The Sorrows of Empire : Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic [The American Empire Project ]

Rating:
Summary: Disturbing Information
Review: Having been in the military and having studied political science, U.S. history, and government for the past several years, I found Chalmers' book to be extremely difficult to swallow. It's not that I don't beleive what he had to say about America and its pursuit of an empire, it's that I don't want to believe it. There is much information in Sorrows of Empire, and most of that information is well documented, substantiated, and scary. If all of it is true, and I have no way of verifying much of it, and can be taken at face value, then we, as Americans, are in for a wake-up call. It's hard to imagine living in this Donna Reed/Father Knows Best country and come to find out that it is covertly dominated by the U.S. military, while it masquerades as the savior of peace. But the information is here for dissemination. The question now becomes: what are we going to do about it?
Left wing bashers have found fault with Sorrows of Empire, claiming that we had this "problem" before Bush. Obviously they have not read the book. Johnson is very clear that our efforts to act and react as an empire have been going on since the end of World War II. Actually, Johnson doesn't anymore blame Bush for this mess than he does any other president. His aim is directed at the military industrial complex. The same target that Ike warned us about in the 50s. Some Americans may be proud to hail from a country that can say it is the biggest, toughest, baddest dude on the block. But Johnson says that it will cost us, and cost us big time.
I say read this book. It is very, very interesting, and it puts our country in a new light. At least a light I had not seriously before considered. I've always believed it is best to know your enemy, even if the enemy is within.

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Summary: Empire? exactly.
Review: Ceaser crossed his rubicon, its time America crosses our own. Perhaps the 1990s were in many ways like the Sulla dictatorship that presaged the creation of the Empire. This book, although weak on history, does paint an argument. What this book doesnt examine is the commanilties between america's resurgent empire and the England or Russia or Rome. In fact the similarities exist and should have been brought to the surface more, then this book would be less political and more comparitive history. Unfortunatly its tripe-like writing makes it pure partisan jellyfish.

Seth J. Frantzman

Rating:
Summary: Stop the Violence
Review: Is America going the way of Imperial Rome? Chalmers Johnson presents this idea in this book. America, the lone superpower, is setting up an empire not of territory, but of military bases and economic policy.

The first point he sets up is the militarization of the American government. He argues that the increasing web of military installations (over 700 in a post-Cold War world!) drains more and more resources from our nation. As the superpower within our own government, the military has become powerful with the cooperation of the military-industrial complex. One of the key features of this military style of government is the increase in secrecy. Americans have a right to know what their government is doing, but more and more documents are labeled "Top Secret", so increasingly, Americans are unaware of what their government is doing around the world, and the government is working harder and harder to make sure that no one finds out what it is doing. What kind of government would seriously consider setting up an agency to dispense disinformation and lies to cover its own tracks? If you answered the United States, you're correct. Also, the military is taking over many of the functions of the civilian government. During the Bush administration, the responsiblilites of diplomacy (stolen from State) and information gathering (stolen from the CIA) have drifted into the military's sphere of influence. As more responsibility is pulled into the secre world of the military, Americans risk losing control of their government.

Johnson also looks into the idea of globalization, and how it is used by the American government to control the world economy and keep smaller nations under control. For example, Johnson points out that nations that followed IMF stipulations in recent economic crisises are now in worse condition, while those who did it their own way (which is the same way that America had built its power) could improve their economies. In other words, globablization is a way of kicking away the ladder after getting to the top.

As an American, I am worried about the direction America is headed in. If you're worried about the future of America, I recommend this book.

Rating:
Summary: Great Stuff on Our Shadow Empire
Review: I would bet that not many Americans know that we have over 700 acknowledged military bases around the world, in well over 100 countries. You can say whatever you want about Johnson's polemics or Bush-bashing; but honestly, what in the hell do we need that many military bases for, especially in a post-Cold War world where there are no major military adversaries worth speaking of? Did those bases stop 9/11? Are those bases preventing ethnic and tribal violence around the globe? No chance.

Then why do we have all those bases? Prof. Johnson's answer is something that all Americans should take seriously. Our expansive military presence around the globe is a simple display of our willingness to use violence to protect strategic resources and to intimidate other countries that may challenge American dominance. So what's wrong with that, one might ask? Well, it pisses other people off, spawns terrorist violence against the US, portrays a primitive image of Americans as bullying thugs, and costs a hell of a lot of money.

Let's take apart half those bases, rejoin the international community, and turn our patriotic fervor inwards to the domestic issues that scream for attention.

