progress.
Now, in the aftermath of the bloodiest century in history, it is not too much of an exaggeration to suggest that the white man's greed and immorality normalized under the guise of doing good for the less civilized has itself become a kind of global moral savagery that is now a burden for all the world.
Five Stars
the heart of man is desperately wicked.......2007-09-25
If you have somehow achieved sufficient literacy to read user reviews on Amazon, and still believe that people are basically good, now's your chance to read a book that will relieve you of this misconception. King Leopold's Ghost gives historical proof that there is no problem in recruiting enough people to torture, humiliate, and kill perfectly innocent Africans by the millions.
All I can say is thank God for the press and for Christian missionaries. If it hadn't been for those two institutions, the horror in Africa perpetrated by the Belgian king would have continued unabated until all of the land drained by the Congo river was stripped of all human inhabitants.
Ashes from the White Sepulcher .......2007-08-16
A masterful work. Hochschild outlines an entire world duped by charms and charming sentiments. Millions perished while Leopold gains wealth untold. Maiming, murder, mayhem and the crooked world of Presidents, Kings and Congresses. Leopold mastery of the world stage lasted decades. Long term lessons on how governments manage what is perceived to be the gospel truth. Hochschild deserves high recognition for this introduction into the world of tycoons and titans plundering a nation in the name of Christianity. Hochschild's assessment of current Zaire affairs are disturbing. Cobalt, uranium and a host of lesser necessities available to the of best armed encampments from the native riches of this African country. The plunder continues
The True Story Behind Heart of Darkness.......2007-07-14
In the annals of atrocities committed by human beings against ourselves, the historic and ongoing mistreatment of Africa by the Industrialized World takes the (highly dubious) prize. While an extremely generous revision of history might forgive the arrogance and naivety of the colonial powers for believing that clothing, Christianity, modern weapons and free markets would be enough to make Africa like Europe, King Leopold II of Belgium seems to stand out ahead of the pack. King Leopold's Ghost by Adam Hochschild, in one respect, is a depressing narrative about how MILLIONS of Africans were "civilized" by trading their lives and liberty to grow Leopold's personal fortune. But it is also an inspiring story about how a few people, through their passion for the inalienable rights endowed to all people, shook Europe and America awake and their efforts to bring about real change in the Congo.
Hochschild, as he explains in his preface, first became aware of the crimes against humanity instigated by King Leopold by accident. A quote from Mark Twain (active in the Congo Movement during the decades around the turn of the 20th century) about the 8-10 million people that were helped to their graves by Leopold's regime in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Such a tragically huge tally is striking, and it inspired Hochschild to find out as much as he could. King Leopold's Ghost begins with a whirlwind synopsis of the first 400 years of European imposition upon Central Africa -- the Portuguese, Afoso, Prester John, the Colonial Era. The pace slows once Henry M. Stanley and Leopold enter the picture.
The lives of Stanley and Leopold, the two major do-ers in the tale of the subjugation of the Congo, are discussed in detail. Stanley, the explorer, ended up on Leopold's payroll because he really didn't have much else to do. His explorations down the Congo, though courageous and admired, did not raise the kind of interest he though it should in the Foreign Office of his native Britain. Stanley became available for employment just as Leopold's machinations and Machiavellian dealings were justifying (among his fellow monarchs) his desire to take over control of the Congo. Of course, according to Leopold, this was all just so that he could lift up the poor Africans and encourage free trade. Leopold, who never actually visited his kingdom in Africa, needed a surrogate in-country to clear the bush and establish trading stations. Stanley was his man.
Once trading stations were established in the Congo, Europeans came to trade. At first, the primary object of plunder was ivory, but then, with the advent of bicycles (and later automobiles) with inflatable tires, wild rubber became the main export. And so began the "Rubber Terror," where the people of the Congo were forced upon pain and death to harvest the latex. The result, as described by Hochschild, was unbelievable savagery on the part of the civilized world.
Fortunately for the world, the tale of the subjugation of the congo has some undo-ers as well, foremost among them E.D. Morel. The Congo Reform Movement had a worldwide following that made Leopold miserable. Unfortunately for the cause of justice, Leopold died and the Congo Free State (as it was then known) was merely transferred to Belgium -- Leopold was never punished for his crimes against humanity. In 1960, with the rising tide of anti-colonialism beginning to wax all over Africa, Belgium handed power over to the Congolese to rule themselves and try to pull a reasonable government of the people from the humid air. That has not faired particularly well either.
