Review: A Foreign Policy of Freedom–Peace, Commerce, and Honest Friendship (Paperback)

5 Star, Biography & Memoirs, Congress (Failure, Reform), Country/Regional, Culture, Research, Diplomacy, Economics, Empire, Sorrows, Hubris, Blowback, Executive (Partisan Failure, Reform), Peace, Poverty, & Middle Class, Philosophy, Politics, Power (Pathologies & Utilization), Strategy, Values, Ethics, Sustainable Evolution
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5.0 out of 5 stars 30 years of speeches, straight common sense
November 6, 2007
Ron Paul

I would normally give a book like this four stars because it is a collection of speeches entered into the Congressional Record over a 30-year period with no overview. I give it five stars because of the integrity and consistency of the author, and because he is the only person now running for President that has a completely serious book available for review.

I was disappointed that there was no strategic overview touching on each critical foreign policy region or each of the high-level threats to humanity such as depicited by the Earth Intelligence Network in support of the Transpartisan Policy Institute, but my disappointment is tempered by the realization that the author, in citing Thomas Jefferson on the dedication page, to wit: “Peace, Commerce, and Honest Friendship with All Nations–Engangling Alliances with None” (First Inaugural Address, 1801) makes it clear that it can indeed be “that simple.”

Throughout the book the author touches on truly fundamental themes:

1) Restoration of the Constitution as the fouindation for all Congressional and Executive policies, budgets, and decisions.

2) The importance of avoiding the cost of foreign adventures while investing in domestic needs for education, infrastructure, energy independence and so on.

3) The importance of having a currency backed by real wealth, not the fabricated wealth used by the banks to enrich themselves at our expense.

4) The importance of civil liberties, sound decision-making, and ethics

I'd like to see this honest man win and be President. His integrity and intelligence are absolute, something no other candidate can claim. However, unless he can pick a transpartisan Cabinet in advance of the election, and guide that Cabinet in producing a balanced budget that eliminates our multi-trillion unfunded future obligations, he will be no better than the others, and even at a disadvaantage, because voters hear platitudes. They need to see real policies with real budget numbers, or they will not see the difference between this author and the others in tangible terms they can appreciate.

See also:
Preparing America's Foreign Policy for the 21st Century
The Search for Security: A U.S. Grand Strategy for the Twenty-First Century
Modern Strategy
Uncomfortable Wars Revisited (International and Security Affairs Series)
The Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic (The American Empire Project)
The Fifty-Year Wound: How America's Cold War Victory Has Shaped Our World
Rogue Nation: American Unilateralism and the Failure of Good Intentions
Failed States: The Abuse of Power and the Assault on Democracy
Crossing the Rubicon: The Decline of the American Empire at the End of the Age of Oil
Wilson's Ghost: Reducing the Risk of Conflict, Killing, and Catastrophe in the 21st Century

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Review: The Power of Israel in the United States

5 Star, Atrocities & Genocide, Congress (Failure, Reform), Executive (Partisan Failure, Reform), Politics
Israel Power
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5.0 out of 5 stars 80% on Target

September 3, 2007

James Petras

This book is a perfect counter-point to They Dare to Speak Out: People and Institutions Confront Israel's Lobby. I review that book also, and recommend both books to every American, just as I recommend the books below that document how the Saudis have bought the Bush Family and the Republican and Democratic parties, neither of which represents We the People.

I would normally remmove one star because the author is a bit over the top in blaming everything on the Zionists and the Neo-Conservative servants, but I went with five stars to offset the mindless rapid Zionists (I hold moderate Jews in total respect). The same week that WIRED Magazine had a cover story on a new two way sustainable energy grid, Dick Cheney was meeting secretly with Enron and Exxon. Iraq happened because Dick Cheney wanted it to happen, the Zionists provided the lies, and the Congress and the media both were intimidated into ignoring General Tony Zinn, General Shinseki, and others including myself, who said quite clearly that this was an insanely bad thing to do with an incalculably high cost.

