Rating: 
Summary: Dreaming War: Blood For Oil and the Cheney-Bush Junta
Review: In the first segment of this collection of his essays, Gore Vidal puts forward the one question everyone should consider asking about this administration, and then he gives his answer. The rest is or will be history ... an unanswered multitude of questions. After being put into office by corrupt officials, did the Bush administration on 9/11 "let it happen on purpose"? Or, did they orchestrate it to bring the people around to the plans for wars in Eurasia and world domination? - Questions few Americans dare to consider for fear of public censure. The author asks the question, "Transparency?" and answers with the word "Complicity." A quote from page 29: " ... who and what kept the Air Force from following its normal procedure instead of waiting an hour and twenty minutes until the damage was done and only then launching fighters. Obviously, somebody had ordered the Air Force to make no move to intercept those hijackings ... "
From page 32: "Certainly, the hour-twenty-minute failure to put fighter planes in the air could not have been due to a breakdown thoughout the entire Air Force along the East Coast. Mandatory standard operating procedure had been told to cease and desist." (This review was censored by Amazon twice, taking out the word "corrupt". It took two weeks to show up as censored the first time. And when I added the word again, it was again censored. So I changed it to say "junta" instead, and that is why there are two reviews, I guess. I only edited and didn't write another report.)
Rating: 
Summary: Again, Americans Are Sleeping At The Wheel
Review: There are many questions people need to ask and answer. One should disregard this author's reputation and past works if one is going to objectively look at the information presented here. This latest book by Gore Vidal has highlighted and investigated many things the Federal government is doing today that perhaps not enough Americans are discussing at the moment (post 2002). As a result of what occurred in 2002, many fundamental operations, as well as the outright constitutional philosophy, have changed in the U.S. In addition to this governmental metamorphosis in the U.S. many individuals, beauracratic agencies, and corporations have benefitted tremendously from 9/11. Many will benefit from a regime change in Iraq. There are many angles to look at but people should be aware of 1. who benefits 2. how they benefit, and 3. why they benefit.
An incremental and consistent eroding of the Bill of Rights, and *successfull* attempts to eliminate such judicial precedents e.g., the "Exlusionary Rule" are a slippery slope that began in the latter part of the 20th Century. Federal, state, and local police agencies have increased their power to alarmingly enormous levels as a result of 2002. These encroachments (i.e, the Total Information Awareness Act, which may falter) focuses on ALL Americans, and not on the false premise that these new powers will be used exlusively to investigate terror suspects, who of course, need to be consistently found out and quashed. Like the Cold War, and the War on Drugs, the State is feeding off of 9/11 like a body builder on steroids.
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Summary: Dreaming War: Blood for Oil and the Cheney-Bush Junta
Review: Another deliciously ill-tempered screed from veteran gadfly Vidal (Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace, p. 398, etc.), perhaps our fiercest homegrown critic of American imperialism in general and the current administration in particular. In this gathering of pieces from the Nation, the Times Literary Supplement, and elsewhere, Vidal amply reveals just how deeply ticked off he has been by recent developments. The judicial appointment of "the charmingly simian George W. Bush" to run the front office is by now old news, but it proves, Vidal insists, that corporate America is really in charge of the whole show. The failure of American intelligence to foresee the 9/11 terrorist attacks, in his eyes, speaks mostly to the general stupidity of the "oil-and-gas Cheney-Bush junta," which neglected to pass on to us ordinary citizens mayday warnings that had emanated from "Presidents Putin and Mubarak, from Mossad, and even from elements of our long-suffering FBI." The weird fact that representatives of the Taliban had toured Texas oil facilities shortly before Osama bin Laden arrived on the scene, evidently with an eye to striking a mutually beneficial deal for a new pipeline across Afghanistan, and the equally weird fact that said Talibanistas had hired a niece of former CIA director Richard Helms to handle their PR, are two more items on the seemingly endless list of things that annoy Vidal. American support for Israel, the death of the old American republic and its replacement, along about 1950, with "the National Security State," the refusal of mainstream historians to admit the possibility that the Japanese had a point in bombing Pearl Harbor-he enumerates these aggravating items point by point with caressing venom. That Vidal is fonder of sermonizing than logical argument, of assertion rather than cold data, is no matter: this is trademark Goring and unforgiving: woe to its unfortunate target. A pleasure for those convinced of the present ruling elite's deep-seated flaws and deeper evils, and tasty food for thought even for the doubtful. Agent: Richard Morris
Rating:
Summary: Questions we never ask are answered
Review: Gore Vidal is an icon from many baby-boomers' pasts. Current presidential campaign coverage always compares poorly to the articulate sparring of Vidal and William F. Buckley. He filled in the past that we were never taught in high-school history in his historical novels, 'Burr' and '1876.' He is a towering intellect that is unfashionable in these anti-intellectual times.