Adam Hochschild's book is well written and engaging. He made a valiant effort to find the words of actual Africans describing their plight during their struggle -- rather than just the victors, or, at best, some sympathetic compatriots of the victors. The paperback edition comes with an extended afterward where the author describes some of the consequences of bringing this too long forgotten take to the forefront again.
Detailed Readable History.......2007-07-05
Positives:
Detailed, readable history about Belgium's Scramble for Africa in the Congo. Hochschild does an excellent job of introducing key figures who aid King Leopold in getting 'his colony' in Africa as well as those who fought against the Belgian King's enslavement of the Congolese people. In addition, Hochschild intersperses the general experience of the colonizers and the Congolese with personal stories from sadistic colonizers, missionaries, the King's lobbyists, and most critically, some of the 10 million people devastated by King Leopold II's obsession.
Negatives:
Hochschild often distracts from the history he is so effectively telling through tangential introductions of more contemporary history and through personal analysis of historical events being presented. His personal analysis interrupts the pace of the history being told, and causes suspiscion about how the author chose to use the facts he researched.
Book Description
Beginning with the chaotic post–World War I landscape in which religious belief was one way of reordering a world knocked off its axis, Sacred Causes is a penetrating critique of how religion has often been camouflaged by politics. All the bloody regimes and movements of the 20th century are masterfully captured here, from Stalin's Soviet Union, Hitler's Germany, Mussolini's Italy, and Franco's Spain to the war on terror. With style and sophistication, Michael Burleigh shows how the churches, in their various guises, have been swayed by–and contributed to–conflicting secular currents. Sacred Causes brilliantly exposes the way in which fears of socialist movements tempered the churches' response to the threat of totalitarian regimes.
Burleigh combines an authoritative survey of history with a timely reminder of the dangers of radical secularism. He asks why no one foresaw the religious implications of massive Third World immigration. And he deftly investigates what is now driving calls for a civic religion to counter the terrorist threats that have so shocked the West.
Customer Reviews:
Far too difficult to read.......2007-08-16
This book is stupidly difficult to read, and it was obviously written by a scholar, for other scholars. I'm not an unintelligent person by any means, but I can't understand half of what the author is saying.
Here are a few sentences from the book:
"As this carol indicates, the carnivalesque, allegedley playful aspects of Bolshevik cultural utopias had an intolerant, sinister aspect that was as inherent in the socialist project as the coercion and repression that were coeval with the regime, and integral to its revolutionary iconoclasm and Manichean, Red-and-White worldview. To detach utopian dreams from terror or to regard them as a colourful 'if-only' before the onset of Stalin's grey 'Thermidor' is to indulge in vicarious utopianism from the safety of the modern Western campus. Bolshevik utopianism, it has been argued, oscillated between an innate and pervasive peasant desire for dignity, equality, and justice and attempts to create militarised oases of order that tantalised aristocrats infatuated with ninteenth-century Prussia."
Now, can anyone explain what the hell that meant?
The entire book is written like this. Skip it.
The Uses of Religion.......2007-06-09
Secularists and progressives have long believed that religion was in a state of terminal decline. Religion, which they view as a dangerous form of ignorance, was steadily being displaced by the ever-expanding domain of reason and scientific knowledge. In the last quarter of a century scientific knowledge has grown faster than ever before; one would have expected religion to decline proportionally. On the contrary, the opposite has happened: Religion and its agitated by-product, religious fundamentalism, are gaining ground everywhere.
This is the second of a two-volume work by historian Michael Burleigh. In the first volume "Earthly Powers," he showed how secular ideologies from the Jacobins of the French Revolution to the anarchists of the Russian Revolution were influenced by and made use of religion. Religion - Christianity in particular - furnished the myths by which people mobilized and redeemed themselves in the secular sphere. As Burleigh points out in his first volume, he owes much of this insight on political religion to the work of Eric Voeglin.
In "Sacred Causes" Burleigh traces political religions from the interwar period to the present Islamic fundamentalism. Nazism and Communism were classic examples of political religions; they were messianic movements that offered redemption in an earthly manner. Both movements attempted to displace religion. In the interwar period religion became a symbol of a discredited past. People looked to science and militant nationalism to deliver them from the depths of the economic depression. In this atmosphere of seige the church was forced to make accommodations to the secular powers, at least in Germany. In the Soviet Union, the property of the church was confiscated by the state altogether.
