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where's the optimism?
By Charlie
I went to Barnes and Noble today to try to find the latest read on counter-insurgency/nation-building. What I found when browsing the “current affairs” section disturbed me: doom, gloom, and sorrow graced most of the book covers I saw as I perused the shelves.
I was originally looking for a book such as The Sling and the Stone: On War in the 21st Century, but the majority of the books that caught my eye were dealing with the subject of America, and how through its irresponsible, imperialistic, hegemonic, unilateral, racist, homophobic, war-mongering, evil, and just-plain-insensitive foreign policy was ruining the earth to a degree never before thought imaginable.
Titles such as Overthrow : America's Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq by Stephen Kinzer, Railroading Economics: The Creation of the Free Market Mythology by Michael Perelman, The Bush Agenda : Invading the World, One Economy at a Time by Antonia Juhasz, American Theocracy : The Peril and Politics of Radical Religion, Oil, and Borrowed Money in the 21stCentury by Kevin Phillips, Failed States : The Abuse of Power and the Assault on Democracy by Noam Chomsky All popped out at me.
I picked up one book, Naked Imperialism: The U.S. Pursuit of Global Dominance by John Bellamy Foster and read the blurb on the cover:
John Bellamy Foster’s Naked Imperialism examines this important transformation in U.S. global policy and ideology, showing the political and economic roots of the new militarism and its consequences both in the global and local context. Foster shows how U.S.-led global capitalism is preparing the way for a new age of barbarism and demonstrates the necessity for resistance and solidarity on a global scale.
Huh? I could rewrite that last sentence like this, and agree with it:
Foster shows how Al Qaeda and its Extremist Islamic Imperialism is preparing the way for a new age of barbarism and demonstrates the necessity for resistance and solidarity on a global scale.
But, sadly, America is the enemy here. America is the true fount of all the troubles in the world, and it is America that must be resisted at all costs, lest our sweet air of freedom choke the folks in the dark corners of the world who still like to mutilate their women and kill you for worshiping different gods.
Where’s the optimism?
America has faced challenging times since its founding. We’ve weathered wars before, along with presidential assassinations, hurricanes, earthquakes, bloody counter-insurgencies, invasions, stock market crashes, civil wars, disease outbreaks, and worse. Through the entirety of our history, though, America has endured. This decade, no matter what the troubles, cannot be worse than other sets of ten consecutive years in the past.
When Washington was burned by the British in the war of 1812, we sucked it up and drove on.
When the Civil war drew to a close, and the nation had to be re-united, we sucked it up and drove on.
When Kennedy was shot, we sucked it up and drove on.
This country has been through a lot worse than what it is facing now, where a volunteer military running off of 4% GDP of the strongest economy in the world has overthrown 2 hostile foreign governments and is on the cusp of completing the mission and turning the tide back against the enemies abroad. America wins wars. America succeeds where no one else dares to try.
We’re not perfect, yes, but we aren’t (and shouldn’t be) stymied by our imperfections. We’ve got problems, we’ve got issues, but we need some collective intestinal fortitude. Suck it up, drive on, complete the mission.
With that, here are some book titles that crazed alarmists may have written in the past:
1861: Confederate Partition: how the Civil War is unwinnable and America will have to live with a divided nation: plus implications for the Western territories and California.
1906: Going Horse: how our equine-based economy will bankrupt the nation and leave us with mountains of un-shoveled waste in our streets.
Got any of your own?
In conclusion- Cheer up!
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1942: Inside Job: How America Orchestrated Pearl Harbor As a Pretext For the Invasion Of Japan.
I'm just finishing up a vacation to Washington state. A little bookstore in Port Townsend had a history section, as bookstores often do. But this history section was something to behold. Cindy Sheehan blah blah blah. Un-believable. I almost went back to the car for my camera to take a picture, and half-way hoped the hippy store employees asked why I was taking a picture of their history section. Because I would have told them.