And thank god he is asking the unfashionable questions. Like why the Air Force did not scramble AT ALL on 9/11, mandatory military protocol, to investigate the hijacked planes. The 3 page, minute by minute outline from when the first hijacked plane diverted from its flight plan to the last crash at the Pentagon 2 hours later, is worth buying the book alone. It will come home, in chilling detail, how badly the Bush administration wants war at any cost.
This is a must read for all Americans. Well-researched and documented facts, something we are not getting on CNN.
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Summary: As always, Vidal is right on target
Review: Historian Gore Vidal follows up his 2001 bestseller "Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace," with another dynamic account of American empire. It was very interesting to see the conservative media constantly distort Vidal's position. Gore is a true republican - someone who yearns for a return to the days when people and politicians actually paid attention to the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. This includes worrying more about what's going on in our own backyards (besides trying to cancel out peoples' civil liberties) instead of putting military bases all over the world and having secret governmental agencies (who do not have to submit their budgets to Congress under the ever tiresome guise of "national security") overthrow governments they don't like (Guatemala and, more recently, Haiti, are prime examples). On pages 152 and 153, Vidal accurately sums up present-day politics and the state of presidential elections: "He who can raise the most money to buy time on television is apt to be elected President by that half of the electorate that bothers to vote. Since the same corporations pay for our two-party, one-party system, there is little or no actual politics in these elections. But we do get a lot of sex. Also, he who subtly hates the blacks the most will always win a plurality of the lily-white-hearted. The word "liberal" has been totally demonized, while "conservative," the condition of most income-challenged Americans, is being tarnished by godly pressure groups whose symbols are the fetus and the flag." And in case you're saying that Vidal's claims of Americans empire are hooey: "Today, elsewhere, we have military presence in Bermuda, Egypt, Iceland, Japan, Korea, Panama, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, etc., not to mention all over the United States and our territories as well as two bases in Australia, one of which is a mysterious CIA unit at Alice Springs. If all this does not constitute an empire, I don't know what does." (page 162) Though written in 1997, Vidal proves to be a visionary (page 134): "Although the United States may yet, in support of Israel, declare war on 1 billion Muslims, the Europeans will stay out. They recall 1529, when the Turks besieged Vienna not as obliging guest workers but as world conquerors. Never again." As a die-hard Dem, I became very disenchanted with Roosevelt and Truman as I read about their back door antics during World War II and at the start of the Cold War (shame on you, Harry!). It's time to end the misery and overthrow the never elected junta occupying the White House and get back to the Constitution and Bill of Rights.
Rating: 
Summary: This book is proof that...
Review: an extensive vocabulary and an active imagination do not make a person intelligent. Logical? Nope. Reasonable? No. This book is just a bunch of mindless babblings by a half brain-dead maniac. I am not a big fan of the Bush administration. But, that doesn't give so-called historians the license to just make things up. Evidence for his contentions? Nah. Just put a bunch of random nonsense together and those that want to believe what you are saying will. I encourage all to read this book, it demonstrates how completely nonsensical and illogical some well-known "intellectuals" really are.
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Summary: old Anti-American fool peddles black-helicopter tripe
Review: I was left speechless by most of this book. I have read much of Vidal's earlier work. While clearly not pro-American at any time in his writing career, I found that his earlier critiques of our system were often useful and insightful. This book on the other hand is a piece of garbage. I have no objection to people espousing radical political views. To wholly fabricate shadowy conspiracies based on half truths, innuendo, and psuedo-psychology, however, is disgraceful and probably libelous. I cannot decide whether this astounding work of propaganda would have been more appropriately printed in a 60's edition of Pravda or in a 90's edition of some nutty Montana militia's newsletter. One possibility is that Vidal, in his bitterness, self-deification, contempt for the inferior intellects that surround him, or simply the steady encroachment of dementia on a once lucid mind, has gotten lost in his own paranoid neverland. There is another possibility. Vidal, I believe, may have written this book not believing a word of it. Vidal wrote this massive fraud because he knew there were enough psuedo-intellectual nit-wits in the U.S. and Europe, many in academia; that his book would be guaranteed commercial success. Most of these "intellectuals" revere Vidal because that is what they are supposed to do. He is another left-wing, revolutionary-chic merit badge to be sown on one's bicycle-courier bag. Deaniacs and Chomskyites will uncritically swallow this great book of lies just as they eagerly swallow any lie, no matter how paranoically fantastic, as long as it tends to confirm their feeling that the U.S. and Israel are the most evil nations on Earth. Those people do not bother me, however, as they are mostly economically advantaged(spoiled brats), intellectual lightweights. What bothers me is the effect this book could have once it is translated into, say, Arabic, or Farsi. The wild conspiracy theories so prevalent in the Arab street (I hate that term, forgive me), are propagated by those in the Arab world most interested in ensuring that the average Arab remains powerless. It is essential to the oppressors that the anger and resentment generated by their oppression, corruption, and illegitimacy is deflected away from those who steal and lie to the populations they rule. Why not blame the Jews? Everyone else has for almost a thousand years. And surely the U.S. with all of its advanced technology is capable of executing the most elaborate and difficult plots. Now Gore Vidal has lent the tarnished prestige of his name to the business of misleading those in desperate parts of the world where his name may lend further creedence to great lies that spawn hatred and terrorism. Great lies that help redirect the righteous anger of the mass of Arab and Muslim people away from their true oppressors and toward commuter trains and buildings full of innocent civilians. Gore Vidal has disgraced himself.