Burleigh spends a great deal of time in this volume defending the actions of the Catholic Church against charges that it had some complicity in the crimes of the Nazis. He comes to the defense of Pope Pius XII. He praises the pope and the church for quietly keeping the church's message alive during those dark times. Critics, however, have much evidence to the contrary: the most notable example being the pro-Nazi Catholic regime in Serbia responsible for the murder of 350,000 Serbs and 30,000 Jews. Burleigh counters with many instances of the Catholic Church aiding Jews during the holocaust. But does this absolve the church of a long history of anti-Semitism going back to the Middle Ages? I think Burleigh is unconvincing here. If the Catholic Church was the force of good that he claims it would have done more to stop the mass murder.
Burleigh also has many grievances. One of the many objects of his scorn is Islam, and the disconcerting fact that mosques are popping up all over Europe. He thinks Tariq Ramadan is an apologist for al-Qaeda. His take is more than a little unbalanced. He fails to note that Islam, like Christianity, is made up of many different strains. Both have their moderates and their fundamentalists. Burleigh himself faces the danger, in this volume, of falling into the latter category.
What was the 20th century all about?.......2007-06-08
Burleigh argues, in this rich, meaty book, that the 20th century was all about the clash between religion and the state.
The 20th century opened with a set of swaggering new philosophies that were going to create a heaven on earth. Nietzche, before he descended into gibbering madness, declared that "God was dead". He expected a New Man, freed of the old, niggling 10 commandments, to lead humanity to a bright new future. What the world got was Hitler and death camps.
Then there was fascism, led by Mussolini, whose first book was, "God Does Not Exist".
And then there was communism, most potent of all, which slaughtered some 100 million people while trying to create heaven on earth. The late Pope John Paul, who lived under both the Nazis and the communists, called the 20th century "a pile of bodies".
In this sweeping, beautifully written book, Burleigh performs like a magician, always pulling out just the right, telling anecdote.
In the early part of the century, violence against the clergy peaked. In Spain during the civil war, "nearly 7,000 clerics were murdered" (p 132"), while atrocity was piled on atrocity. In Mexico priests were hunted and shot and convents closed.
Yet the most bloodthirsty of all would be communism. The communists used everything they could to fight against religion--threats, persecutions, show trials, mass starvation, and the near total destruction of all religious clergy. "By 1938 eighty bishops had lost their lives, while thousands of clerics were sent to the Solovetsky labour camp set up in a former monastery on an island in the White Sea" (p 47.
What bitter irony, then, that many now believe that it was religion that pulled down the whole grotesque regime. "Although they were subjected to relentless assault from state-sponsored atheism, the Christian Churches remained the only licensed sanctuaries from the prevailing world of brutality and lies" (p 344). Solidarity, Pope John Paul, and Poland brought down communism.
Yet we may well face an even more troubling era. Europe is beset with problems of a very different nature. As its native populations dwindle to nothing a flood of Muslim immigrants is taking over Amsterdam, Paris and London. What was once a vital continent filled with a vibrant Christianity is now dying. Authors such as Dawkins assault the very idea of religion while immigrants swarm into the country. Statistics show a vast numbers of these new Europeans want, not to do away with religion as Dawkins suggests, but to impose Sharia law.
Uneven and Misleading.......2007-03-18
Sacred Causes is the second book of 2 devoted to the conflict of religion and politics in recent European history. The first volume, Earthly Powers, was devoted to the 19th century and this one covers the 20th century. The quality of both books is uneven. This is a huge topic and Burleigh has not attempted the difficult job of a systematic analysis or structural overview. Like Earthly Powers, Sacred Causes is essentially a series of chronically arranged essays on aspects of the central topic. This approach served Burleigh well in some of his other work, notably his excellent book, The Third Reich, where he could incorporate a continuous narrative as a unifying armature for his essays. In both Sacred Causes and Earthly Powers, there is only a general theme and the quality of the essays/chapters varies significantly. Some are very good, some indifferent, some actually poor.
The best parts of Sacred Causes are the opening chapters in which Burleigh discusses the great, and greatly destructive, `political religions' of the 20th century. These are Marxism-Leninism and Fascism. As Burleigh is quick to point out, the description of these ideologies as `political religions' is not novel. This concept originated decades ago and has been used by quite a number of scholars, not least Burleigh in his fine work on the Nazi state. The political religion idea describes these secular ideologies as having the structural features of a religion with promises of individual and communal salvation, rescue from conditions of social degeneration, charismatic-prophetic leadership, and a strongly millennial flavor. Burleigh's analyses of these features of Nazism, Communism, and Italian Fascism are vivid and very well done. He has particularly nice descriptions of the efforts of the states adopting these ideologies to develop explicit ceremonial and public experiences aimed at displacing the rituals and experiences of genuine religion.
