More Chalmers Johnson
Apr. 22nd, 2007 02:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jmc_bksI finished Johnson's Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic, the third book of his trilogy on American empire. His basic thesis is that "republican checks and balances are simply incompatible with the maintenance of a large empire and a huge standing army." (p. 60) I took several pages of notes but don't think I'll be writing a review, in part because I don't think I can be impartial.
The book was published in 2006, so it was probably completed prior to the midterm elections. I'm curious how, if at all, the results would influence his conclusions, since one of the things he rails about is the Republican Congress's utter disinterest in making the shrub accountable for anything. Well, check out this article, which seems to have been written post-election. Or this interview, which was done months before it.
Johnson, himself a veteran of the Korean War, self-described Cold Warrior, and one-time consultant to an office of the CIA, has no high opinion of any of the three branches of government as they exist right now, nor has he a good opinion of the military or its companion industry.
Must go reread the Youngstown Steel case. And find some of these books:
Winslow Wheeler's Wastrels of Defense: How Congress Sabotages U.S. Security
John Dinges' The Condor Years
Michael Scheuer's Imperial Hubris
Tom Holland's Rubicon
Polk & Schuster's The Looting of the Iraq Museum, Baghdad: The Lost Legacy of Ancient Mesopotamia
Carol Berkin's A Brilliant Solution
Hannah Arendt's Responsibility & Judgment
Humberto Marquez's Historia Universal de la Destruccion de los Libros
On a lighter note, the hammock, she is swaying in the breeze outback and baseball is playing on the radio. Feels like summer to me already.
The book was published in 2006, so it was probably completed prior to the midterm elections. I'm curious how, if at all, the results would influence his conclusions, since one of the things he rails about is the Republican Congress's utter disinterest in making the shrub accountable for anything. Well, check out this article, which seems to have been written post-election. Or this interview, which was done months before it.
Johnson, himself a veteran of the Korean War, self-described Cold Warrior, and one-time consultant to an office of the CIA, has no high opinion of any of the three branches of government as they exist right now, nor has he a good opinion of the military or its companion industry.
Must go reread the Youngstown Steel case. And find some of these books:
Winslow Wheeler's Wastrels of Defense: How Congress Sabotages U.S. Security
John Dinges' The Condor Years
Michael Scheuer's Imperial Hubris
Tom Holland's Rubicon
Polk & Schuster's The Looting of the Iraq Museum, Baghdad: The Lost Legacy of Ancient Mesopotamia
Carol Berkin's A Brilliant Solution
Hannah Arendt's Responsibility & Judgment
Humberto Marquez's Historia Universal de la Destruccion de los Libros
On a lighter note, the hammock, she is swaying in the breeze outback and baseball is playing on the radio. Feels like summer to me already.
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Date: 2007-04-23 03:08 am (UTC)Robin
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Date: 2007-04-23 01:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-23 11:56 pm (UTC)I may post further on this after I've thought some more. Reading the majority opinion has me steaming on the issue of signing statements (again).
And I think the dissenting justices would fit in quite well on the Court today.