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Summary: A voice of sanity in the midst of total insanity and tyranny
Review: Gore Vidal speaks out for sanity and justice in the midst of the total insanity and tyranny rapidly being imposed here in the Fourth Reich by madman Fuerher Bush and his neo-Nazi Ashcroft and Chaney buddies as they wage war on the people of the world and try to impose their racist and backward cultural and superstitious religious views and destroy what little freedom there is here in the evil empire, the land of the fleece and home of the slave. Buy one of these before the book burning bigots make it illegal to own.
Rating:
Summary: A Republic Unravelling.
Review: A few years ago, prior to ~Dreaming War's~ publication, the article, 'Goat Song', was emailed to me from a friend. In this article, Vidal lists the numerous anomalies prior, during and directly after the events of 9/11. The questions this article raises are legitimate, considering the U.S. government has spent literally trillions of dollars on national "defence" since 1947. When the alarm bells began to ring on that terrible day, those in charge did not follow military protocol, but merely sat on their hands, and seemed to let it happen. This is a frightening thought. In the end, the investigation into these anomalies turned into a finger pointing exercise, and a few scapegoats made, but to this day, some questions still remain. However, Vidal has no doubts as to the aspirations and motivations of the current government's actions in the Middle East; as the title of the book makes perfectly clear: Blood for Oil. To finally read the full article and the ten or so other pieces in the book after reading that initial email was informative and quite disturbing. Vidal certainly lays it all on the line. Gore Vidal has been called many things, but for certain, he has made it his life's mission to understand American history and point out how and why his beloved Republic has gone off the rails, particularly since the creation in 1947 of NSC-68. He laments the loss of his Republic to a National Security State, (Military Industrial Complex) including a noticeable dwindling of the Bill of Rights. The loss of the rights of citizens in a democratic country is a frightening scenario, (in my opinion, the worst scenario) and it's actually happening right before our eyes. Domination, control and wealth are the motivations, and the events Vidal has illustrated over the last half century, and that is nearly two hundred 'incursions' in other countries since 1945...in which the U.S. has been the aggressor, is simply too hard to ignore. In the article, 'Mickey Mouse, Historian', Vidal discusses the corporate ownership of America and the politicians, but also states, generally, what he would like to see changed: " I am a patriot of the old Republic that slowly unravelled during the expansionist years and quite vanished in 1950 when the National Security State took its place. Now I want us to convert from wartime to a peacetime economy. But since the GE-style conglomerates that govern us will never convert, something will have to give, won't it?" (P.165) Vidal not only lists the many problems about his beloved country, but also offers solutions that sound workable and real. But those holding power at the moment will be hard pressed to let the current system go. This book is highly recommended to anyone concerned about American and international affairs.
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Summary: THE GUY IS BRILLIANT
Review: Hi. Yeah, I read this book, and it is as brilliant as the man who wrote it. You may not agree with all of the advice given by Mr. Vidal, but you don't need to. Vidal's goal is to spark debate, get people to think, and discuss the Bush Administration. This is evidenced by the diverse opinions expressed in these customer reviews.
Moreover, the information that Daniel C. Laursen from USA, (Dec. 27, 2003) writes is ridiculous. "Jane's Newsletter" is a periodical used by militaries and scholars around the world. They typically discuss new technologies, and military hardware.
Back to Vidal. His writing is well researched, and well-referenced. WARNING: Do not read this book if you are not open-minded. Enjoy!
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