Over-all this is an extremely welll-researched, well-written presentation of fourteen chapters that are logical and thoughtful and absolutely meritorious of full consideration.

I was very surprised to read, very carefully, two chapters dissecting two of my personal heros, Sy Hersh and Noam Chomsky, and must confess that the author provoked in me thoughtful concern and reflection. I trust Sy and Noam, but the author is so well-organized that he causes me to realize that everybody has multiple levels of agenda, and that we must all take greater care in discriminating our sources of information.

Congressman Jim Moran, who represents my district, has personally said that Zionish have too much influence on Congress, and I agree. Tom Moran has been a very good representative, and he speaks the truth.

Here are some books and a DVD that can put the totally unacceptable Zionist influence on the USA in a larger context:

Hostile Takeover: How Big Money and Corruption Conquered Our Government–And How We Take It Back
The Marketing of Evil: How Radicals, Elitists, and Pseudo-Experts Sell Us Corruption Disguised As Freedom
The Global Class War: How America's Bipartisan Elite Lost Our Future – and What It Will Take to Win It Back
The Best Democracy Money Can Buy
Licensed to Kill: Hired Guns in the War on Terror
Why We Fight
Fog Facts : Searching for Truth in the Land of Spin (Nation Books)
Running on Empty: How the Democratic and Republican Parties Are Bankrupting Our Future and What Americans Can Do About It
The Broken Branch: How Congress Is Failing America and How to Get It Back on Track (Institutions of American Democracy)

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Review: They Dare to Speak Out–People and Institutions Confront Israel’s Lobby

5 Star, Atrocities & Genocide, Congress (Failure, Reform), Politics, Religion & Politics of Religion
Speak Out
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Harder Read But Most Worthy, Start with the Other Book

September 3, 2007

Paul Findley

This book is a perfect counter-point to The Power of Israel in the United States. I review that book also, and recommend both books to every American, just as I also recommend the books that document how the Saudis have bought the Bush Family and the Republican and Democratic parties, neither of which represents We the People. Completely apart from the venal immorality of Dick Cheney (see my review of Vice: Dick Cheney and the Hijacking of the American Presidency in which I itemized the 23 high crimes and misdemeanors documented by that book), the fact is that Congress has been bought by multiple parties, and no longer represents We the People.

This book is a harder, longer read, so I recommend you start with the other book. As with the other book, this book is a strongly documented and very lengthy catalog of the sins of the Zionists and the Israeli Government, not at all against the moderate Jews and their legitimate concerns. I have seen Gaza and Beirut, and what Israel has done to the Palestinians, to the former “Paris” of the Middle East, combined with their Assault on the Liberty, is unforgivable.

This book logically catalogs how the Zionists intimidate even such a person as Ted Turner, who was forced to back down when he said both sides were committing terrorism (there is in fact a UN Resolution that finds Israel guilty of genocide and racism, but then that is one of those “fog facts” that our totalitarian monsters choose to ignore.

The author organizes the book around how Zionists silence the small and the weak, while buying out the Oval Office, the Congress, the media, while also subverting academic freedon.

I especially like the author's conclusion, “What Price Israel?” The US taxpayer is subsidizing Israeli genocide and Israeli idiocy, and the US and Israel appear to be the last two countries to continue to believe in the value of force that is both unaffordable and unsustainable in an unconquerable world.

Congressman Tom Moran, who represents my district, has personally said that Zionish have too much influence on Congress, and I agree. Tom Moran has been a very good representative, and he speaks the truth.