Rating:
Summary: It is time to pull in the reigns...
Review: One could call this text a scorching polemic concerning America's largely clandestine pursuit of economic and military world dominance. It is more a slap-in-the-face-wake-up-call to pull the reigns in on our current power hungry leaders, who are presently leading us into a black hole that will be all too difficult to escape from in the future.

Johnson outlines the United States' imperialistic intentions and its many acquisitions since the 19th century. Most students of history are aware of these early acquisitions, starting with the Spanish American War, and shortly there after, the brutal conquering of the Philippines. These wars were justified with jingoistic rhetoric; at times rationalized in unadulterated propoganda to the American people, and then played down after the colony was established. Johnson goes on to outline the proliferation of militarism throughout the 20th century, particularly since the establishment of NSC 68 after WW2. The problem however, as Johnson points out, is that militarism and the acquisition of foreign lands are becoming less and less justified with euphemistic rhetoric, and are now boldly rendered without the approval of international law and the United States constitution ' as if to say, ''we're going to do it any way, whether you like it or not, because if you disagree, we'll put you on the hit list as well.' In other words, we do it because we can, and you can't stop us. The evidence in this book, in most cases, is irrefutable, because the facts and actions speak for themselves.

A compelling example is the reasons given for the current conquering and occupation of Iraq. The Bush 2 administration defied the United Nations and most of its long-term allies and invaded Iraq, stating they knew best, because the regime had WMD and was ready to unleash them on the 'free' world. There are no weapons of mass destruction, and the administration was told this by expert authorities from the beginning. It has been almost a year since the war began, and nothing has been found. The new party line, then, was a necessary 'regime change' because Hussein was a ruthless dictator and was a potential danger to the region. Granted he was a ruthless dictator, and committed heinous crimes against humanity, but any informed person is aware that countries like Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, which are current 'allies', and play a strategic role in the Middle East, have appalling human rights records and are ruled by quasi dictatorships. Why not impale our moral superiority on them as well? Were we lied to? Johnson writes,

'If so, then it seems that high government officials falsified pretext for the second Iraq war and committed a fraud against the Congress and the American people. In a constitutional republic, these are impeachable offences. The fact that such proceedings have not been mentioned is a further sign of the political decadence brought about by militarism and imperialism.' (P.306)

The trillions of dollars poured into the military-industrial complex in order to maintain close to eight hundred American bases strategically placed around the world cannot last forever. Money is pouring out of the country in the name of 'defence' and nothing of any significance is being done on the domestic front.

In other terms, as usual, the elites are benefiting, while the many are barely keeping up with their rents and paying for food. This is just one issue, but an important one.

In the last chapter of the book, Chalmers asks us to actually take back the reigns of power as the people, and stop the endless supply of money to the Pentagon and the secret intelligence agencies, turning the American economy from a war based one to a peace based economy, thus avoiding another possible 'blowback' like 9/11, and improving the common man's standard of living.

This is an important book and a necessary one to begin positive change away from war towards a lasting peace.

Rating:
Summary: LEFTIST FANTASY
Review: Chalmers Johnson is one of those professors you had in college who was so enamored with his own personal theories that he could never be bothered with a student's honest question about his obviously-biased blatherings. Rather than engaging in a circumspect and morally-rigorous critique of American foreign policy, Johnson instead subjects his readers to a book chock full of cariacture, argument by analogy and a litany of hasty generalizations.

The book begins by recounting his lone visit to a U.S. Marine Corps base in Okinawa, Japan which he compares to an imperial holding stating that the Americans stationed on the "lush base" must surely enjoy it more than their bases at home. I was stationed at this base (Camp Hansen) and let me assure you, I would much rather have been back home at Camp Pendleton, California. This embarrassing example of poor research is but one of several I noticed in the opening chapter alone. This work reads like a textbook on how to engage in biased analysis.

Personally, I find writers like Chalmers Johnson distressing because he undercuts the efforts of intellectually-honest liberals by employing such shoddy argumentation. Johnson makes it easy for neo-conservatives to ridicule liberal, humane foreign policy thinking as mere leftist fantasy. And for that Johnson should be excoriated not praised. In this vein, I don't necessarily reject Johnson's central thesis, just his means of supporting said thesis.