Burleigh follows with a considerably less successful effort to describe the responses of European churches to the challenge of political religions. This simply is too large a topic to be dealt with appropriately in the space allowed in the book. He concentrates primarily on the Catholic Church, and even more narrowly on the Vatican. Burleigh takes pains to present the Catholic Church as a foe of the emerging totalitarian regimes of the interwar period. While this is true in several important ways, it is also misleading in other, equally important senses. It is clear from Burleigh's text that true to its 19th century heritage, the Catholic Church in many European countries was no friend of liberal democracy. His account shows clearly the preference of the hierarchy of many countries and of the Vatican for traditionally oriented, authoritarian states. Burleigh attempts to gloss this over by describing the Church as having a choice between totalitarianism and weak democracy, but this obscures the negative role played by the Catholic Church in some of the weaker democracies of Europe. His own account of the Partito Popolare Italiano, the ancestor of the Italian Christian Democratic Party, shows that the Vatican preferred accommodation with Mussolini to bolstering the foundations of democracy in interwar Italy. Burleigh never discusses the changing role of the important German Catholic Center party in Weimar Germany. Under the leadership of Ludwig Kaas, a priest close to the German hierarchy and the Vatican, the Center Party ceased to be a pillar of democracy and Kaas led the Center Party into accommodation with the Nazis. Burleigh has a particularly one-sided discussion of that historiographic lightning rod, the Spanish Civil War, where his commentary will probably satisfy the most dogmatic defenders of General Franco.
There is a concerted effort to defend the wartime behavior of Pope Pius XII. Burleigh does well in defending Pius XII against charges of antisemitism and indifference to the fate of the Jews. Burleigh does less well in defending Pius against the most serious charge against the Pope; that Pius failed to exercise the moral leadership expected of the Vicar of Christ. Pius spent his career in the Vatican diplomatic service before ascending the Papal throne. At a time that required prophetic moral leadership, he was a cautious diplomat.
The remainder of the book is devoted to a series of chapters of varying interest and quality. There are very good descriptions of the post-WWII assaults on the churches of Eastern Europe. Other chapters describing the secularization of Europe in the 1960s, the role of churches in the end of the Cold War, the persistent problem of Northern Ireland, and the recent 9/11 tragedy are not so good. A lot of this discussion, for example, the denunciation of cultural changes in the 1960s, and the hagiographic treatment of the roles of Reagan, Thatcher, and John Paul II in the end of the Cold War, is trite and inaccurate. The chapter on Northern Ireland is a rhetorically interesting combination of attention to detail and tendentious sarcasm that veers into actual bigotry. Burleigh has an unfortunate tendency for nasty and irrelevant asides that disfigures many sections.
This book also has signs of being written hastily. Parts of the concluding chapter are simply hard to follow and there are a number of careless statements. Does Burleigh really believe that the USA has no social welfare system? There are a surprising number of factual errors throughout the book. Contrary to what Burleigh writes, the Civil War President of the Spanish Republic, Azana, was not a Socialist, Pol Pot was not educated at the Sorbonne, and the US Supreme Court has never banned prayer in US public schools.
All in all, a very disappointing performance.
A Very Good Read.......2007-03-17
A genuinely historical and very well-written account of the conflict between secularism and religion over the past hundred years or so. The former -- whether under the guise of humanism, liberalism, pseudo-conservatism, communism, or Nazism -- has, far more often than not, been the victor in these clashes of culture. But, of course, might doesn't make right (in addition, these victories have been transient, and far more illusory than substantive). No, it is religion that has tended to be on the right, albeit losing, side. There's no doubt, however, that this tradition is being challenged by present-day Islam, which appears to have the upper hand.
While our Muslim brethren are correct in despising a plethora of cultural pathologies, their embrace of indiscriminate and extreme violence is problematic...to say the least! No one who claims to be truly civilized can countenance their vile actions. But it's equally impossible to lend one's support to the egregious and depraved creed that is secular humanism. The solution is rooted in the West's embracing once again, at long last, its foundational Christianity. I'm not holding my breath. Well, it will be interesting to see how it plays out -- interesting, but unpleasant.
