Off
the shelf
By
Pete Creighton
We
are powerful but insecure
Zbigniew Brzezinski, The Choice: Global domination
or global choice, Basic Books, 2004, $12.49 (Amazon.com).
Norman Solomon, War Made Easy, How presidents
and pundits keep spinning us to death, Wiley, 2005,$24.95.
This is just a brief look at two among many recent
books plucked from the "New Nonfiction" selection at the Library.
Most of us are weary of our war by now, but several talented authors seem to be
begging to be heard. It's our future — or our children's — and we
should listen to them.
First, The Choice, is by a familiar and
respected figure, Zbigniew Brzezinski, former foreign affairs adviser to
President Carter. His is a positive book, not dwelling on the dismal present
— but on what we, the USA, should and must do to have a decent future.
Brzezinski says, "America must make a historic
choice: Will it strive to dominate the world, or lead it?"
"We are the most powerful nation ever, but
feel more insecure." We must work with other democratic countries to
obtain global security. Otherwise, he says, "America could find itself
alone and under assault in a setting of intensifying global chaos."
The second book goes into the past 40 years or so
to tell us what went wrong with the way we use our power. The book is War
made Easy, by
Norman Solomon. He points his finger at three culprits who have been leading us
astray. First, the current and past presidents and their advisers; second, our
industrial-military complex; and third, surprisingly, the media. All three, he
points out, act together to convince us to accept war.
Lyndon Johnson led us into Vietnam, and George Bush
into Iraq. And they did it with the unwitting help of Congress and a willing,
vast military power set in the Pentagon.
President Eisenhower, you may remember, warned that
our military leaders, in close connection with industrial might, would have way
too much power. The budget for "defense" is much , much more than
needed to defend us. So we go to war — and the media goes along —
accepting the reasoning of the Pentagon and White House.
Author Solomon is one of several independent reporters
who tell us what the popular media leave out of their reports. His subhead:
"How presidents and pundits keep spinning us to death." First they
con us into going to war — and then report only our losses — not
the much greater, mostly civilian, mayhem that our weapons deliver, he tells.
Solomon divides his painful description about
equally between Iraq and Vietnam invasions and occupations, and includes as
well destruction in Panama and Yugoslavia. Solomon's knowledge of our use of
cluster bombs in attacks where civilian populations are present reveals the
hideous details of the most savage weapon of modern warfare.
All of this is not told to us by the media, he
says. The author is widely respected, his columns appear in major newspapers,
and he is heard in various TV interviews.
4/27/06