Rating:
Summary: DEMOCRACY AS WE KNOW IT
Review: Chalmers Johnson's The Sorrows of Empire is a title of the American Empire Project, whose authors in addition to Johnson include Noam Chomsky and Michael Klare. The Project's website homepage asks simply, "How did we get to this point? And what lies down the road?" Dating the American Empire's birth as 1898, Johnson provides highly discomforting answers to those questions, from the viewpoint of a leftist military-analyst academic. I would date the birth as December, 1942, but Johnson's views are eminently justified, and Sorrows is an excellent and much-needed book. It is written in clear and lively declarative sentences, which will make it a fast read even for non-intellectual readers. In sum, Johnson's outlook and information may literally change minds about the subjects he discusses. So I give his book five stars. Nonetheless, I see no basis for Johnson's optimism when he writes that Congress could still turn the country around. It's already too late. The American Empire, aka Democracy As We Know It, will be stuffed down the planet's throat like it or not until the Empire goes bankrupt, which could be quite a while.

Sorrows is a gold mine of interesting historical and sociological information, and readers with open minds will find their own most absorbing sections. Chapter 8 - Iraq Wars -- recalled for me that the "no-fly zones" over Iraq were creations of the U.S. government and never sanctioned by the United Nations. Oh, well. What's a United Nations? Chapter 8 also occasioned a connection in my mind which the book's author did not make. Many have wondered why Bush-1 did not push on to Baghdad and capture Saddam Hussein or have him murdered in 1991. Well sure, for more than one reason, Bush-1 wanted to set up all those American bases in the Persian Gulf outside Saudi Arabia. Having a live and still "threatening" Saddam Hussein made accomplishing that objective much easier.

Johnson says the American Empire is notable for being based on military bases instead of the occupation of territory. And he identifies five sorrows of empire, the first being "racism" on p28. Rightly, the author says racism is inherent in the attitudes required to dominate other cultures militarily. The other four sorrows Johnson lists almost 260 pages later. They are a state of perpetual war, the loss of domestic democracy, destruction of public truthfulness, and finally financial bankruptcy. ....'tis true 'tis pity; And pity 'tis 'tis true....So expect now endlessly continuing and unabashed military-expenditure-based crony (for family and friends) capitalism and whatever mutant forms of domestic governance are required to sustain it. Chickens a-la-Marcos coming home to roost, as it were. Evidently, apart from successfully deluding themselves into believing our military is a relatively invulnerable twenty-first century electronically-controlled exercise, the Empire's leaders' greatest feat to date is their amazing impersonations of the caudillo crooks they propped up around the globe - with arms and clandestine state-terrorism programs for repressing communists and their sympathizers - throughout the cold war. Regrettably for the rest of the world and regrettably for America, Democracy As We Know It is unlikely to fade away in our lifetimes like the Soviets' control of much of the Asian land mass did.

Rating:
Summary: Angry, fearful, and hyper-biased propaganda.
Review: I started Johnson's "The Sorrows of Empire" with an open mind. I was interested in learning what this Professor Emeritus at UCSD and famous author of "Blowback" had to say now (post-9/11) about the America's new tack with respect to its attempts in securing itself from future similar or more devastating incursions.

The author immediately went to work in closing my mind. Within the first handful of pages he used words like "cronies" to describe Bush and his administration. C'mon, at least have the patience to build a case against your target before calling names...

I read on however, and Johnson continued to reinforce my mistrust of his agenda. This book is not an objective analysis of the policies of this and former administrations with respect to Military and Economic Diplomacy; it's an propaganda filled, one sided indictment of all those in government that believe "the best defense is a good offense".

You may not agree with that approach, I may not agree; and that could be one reason for my reading this book in the first place. But this book didn't do anything material to influence my thinking. As a prerequisite to changing anyone's mind, one must show significant and objectively quantifiable evidence of error. That doesn't mean just calling out seemingly erroneous policy, it means doing that AND contrasting it with a better alternative. Johnson has failed to do that on a holistic level. For instance, on page 256, in one paragraph, he writes:

"George W. Bush, by contrast [with Bill Clinton], turned to a frontal assault based on the use of America's unequaled military power. Even before 9/11, the Bush administration had unveiled its unilateral approach to the world. It withdrew from important international treaties, including those seeking to ban antiballistic missile weapons, control the emission of greenhouse gases, and create a court to try perpetrators of the most heinous war crimes. Bush also proclaimed openly his adherence to a doctrine of preventative war. The United States said it was a New Rome, beyond good and evil and unrestrained by the established conventions of the international community...."

The US said it was a "New Rome"?!

This is criminally propagandist and seditious, but emblematic of his style throughout the book. He makes a claim with some truth in it like the US's withdrawal from the Kyoto Accord (designed to reduce greenhouse gasses), but makes no mention of why; what the logic might have been behind these seemingly devilish decisions (in this case, it was because 1 of the worlds biggest polluting nations weren't going to sign on). Whether you would sympathise with this administration knowing those facts or not is one thing. I take issue with them not being presented at all!

