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Books : Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American EmpireIn association with Amazon.comby: Chalmers Johnson  List Price: $15.00 Price: $9.27 You Save: $5.73 (38%)Prices subject to change. Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Format: Bargain Price Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 268 Publication Date: December 31, 2000 Sales Rank: 715983 Related Items:
Editorial Review: Product Description: An explosive account of the resentments American policies are sowing around the world and of the payback that will be our harvest in the twenty-first century. Blowback, a term invented by the CIA, refers to the uninted consequences of American policies. In this sure-to-be-controversial book, Chalmers Johnson lays out in vivid detail the dangers faced by our overexted empire, which insists on projecting its military power to every corner of the earth and using American capital and markets to force global economic integration on its own terms. From a case of rape by U.S. servicemen in Okinawa to our role in Asia's financial crisis, from our early support for Saddam Hussein to our actions in the Balkans, Johnson reveals the ways in which our misguided policies are planting the seeds of future disaster. In the wake of the Cold War, the United States has imprudently expanded the commitments it made over the previous forty years, argues Johnson. In Blowback, he issues a warning we would do well to consider: it is time for our empire to demobilize before our bills come due. Amazon.com Review: If the 20th century was the American century, the 21st century may be a time of reckoning for the United States. Chalmers Johnson, an authority on Japan and its economy, offers a troubling prognosis of what's to come. Blowback--the title refers to a CIA neologism describing the unintended consequences of American activity--is a call for the United States to rethink its position in the world. "The evidence is building up that in the decade following the end of the Cold War, the United States largely abandoned a reliance on diplomacy, economic aid, international law, and multilateral institutions in carrying out its foreign policies and resorted much of the time to bluster, military force, and financial manipulation," writes Johnson. "The world is not a safer place as a result." Individual chapters focus on Okinawa (where American servicemen were accused of raping a 12-year-old girl in "Asia's last colony"), the two Koreas, China, and Japan. The result is a liberal-leaning (and Asia-centric) call for the United States to disengage from many of its global commitments. Critics will call Johnson an isolationist, but friends (perhaps admirers of Patrick Buchanan's A Republic, Not an Empire) will say he simply speaks good sense. All will agree he is an earnest voice: "I believe our very hubris ensures our undoing." --John J. Miller Average Rating:
 Rating:  - Ron Paul on a "hyper-interventionist foreign policy""The question [CIA bin Laden expert Michael] Scheuer and I are asking is not who is morally responsible for terrorism - only a fool would place the moral responsibility for terrorism on anyone other than the terrorists themselves. The question we are asking is less doltish and more serious: given that a hyper-interventionist foreign policy is very likely to lead to this kind of blowback, are we still sure we want such a foreign policy?... I have [n]ever said or believed that Americans had it coming ... Read More Rating: - Informative, Important, ImperfectI must admit that I nearly set down this book of Chalmers Johnson on reading the prologue. There, Johnson offers praise for committed communist and "old China hand" John Stewart Service. Having previously read M. Stanton Evan's very important "Blacklisted by History", I was familiar enough with Service to know that anyone praising him would have an extraordinary bias in favor of Marxism and communist China. And while this bias does seep through in Johnson's work, it does not entirely diminish it. ... Read More Rating: - Amazing and informativeI have not finished this book, but after reading the first 20 pages, I learned about the wars and other raids that the United States military were involved in. For me, I've always questioned the use of our military and our negative look at other countries. This book explains a great deal about the gray areas we don't know about. Rating: - The Best of Johnson's Trilogy!In the Introduction to the book Mr. Johnson tells the reader the circumstances of when the term "Blowback" first appeared in a government document related to covert C.I.A. actions of 1953. The author shares his critical view of the American empire and uses the U.S. military bases in Japan and Okinawa as examples. He also examines the joint exercises that various U.S. military organizations perform with some nations known for brutal human rights violations. On accountability he ... Read More Rating: - American Empire TriologyChalmers Johnson in "Blowback" presciently and eerily predicts 9/11 or a similar event. Published in 2000 the analysis should be required reading for all interested in foreign policy and how the "American Empire" is perceived by those subject to it. An outstanding contribution to the literature. Browse for similar items by category: 
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