The Pre-Emptive Empire: A Guide to Bush's Kingdom

by Saul Landau

Saul Landau is an internationally known scholar, author, journalist, poet and activist. An Emmy-award-winning film maker, he does frequent radio and TV shows, and his work on human rights and Latin America have won him acclaim the world over. This, his latest book, is a scathing account of George W. Bush's world before and after the 9/11 terrorist attacks that will appeal to anyone who is disenchanted with the cynicism of Bush's government, and the...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0745321402
• ISBN13: 9780745321400
• Release Date: October 2003
• Publisher: Pluto Press (UK)
• Length: 182 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.3" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

BEST TITLED AND WRITTEN BOOK OF YEAR

This collection of witty and dowright funny essays gets to the core of the US empire in the 21st Century. Landau not only covers the war against Iraq and US meddling in the Middle East in general, but provides the reader with context to understand the sometimes shocking headlines.This well written volume takes one to Cuba as it struggles with US embargo and travel ban policy, to Mexico where the maquilas have begun to flee to China, leaving needy Mexicans unemployed and to Iraq itself, just before the war.This is an amazing comedium of journalistic insight and political wisdom. A rare combination for a reader who wants to know without feeling the pain of wading through the turgid prose typical of some critics.

An Inspiring Call for Citizens of the World

Landau's The Pre-Emptive Empire: A Guide to Bush's Kingdom, offers an incisive, bold, and witty portrait of the lingering parallels, contradictions and dramatic shifts in U.S. foreign policy under President George W. Bush before (Part I, "Leaving the Republic Behind") and after the 9/11 attacks (Part II, "The Empire Strikes Back"). Whether analyzing the U.S. war against terrorism and erosion of civil liberties at home, the Israeli-Palestinian crisis, terrorism and corporate globalization in Latin America, U.S.-Cuban relations or the road to the Iraq War, Landau's journal-like entries (coupled with his experiences of directing/producing over 40 documentary films throughout the U.S., Latin America and Middle East and as a radio commentator, author and journalist) provide compelling evidence for what he identifies throughout his work as the transformation of a nation founded on Republican fabric to its current, alarming manifestation: a "pre-emptive empire."Unlike the sheepish, flag-waving media coverage of the 9/11 events and Iraq War or the current reactionary-infused works by Ann Coulter or Daniel Pipes, The Pre-Emptive Empire offers readers a refreshing platform for analyzing the domestic and international scope of the 9/11 attacks and Bush's ensuing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq in the context of the historical, political and economic dimensions that have helped shape the 21st Century U.S. Empire. In particular, the chapter on "Latin America: The Imperial Economic Model, Obedience and Terrorism" relates the past and present U.S. double standards on terrorists in Chile and Cuba, respectively, in the midst of Bush's pursuit of "fighting" worldwide terror to his simultaneous promotion of the IMF-backed economic model, as Landau observes: "It is not just the culture of McDonald's, but the long-standing pattern of U.S. domination, indeed intervention, of Latin America that continues to prevail on the political as well as the economic front" (Part IV, pg .57).Interspersed throughout Landau's chapters, such as on the long-running Middle East debacle (Part III, "Between Iraq and a Hard Place: The Oily Empire Stomps Through the Middle East") and the latest Iraq War (Part VI, "The Road to War"), are entertaining and humorous anecdotal transitions--demonstrating the book's greatest strength in helping readers cope with such dismal realities by laughing out loud while also reminding them of their humanity at stake.Fans of progressive writers/activists Howard Zinn and Noam Chomsky will find The Pre-Emptive Empire just as intellectually stimulating and thought provoking, but with a glaring difference: Landau's work is an inspiring call for citizens--from college students, blue collar workers, activists and the politically disillusioned alike--to reclaim their Republic and participate in shaping their history.