[.ca] Beyond September 11: An Anthology of Dissent (ISBN 0745319629)

Voices of reason:
Why am I the first Amazon reader to review this book? It was published over nine months ago. While we were busily filling our carts and stroking our egos with copies of Bernard Lewis's almost offensively inane "What Went Wrong?", Phil Scraton had already compiled an anthology which actually answers the question. This is easily the most cool-headed and comprehensive book to be inspired by September 11. What surprises me most is that it exists. Scraton's contributors - a range of journalists, academics, lawyers, human rights advocates and other commentators - take the unthinkable step of actually questioning the Bush/Blair response to September 11. They come to this view from many different political and ideological positions. What unites this particular coalition of the willing is their willingness to do two things: first, to look into the history of the Middle East, and the history of Western influence there, as a way of making sense of the terrorist attacks; secondly, to explore the motivations for, and consequences of, our ultra-conservative response. These writers cut through the fatuous hubris of "Muslims hate us" and the "axis of evil" and lay bare the real motivations - on both sides. When successive British and US governments come out of such an analysis looking somewhat less than innocent, it would be easy to dismiss this book as "excusing" terrorism. It does not do that. To explore the origins and motivations of terrorism - to explain it - is not to excuse it. Understanding our enemies is surely THE essential element of an effective strategy for defeating them. That this can be accurately described as the "dissenting" view shows precisely how far we in the West have slipped to the right. Still, it is immensely reassuring that some journalists and academics are willing (and still able) to engage publicly in this kind of debate, considering it is actively discouraged if not gagged by an American press which, like Bush himself, is mostly a lapdog of defense industry advocates, conservative fear-mongers and other American fascists intent on world domination. You don't believe me? Go visit newamericancentury.org to see Cheney and Rumsfeld's plan to have us goose-stepping through the next hundred years. Their logic is simple - the economy depends on war, so let's start a few. With friends like these, who needs enemies?

Explanatory and Insightful!:
According to a number of highly intelligent thinkers, the foreign policy of the U.S. is principally driven by imperialistic motives. In its alleged war against terrorism, the U.S. punishes certain regimes while it simultaneously aids and protects other states which are equally oppressive and belligerent. It is claimed in this book that hypocrisy and imperialism are the chief characteristics of the foreign policy of the U.S. government. It is imperative that we examine the root causes of today's terrorism in order to be able to understand what factors drive people to commit terrorist acts. Why are many third world countries inimically disposed toward the U.S.? This is one of many question thoroughly analyzed in this book. Needless to say, understanding the root causes of terrorism does not mean that it is justifiable. Killing innocent people is always wrong regardless of what the reason might be. However, this must hold for all countries, not just the Arab world. As it stands today, only the actions of the Arab world are condemned and severely punished. What about Israel and Russia? How often does the mass media criticize atrocities committed by these oppressive regimes? Never, at least not in the U.S. although the similar situation applies throughout the West. These highly important questions are meticulously analyzed by the intellectual thinkers found in this book. What they all have in common is their joint effort to depict a highly unjust and discriminatory foreign policy of the U.S. government, characterized by gross hypocrisy. As Chomsky brilliantly puts it, how can the U.S. government possibly claim that it fights terrorism when the U.S. was charged with state terrorism against Nicaragua by International Court in the Hague? It is absurd and worthy of condemnation. This is a book that should be read by every American. It is one of the most important books ever written; a masterpiece beyond comprehension.