Rogue State
by Mary Shepard, WAMM
A review of William Blum's Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower (Monroe, Maine: Common Courage Press, 2000).
Warning! William Blum's Rogue State could cause a reader some sleepless nights! Blum has painted a shocking picture of what the U.S. has become while good people weren't paying attention. It is a painstakingly thorough compilation of crimes committed by successive U.S. administrations, mostly abroad, but now increasingly at home.
Blum is a former staff member of the U.S. State Department who resigned in protest of the Vietnam War. Since then, he has devoted his life to documenting and exposing the record as a freelance journalist and as a witness in Congressional hearings.
In addition to known violations of international laws, treaties, and the Bill of Rights, Blum reveals the lies used to justify unprovoked wars against nations who have natural resources or strategic value to the expanding U.S. empire. He documents the use of military weapons, including weapons of mass destruction (depleted uranium, biological, and chemical weapons). He records kidnappings, murders, and interference in elections abroad to install puppet governments--all done with impunity. Through surrogates, millions of innocent people have been killed. Viable economies have been ruined. Emerging countries, trying to achieve self-determination or a truly democratic government of their own, have been attacked with military and economic weapons and left in ruins.
Blum is an angry and a principled man. To bring the bad news to his people, most of whom will not want to hear it, is not an easy choice for a life's work. This work is further complicated by media which, rather than helping, purvey cover-ups. But Blum thoroughly documents his claims. His pages of footnotes are testimony to the varieties and number of sources he uses. Some of his most damning information comes from the lips of the perpetrators of the crimes themselves. And he measures the crimes against the standard our leaders have set for crimes--real or imagined--they see in other countries. Their hypocrisy is revealed in all its astonishing arrogance.
The recent U.S. election only reinforces his thesis. One chapter on global interventions lists 23 nations whose elections have been corrupted. The villains in his account are primarily politicians, corrupted government officials, the media, and anyone who is party to the deceptions which protect the illusion that we are promoters of freedom and justice and democracy.
The last chapter, "How Does the United States Get Away With It?," is the most chilling of all. It lists 120 violations of human rights that have been ignored or unreported. "What keeps most Americans from being shocked by the shredding of the Bill of Rights is that they have yet to feel the consequences, either personally or through someone close to them. It would appear, however, that they only have to wait." He quotes Goethe: "None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free."
Readers outside the U.S. will not be as shocked as Americans who still learn and teach about a different America in their schools, but this book is for them, too--a must-read for understanding unfolding events. It can be an invaluable tool for researchers, school papers, and the like.
To counter the bleak picture Rogue State presents, it should be remembered that the U.S. is still a nation rich with citizens who believe in the principles assumed to be the foundation of our government. William Blum would not be doing this work if he did not believe that an informed U.S. citizenry would be outraged and do something about the crimes of its government. A nation that produces a William Blum cannot be all bad.