Book Description
The complete and accurate story of the Beslan School Siege that occurred in Russia on September 1, 2004. This book tells the untold story about the victims, the soldiers who were there and the history of the events leading up to the tragic incident. But more than just the story, this book highlights the lessons America's school system can learn from the tragedy to protect itself from terrorism.
Customer Reviews:
A must read.......2007-05-30
Quite simply this book is a must read for all Americans. It's time to take the blinders off and face the facts presented.
A very good read .......2007-01-15
I got this book from a friend who takes an interest in how our public school system shapes the future of this country. After reading Terror at Beslan I see a few things that have been left out of the list of recommendations on how to cope with the potential for terrorist acts against our children and against our schools. I wonder why Mr. Giduck did not suggest the one thing that would make it extremely hard for terrorists to take large numbers of our children captive. That thing is to REMOVE THE TARGET. Mr. Giduck makes it clear in his book that one of the reasons that terrorist attack schools is because to them they are high value targets. One of the best ways to avoid an attack on a targe however - is to not make yourself a target in the first place.
The great service that Mr. Giduck has done for parents of school age children - and for people who truly care about the way our children are educated in this country is to point out that - along with the myriad of other problems that our public schools have - is that they are aggregating our children in one place, making them easy targets for terrorists motivated enough to carry out the attack. And again - as Mr. Giduck has pointed out - the terrorists are not stupid. They are smart and highly motivated. I have recently read books and writings by John Taylor Gatto and Vin Suprynowicz, both of whom are highly critical of our public schools ability to properly educate our children to make them good citizens of our republic. Both Mr. Gatto and Mr. Suprynowicz have pointed out that the public school system in this country was not designed to make our children into free-thinking individuals, it was designed to mold our childrens minds so that they all have a common - government influenced - way of looking at the world. Putting children all together in the same place removes them from the influence of their parents to a large degree and makes it easier to control the educational materials they are exposed to - thereby controlling the mindset they acquire as they are educated. The growing home schooling movement in this country is a backlash against this influence.
Now it appears that the aggregation of our children in large groups has one more detrimental affect on them - it makes them easy to acquire targets for terrorists who have no regard whatsoever for their lives.
In order to find a truly sustainable solution to the terrorism problem in regards to our educational system that also respects the freedom that we wish to keep for ourselves in this country - as well as producing an educated citizenry we would do well to think outside the box and consider all of the alternatives - rather than just turning our schools into armed camps with on demand gas delivery systems, comprehensive monitoring systems, and on campus SWAT teams, as Mr. Giduck suggests. For a parent who is trying to decide what to do to protect their own child - think long and hard about sending your child into harm's way in a public school. Given that the choice of schooling you make for your child may some day be a life or death decision, the alternatives of home schooling, small private schools, or group schooling - like we used to have in this country before compulsory public education took over - may literally be the difference between life and death for your child. And your child may get a better education in the bargain.
I would highly recommend this book by Mr. Giduck, he has done all concerned American citizens a great service. I would however also recommend "Send in the Waco Killers" by Vin Suprynowicz, and "Underground History of American Education" by John Taylor Gatto. Read all three and you will come away with an entirely different perspective on this problem than you may have had before.
Book Review.......2007-01-01
I had attended a half day seminar by the author and bought a copy of the book there. After reading it I have purchased several more copies (for teacher friends and my Chief). If you're interested in this particular incident you'll probably not find any more definative material. Good read. If you get the opportunity to attend the author's seminars, do so! Well worth it.
Sgt. J. Chavalia
Lima, Ohio Police Department
No sensationalism - just the real dramatic truth about our enemies.......2006-10-31
John Giduck does an excellent job of setting the stage for, presenting the facts of, and discussing the implications of one of the most horrendous Islamist terrorists attacks of all time.
In addition, this is one of the few books on Islamists terrorism that doesn't try to sugar-coat the current world wide conflict. The tens of millions of terrorist Muslims that are determined (even to death) to kill, destroy, or violently oppress any non-muslim in the world is a cold hard fact.
We in America have tried to live in a dream and have ignored not only the distant past going all the way back to Mohammed but even the recent past where 99.9% of all the violent terrorists acts in the world have been committed by the Islamist Terrorists. This isn't a few dozen but it is hundreds and hundreds of violent deadly acts with no purpose other than to kill, maim, and oppress the non-,muslim world.