But the rest of my group was in a hurry and the kids were with, so I didn't want to get involved in a bookstore brawl...
I had a similar experience in an airport bookstore. Wanted a book to read on the plane, went to the history/military section to see if there were any good memoirs or similar to read. But 99% of it was "how evil America has stuffed up the world again". *sigh*
Heh ... and this surprises you *why*, exactly? You *know* whose side the press is on!
Potential book titles;
1). Emancipation Proclamation; Lincoln's cynical power grab in the southern rural economy, and what it means to you.
2). Ardennes disaster; what the Pentagon doesn't wan't you to know.
3). Midway; the shocking carrier battle group loss, and what the Roosevelt junta isn't telling you.
.....anyone got any more? :-)
Kaiser unleashes WMD in the trenches with materials supplied by the US in 1910!
I used to work for B&N, (some time ago, now) but I do notice a few things over time.
In any large B&N, You should be able to find several shelves of "military history" books. (These are above and beyond the shelves devoted to WWI, WWII, the US Civil War, and Vietnam and the current titles on GWOT.
This wasn't so when I started working for the place in 1991. By 1996, this had changed, and now, in 2006, I find racks of the "Osprey Men at Arms" series in places like Princeton, NJ.
The current events stuff is always a pile of doom and gloom, (as are most of the get rich quick business books--"How you can make money in the coming crash of 1992!") as well as being mostly wrong ("Mikail Gorbachev--the Antichist" and "The Rise and Fall of Great Powers").
So I wouldn't take what you saw as something new. its always been that way. Most of these books won't sell very well, and probably won't even end up in the remainder rack, because, in 2 years time, while you might spend $4.98 on some hard back mystery novel, you're not going to spend any money on what Cindy Sheehan was saying 2 years ago. All those current events books will get pulped. You'll be wiping your butt with them before you know it.
1912
Titanic: What did President Taft know and when did he know it?
Surely they had something on the Apollo moon hoax?
Seriously, I haven´t been in a bookstore in over five years. I research and buy on the internet and there always are a few unread books around. Simple solutions for modern living!
1861 - Maryland Under Siege: The suspension of writ of habeus corpus by the tyrant Lincoln and its ominous implications on the bleak future of American civil liberties.
1898 - McKinley's Lies: How the McKinley Administration's lies to the American people about the USS Maine got us into a unwinnable guerilla war in the Philippines.
I stop in the local B&N from time to time and ask for a new release pro-America book, then patiently wait while the employee goes and gets it out of the back.
Then I browse around a bit and leave same book on that table of gloom by the front door on my way out.
America's Wars of Attempted Race Extermination: From the Japs to the Arabs.
Guadalcanal, 1942: Navy scoots to escape Yamamoto's battle-hardened fleet; Marines left high and dry to face enemy counterattack. Can we ever beat the Japs?
'The Assasination of Yamato; how the pentagon ruined a last chance at diplomacy'
'Sherman's march to the sea; How northern business is underwriting railroad repair in the south'
'Lend lease; How Roosevelt is squandering the post-depression economy'
Here are some more possible book titles from the past.
"Exposed, the Barbaric, Inhuman Conduct of American GIs in South Vietnam"
"Better Red Than Dead. Why Resisting the Inexorable March of Communism in South East Asia Makes No Sense."
"The Inside Story! How LBJ Plans to Enrich His Texas Oil Cronies in Vietnam"
My local B&N is the most anti-American bookstore I've ever seen - from books by Cindy Sheehan to others on why you shouldn't join the military. It makes me sick. But remember - their entire political contributions are to the Dems. What do you expect?
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Passo in rassegna e sega voi Web site e lo ho trovato molto interessante. Grazie per il buon lavoro, greeting
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Charlie, I am like you. I am optimistic that America can and will survive and thrive and be wonderful. We as a country have problems. We will never be perfect, but the US cannot and should not be seen as the root of all evil in the world.