current affairs

Rogue State
A Guide to the World's Only Superpower
Author: William Blum 2000 Common courage Press
P>This is a great book! One of those "must have" books for activists and anti-imperialists. Kind of a companion books to Howard Zinns "A Peoples History of the U.S.". William Blums credentials include serving for the State Department in the late 60's. In this book he compiles a record of the United states involvement, since World war II, in Genocide, war crimes, use and training of foreign military police offices in torture, harboring terrorists and war criminals, use of biological and chemical weapons against civilians, assassinations, kidnapping and many other exposures of the true nature of U.S. foreign policy.

"The scorecard reads as follows: From 1945 to the end of the century, the United States attempted to overthrow more than 40 foreign governments and to crush more than 30 populist-nationalists movements struggling against intolerable regimes. In the process, the U.S. causes the end of life for several million people, and condemned many millions more to a life of agony and despair."" -From the book.

Nothing and no one is sacred to Blums search for the truth, even Jimmy Carter whom Blum exposes when pressed by journalists about whether the U.S. had a moral obligation to rebuild Vietnam - Carter responded "Well the destruction was mutual".

Part of this books premise is that the "Dropping of the A-bomb was not the last shot of WWII but the first shot of the Cold War." The book is full of exposure like: During WWII, U.S. soldiers were forced to take a yellow fever vaccine, with the result that some 330,000 of them were infected with the hepatitis B virus.

Chapters in this book include "Assassinations",
'War Criminals: Theirs and Ours", Depleted Uranium, Chemical and Biological Weapons (abroad and at home), The CIA and Drugs: Just say Why not, and Being the World's Only Superpower means never having to say you're sorry.

Great book William Blum! To have the facts and figures of U.S. crimes at your fingertips, buy this book.

I have read "Rogue State" A Guide to the world's only superpower, by William Blum.

It was hard not to weep openly as I read about the wanton destruction and infinite cruelty unleashed upon our planet by successive US governments. But I'm glad I have read this account.

With each new chapter I was left mentally reeling as the almost nightmarish evidence of covert activities unfolded.

The astonishing cold, calculated cruelty and carelessness towards its own population and the people of the earth in particular as well as the environment and the other living creatures, often left me with a feeling of nausea akin to loathing for an Imperial power that continues to clothe its evil with cries of "freedom and democracy" whilst all the while it continues unabated, to plot, scheme, kill, destroy and maim millions and millions of innocents.

The title chosen by William Blum is fully vindicated. Yet, I would venture to go further than the author.

The facts in this book are written almost surgically to expose. They give full support and documented evidence to support what many people around the world have claimed against the American governments and their agencies, that they should be considered the biggest harbinger of evil in the world today.

I hope and pray that one day soon its intended evil colonization of the earth and its greed to possess the earth's resources will come to an abrupt and just end.

Oh God, I pray...

J. Morrison

Rogue State is a book that goes into great detail in discussing the negative, "side," of the American government's foreign and domestic policy. In this book Blum covers a wide rage of topics, such as American military interventionism, CIA drug dealing, Air Force bases being used for drug trafficking, what provokes terrorism, torture (domestic and foreign) and other abuses of power, such as a vendor being ordered to hand over a list of people who bought a marijuana cultivation handbook. It's also the perfect introduction to Leftism, as the reader is told exactly what the problems are and who is responsible for them.

Critics will call this book one sided, but the truth is that dissidents know, "the other side of the story," already, from their televisions, at their schools, from their college professors, at work, in books or on the radio. This book, like Killing Hope, *is* the other side of the story. It's a book that people who are dissatisfied with the mainstream view have been searching for; it's the book for those who know that the American government has committed horrid acts but need the information to prove it. Blum is without a doubt the Anti-FOX.

I would however like to note something about the book's target demographic. This book is not made for liberals or those who think that the major cause of America's problems is the Bush Dynasty and the war in Iraq. This book is for those who want to know the exact details of American government policy, to see the American Way in all its horror. If you fall short of this condition then I would recommend the works of Michael Moore. Rogue State is a book that the truly far-to-the-left dissident can appreciate.

I give this book five stars for giving its readers the information that is so rarely available today.