Thanks John for sharing the inside information and insight into how every American can not only wake up but also take action to prepare for the violent acts that are sure to come.
Parents & law enforcement must read this book.......2006-09-06
Terror at Beslan by John Giduck is an absolute must read by anyone who has a child in school and by anyone who is in law enforcement that may need to respond to such an incident. This book is heart wrenching and difficult to read but this must not prevent you from gaining the needed knowledge that this book provides.
I recently attended a training by John Giduck on the Beslan school seige. After attending this training it is apparent that tough questions must be asked and the answers are not easy. For example:
- As a parent do you know what your child's school safety plan is?
- As a law enforcement officer are you willing to shoot a child that is being held as a human shield while the hostage taking terrorist is pointing a gun at you?
We live in a world where terrorists target the weak: children, women, elderly, etc. Law enforcement must be able to respond appropriately. America is a society where if one child is killed in such a seize the public views the police response as a failure. The media will have a feeding frenzy. The reality is that the terrorists will hold children as human shields. This is a difficult and terrible situation to be in as a first responder. We are no longer afforded the opportunity of hoping for the best as we stick our head in the sand. Law enforcement must address this issue now and have clear direction by the highest levels of administration on what an acceptable response will be when this incident happens in the U.S.
Terrorism is about fear. A Beslan type seize is very possible, maybe even probable, in America. Law enforcement must be able to do their jobs, an extremely difficult job, without the fear of civil litigation. It is time to face reality for what it is and pull our heads out of the sand.
As the saying goes: Proper planning prevents poor performance.
Product Description
The thesis of Webster Tarpley's 911 Synthetic Terror: Made in USA has been enthusiastically received with its working model of the 9/11 plot: a covert network of moles, patsies, and a commando cell in the privatized intelligence services, backed by corrupt political and corporate media elites. Buttressed by historical examples like the Baader-Meinhof Gang and the Gunpowder Plot, this model makes it clear how such a monstrous false-flag or self-terror exploit is possible even under a largely benign government. That paradox is the incredibility gap that has made most Americans reject the evidence about 9/11 as paranoid fantasy. Tarpley brings decades of expertise to the 9/11 issue. In 1978 he exposed the terrorist Red Brigades as patsies of Italy's fascist P2 shadow government, and 9/11 is on the same pattern. The forthright subtitle, Made in USA, is backed up by an analysis of key figures who behave like moles working for the insidious network. 9/11 Synthetic Terror highlights the salient points of sheer physical impossibility of the official 9/11 conspiracy theory. It makes clear that figures like Osama bin Laden are patsies, dupes or double agents, selected for their ethnic coloring as the basis for launching a "Clash of Civilizations," and how absurd it is to imagine that such tools of US intelligence agencies could turn around and infiltrate or overwhelm US defenses unaided. Tarpley shows that the wars on the Islamic world, the Soviet-Afghan, Kosovo and Chechen conflicts, as well as US-UK-NATO synthetic terror incidents like 9/11, Beslan or 3/11 in Madrid, have been contrived to continue the Cold War, in pursuit of the centuries-long campaign for Anglo hegemony over Eurasia and the world. The preface to the second edition explains the significance and superiority of "MIHOP" vs "LIHOP," and the many drills on 9/11 and on 7/7, which were cover and conduit for those false-flag operations. The third edition preface makes clear that 9/11 is the only issue that can stop a new world war and the descent into a police state. It shows up the cowardice of the "left gatekeepers" on this score. The analysis of Moussaoui on trial as a classic weak-minded patsy -- part double agent, part fanatic -- again shows the unique power of Tarpley's mole-patsy model to debunk the lies put out by the war party. For a principled refutation of the 9/11 propaganda myth in all its parts, Tarpley'A bombshell, brilliant book - I strongly recommend 911 Synthetic Terror. Should be required reading for all honest truth seekers, s work is indispensable.
Customer Reviews:
An insult.......2007-10-15
to intelligence and to the memory of the 3000 innocent victims felled by Islamist fanaticism
Tour De Force !.......2007-08-05
This book is packed with information which probably means that if you are a beginning truth seeker, you would want to start out with something such as David Ray Griffins books as they are a little easier to read.