There was however at least one redeeming aspect of this book. Johnson clearly points out extraordinary bureaucracy and waste that exists in America's system of military bases internationally. With almost 1,000 "resort-like" bases spanning the globe, Johnson raises important questions about their necessity and their affect (often negative) on the environments they inhabit. Ironically, it's D. Rumsfeld (not Clintons Bill Cohen) that's done more to attack the military bureaucracy than any other Defense Secretary in recent history. The cancellation of major weapons programs, and streamlining of America's defense force count as important steps to counter a bloated system.

This book is perfect for those who's minds are shut, and are looking to add a handful of "floating factoids" to their arsenal of Bush hating, anti-globalization, anti-war arsenal. For those looking to temper or reinforce their views on same, steer clear of this propaganda, there are better books out there for that, like:

The Lexus and the Olive Tree, by Thomas L. Freidman, or,

The Prize, by Daniel Yergin

Hope this helps.

Rating:
Summary: Rips the Curtain Hiding America's Tenuous Future
Review: I have read THE SORROWS OF EMPIRE cover to cover twice now, and will probably do so again. It is an excellent scholarly work of vast analytical proportion and has expanded my own world view considerably. I am very grateful for the opportunity to have read this work. Until I retired, I was an insider and mid-level executive in a variety of American institutions: the Air Force, money center banking, law, securities, financial consulting to municipalities, etc. I, too, have had the blinders pulled from my eyes a number of times by events around me in which I played minor, but knowledgeable parts. Never was I able to arrange the patchwork of pieces into the rigorous, intellectual framework this book accords. I recommend it very highly.

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Summary: POWERFUL INDICTMENT OF CURRENT US MILITARY & FOREIGN POLICY
Review: This book came as a recommended read from Amazon when I recently picked up "Hegemony" by Chomsky. I know a bit about Johnson as a formidable raconteur of the Japanese post-war political economy and more recently from his study of the unintended consequences of America's overseas military and political adventures called "Blowback", published before 911, which was, needless to say, prescient!

Like Chomsky, Johnson attempts to create a context by bringing out a sprawling spectrum of recent American policies, which he contends are all calculated to maximize the influence + profits that US seeks abroad.

But it is the focus that sets this thesis apart. Johnson focuses more on Asia, particularly Central Asia, and his gaze is more firmly on the Bush regime and its oil/energy interests in Central Asia that hold sway in foreign policy decision making.

While a good deal of the book is filled with the typical rhetoric of the American Dream being increasingly being subordinated to the demands of war, we are offered interesting examples, which I have not heard before, e.g., Masirah Island, Kyrgyzstan, Kosovo, Uzbekistan and Ramstein. There are many interesting facts and observations, e.g., US has 725 bases in 120 countries.

U.S. history has many sides. As Johnson convincingly demonstrates, US has committed blatant acts of imperial domination and exploitation. Yet in the aftermath of Vietnam, or the IndoChina involvement as recently as 40 years ago, Americans came to believe that the war provided the irrefutable lesson of the limits of U.S. power.

But now a determined group of policymakers has induced amnesia on the subject. It doesn't acknowledge limits to U.S. power. President Bush has rightly condemned North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il and Saddam Hussein for their tyranny, brutality and oppression. But he neglected to mention how Rumsfeld heartily supported Iraq in its 1980s war against Iran, ignoring the gassing of Kurds, Iraqis and Iranians. Hussein was an impotant pawn then, if for no other reason than that he fought America's great Persian enemy.

Even now, Bush entertains and rewards President Islam Karimov of Uzbekistan, President Askar A. Akayev of Kyrgyzstan, President Nursultan Nazabayev of Kazakhstan and President Saparmurad A. Niyazov of Turkmenistan because they allowed its troops to use their bases and fly over their territories. Democracy in these countries? The word is unknown. Their leaders are Stalinist relics of the old Soviet Union, hardly paragons for liberty, democracy, freedom and an open society. But they do know how to flatter the US.

Johnson has given us a polemic, but one soundly grounded in an impressive array of facts and data. The costs of empire are a nation's sorrow, he contends. He documents a growing system of propaganda, disinformation and glorification of war and military power. In an extreme, he even fears economic bankruptcy as the president underwrites these adventures with a congressional blank check while neglecting growing problems of education, health care and a decaying physical infrastructure in the land hitherto known for its openness and success.

A highly thought-provoking read, and a must for any collector's shelves.