Think for yourself, and QUESTION!.......2007-07-09
I heard this guy speak. He gives a moderately entertaining romp through a lot of true information, and more. 95% of what he says is plausible (if questionable). Perhaps 50% of what I heard, I know to be true. But plenty of his stuff is a shotgun blast of information which only SEEMS convincing by its voluminousness, but in fact has no evidence. Take his (and Tex Marrs') claim about "angel is next". This refers to a threat supposedly delivered to Bush by moles in his staff, entailing a threat on air force 1, and nuclear war by compromised launch codes on 9/11. He gives a whole rapt story, with twists and turns and lots of insider details. It's not totally impossible, and could make fine fiction, but has no evidence whatsoever.
There's too much crucial, true, and verifiable information out there to waste your time on this in-depth far-out fantasy garbage. I wouldn't trust this man to give me a weather report.
The search for Truth is one step at a time.......2007-07-09
I love to devour books. I leave my local library with no less than two or three volumes after each visit. Sometimes I wonder if I ever race through literature too quickly. Occasionally a book crops up that can be sifted through within a few hours, depending on its type, although I always try to keep pages of notes on hand if I misplace or forget key facts or points. Webster Tarpley's "9/11 Synthetic Terror: Made in USA" is not one of those books. Quite the contrary, I recommend this book to be studied ponderously, pored over hours at a time, critically dissected and examined, not to mention cross-referenced by numerous other sources, whether they be unauthorized or obscure. Supposedly, we live in the "Information Age", yet the most unverifiable of claims and propositions confuse and sway more efficiently than ever before, and the populace hardly diligently deciphers what is true. Partisan politics, not to mention rigid principles ("liberal" and "conservative") can dampen even the freshest and inquisitive of minds. That kind of reader will not enjoy Tarpley's book.
I personally do not subscribe to any one conspiracy theory, precisely because there are so many, and thus hundreds that follow sweeping conclusions based on the stretching of facts, outright absurdness, and lack of relevant evidence. I, however, cannot outright dismiss the conspiratorial views regarding the tragic day of September 11 because I so often come across pertinent points. The groups propagating such theories ask the correct questions most of the time, whether or not they embrace the correct conclusion. Rather, I believe piecing together the facts from a variety of authors and sources into a sound theoretical framework appears to be the only way to acquire the truth behind the 9/11 attacks that is free from dogma or ideology (although many of these authors and sources do just that).
What the book's author does is exactly this: combing the external facts, the puzzling discrepancies, historical evidences, public testimony, important documents, etc. and constructing each part into a plausible theoretical framework. From what I conducted during other research, I think Tarpley's essential thesis is correct. It is that the U.S. government secretly holds an elite oligarchy, or a "network or faction of like-minded plotters which cuts across the institutions transversally" (pg. 104). They hold influential positions as a hidden government inside the elected one. The group may not populate just the intelligence agencies, the Pentagon, or the White House, but also the privatized public sector, which acts as its center of gravity. The oligarchy deploys a select amount of "moles", which may not be everywhere, but are nonetheless strategically placed to carry out core objectives. The corporate media participates also, complicit with the magicians directing the show. These core objectives numerously appear throughout the course of history, especially the twentieth century, such as the many attempts to assassinate French president Charles de Gaulle and Operation Northwoods, in which planned attacks on key U.S. targets would justify an invasion of Castro's Cuba.
How does this relate to 9/11? Tarpley himself dismisses the official media story as the ultimate conspiracy theory of them all, and unveils these facts:
+ Six of alleged 11 hijackers receive training at U.S. military bases (pg.179)
+ Mohammed Atta: Not a radical Islamist, but a promiscuous playboy and frequent cocaine user hooking up at topless bars and drinking vodka for three hours (pg. 178)
+ Could hijackers fly the planes? Atta and Marwan Al Shehhi had to receive supplemental lessons due to sub-par performance, according to an instructor associated with the Jones Aviation Flying Service (pg. 183)
+ Instructors at Maryland Freeway Airport acknowledged that, despite 600 log hours, Pentagon hijacker Hani Hanjour was incapable of finishing his flight training (pg. 183)
+ The hijackers, instead of choosing direct ways to their targets, flew long detours (pg. 188)
+ Training needed to pilot 757s or 767s required special precision and "super training" not offered at Huffman Aviation, where the Flight 11 and Flight 175 hijackers received lessons (pg. 191)
Although I do not recall whether Tarpley mentioned it in the book or not, but on September 10, 2001, then Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld announced that $2.3 TRILLION could not be accounted for in the Pentagon budget. Obviously, the story vanished the next day. Tarpley also discloses lesser-known factoids of equal importance, including the fact that live fly, NORAD exercises were conducted on 9/11, some that even resembled hijacked airliners (pg. 207). On page 213, Tarpley writes how blips and dummy hijacks occurred, thus confusing loyal air controllers on 9/11. Why, exactly? So government moles could carry out their ordered operations.
There is so much more to this work than I let on in this review. Suffice to say, whatever your political background, this is one of the most important books regarding current events that I ever read. A lot of the information, I admit, made my head swirl, even when I gasped and cringed throughout what I read. At the end of the book, I felt depressed and sorrowful. I expressed pity at the American people, of whom most this book will never find, and how so quickly we abandoned our Founding Fathers' dream of a constitutional republic of a well-informed and hardworking independent people. President Reagan, leaving all conceptions of this book behind about various government officials aside, said, "Trust but verify." We forgot. Will we be forgiven again?
Comprehensive Review of 9/11.......2007-07-08
Tarpley provides a thorough analysis of the 9/11 and how the tragedies could have happened. This book is a must read for those interested in the 9/11 truth issues.
The book goes into great detail about logistics of the attacks. Tarpley shows his experience as a historian and the amount of time he used to research into the issues.
Amazon.com
The war on terror has created near unanimity on many points, at least within the American press and political leadership. One essential point of agreement: al Qaeda specifically and radical Islamism in general are stirred by a hatred of modernity. Or as President George W. Bush has articulated repeatedly, they hate freedom. Nonsense, responds the nameless author of this work and 2003's Through Our Enemies' Eyes (the senior U.S. intelligence official's identity became an open secret by publication date). Indeed, he grimly and methodically discards common wisdom throughout this scathing and compelling take on counterterrorism. Imperial Hubris is not a book that will cheer Americans, regardless of their perspectives on the post-9/11 environment. We are, the author notes, losing the war on terror. Hawks will squirm as the author heaps contempt on U.S. missions in Afghanistan (too little, too late) and Iraq ("a sham causing more instability than it prevents"), but opponents of Bush administration policies may blanch at Anonymous' suggestion that what's needed is for the West to "proceed with relentless, brutal, and, yes, blood-soaked offensive military actions until we have annihilated the Islamists who threaten us." Quoting the at-all-cost likes of William Tecumseh Sherman and Curtis Lemay on one hand and contending that unrelenting military measures be accompanied by concessions to the ideology of the militants on the other are unlikely to curry widespread support from either side of the divide. And how will readers conditioned to references to Osama bin Laden as a deranged gangster or simple-minded fanatic with deep pockets digest the respect accorded "the most popular anti-American leader in the world today"? Imperial Hubris clearly wasn't written to win friends, though the author believes it's essential that his words influence people at the top. Whether it will is debatable, but that this blunt, forceful, urgently argued polemic recharges the discussion is a foregone conclusion. --Steven Stolder
Book Description
Though U.S. leaders try to convince the world of their success in fighting al Qaeda, one anonymous member of the U.S. intelligence community would like to inform the public that we are, in fact, losing the war on terror. Further, until U.S. leaders recognize the errant path they have irresponsibly chosen, he says, our enemies will only grow stronger.
According to the author, the greatest danger for Americans confronting the Islamist threat is to believe—at the urging of U.S. leaders—that Muslims attack us for what we are and what we think rather than for what we do. Blustering political rhetoric “informs†the public that the Islamists are offended by the Western world’s democratic freedoms, civil liberties, inter-mingling of genders, and separation of church and state. However, although aspects of the modern world may offend conservative Muslims, no Islamist leader has fomented jihad to destroy participatory democracy, for example, the national association of credit unions, or coed universities.
Instead, a growing segment of the Islamic world strenuously disapproves of specific U.S. policies and their attendant military, political, and economic implications. Capitalizing on growing anti-U.S. animosity, Osama bin Laden’s genius lies not simply in calling for jihad, but in articulating a consistent and convincing case that Islam is under attack by America. Al Qaeda’s public statements condemn America’s protection of corrupt Muslim regimes, unqualified support for Israel, the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan, and a further litany of real-world grievances. Bin Laden’s supporters thus identify their problem and believe their solution lies in war. Anonymous contends they will go to any length, not to destroy our secular, democratic way of life, but to deter what they view as specific attacks on their lands, their communities, and their religion. Unless U.S. leaders recognize this fact and adjust their policie
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