Here are some books and a DVD that can put the totally unacceptable Zionist influence on the USA in a larger context:

Hostile Takeover: How Big Money and Corruption Conquered Our Government–And How We Take It Back
The Marketing of Evil: How Radicals, Elitists, and Pseudo-Experts Sell Us Corruption Disguised As Freedom
The Global Class War: How America's Bipartisan Elite Lost Our Future – and What It Will Take to Win It Back
The Best Democracy Money Can Buy
Fog Facts : Searching for Truth in the Land of Spin (Nation Books)
Running on Empty: How the Democratic and Republican Parties Are Bankrupting Our Future and What Americans Can Do About It
The Broken Branch: How Congress Is Failing America and How to Get It Back on Track (Institutions of American Democracy)

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Review: The American Truth

5 Star, 9-11 Truth Books & DVDs, Congress (Failure, Reform), Executive (Partisan Failure, Reform), Impeachment & Treason, Terrorism & Jihad
American Truth
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5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant Execution Easy to Absorb, a Major Contribution

September 2, 2007

Nick Shelton

I loved this book! The author has done an utterly superb job of laying out “the facts” in a series of concise pages, and then woven a fictiional tale that integrates the facts and illuminates the reality that all Americans have been betrayed by their “elected” leaders (one must be reminded, over and over, that Bush-Cheney stole the two elections, and the limp timid Democrats are so entwined with our corrupt two-party system they dared not object).

I have read a lot of the 9-11 books and seen a lot of the 9-11 DVDs, and I would rank this book right up there in the top five across the board. Certainly Webster Tarpley's book, the DVD's Loose Change, and others (see my lists and below) are quality pieces, but I salute this author for gifting America with is work. Every American should buy and read this book, it cuts to the chase and makes clear that both our Executive and our Congress are guilty of treason, high crimes and misdemeanors, and must be held to account.

I used to think that waiting for the next election would be better, but now I realize that if we do not impeach, indict, and convict these criminals, that the world will conclude that their sins are our sins, their crimes are our crimes. George Bush the Stupid and Dick Cheney the Criminal are the Benedict Arnolds of our time.

Kudos to the author for a first-rate presentation of facts and a fictional context that is extremely well presented. The conclusion is awesome, and demonstrates conclusively that We the People can take back the power because we are Digital Natives, and these criminals are Digital Immigrants. We can run circles around them. The truth WILL come out. Justice WILL be done. God Bless America, and may each traiotr to the Republic burn in hell forevermore.

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Review: Foreign Follies–America’s New Global Empire

5 Star, Congress (Failure, Reform), Empire, Sorrows, Hubris, Blowback, Executive (Partisan Failure, Reform), Impeachment & Treason
Foreign Follies
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5.0 out of 5 stars Definitive Statement on How Real Conservatives Despise Bush Lies and Cheney High Crimes,

August 11, 2007

Doug Bandow

Published in 2006, this collection of essays ranges from the late 1990's to its year of publication, and I was quite astonished to discover two things fairly quickly into the work:

First, the author is a conservative–a true conservative–and firmly opposed to what he calls “promiscuous intervention” or elective wars or global rampant empire-building. I was expecting a left of center diatribe against the follies of the Bush-Cheney Administration. Not so. The author is consistent–he railed against the follies of the Clinton-Clinton Administration first, and this followed over.

Second, as an estranged moderate Republican who believes in fiscal conservatism, a small government, and not supporting dictators or decadent despots like the debauched Saudi “royal” family of swindlers, pedophiles, and perverts, I was stunned to find my conservative roots reaffirmed, and the neo-conservatives, the false conservatives, soundly lambasted for their chicken-hawk enlargement of the military-industrial complex.

The author opens early with the statement that America is no longer a Republic, and I completely agree. The author, affiliated with the Cato Institute, has given me a new and deeper appreciation for that organization's intellectual and constitutional line of reasoning.

The early part of the book is a superb collection of varied arguments for completely avoiding foreign adventurism that enriches a few in the military-industrial complex, at three great costs:

1) Loss of lives and limbs among our brave troops;
2) Loss of natural treasure we cannot space on others
3) Loss of morality and rise of vulnerability to hatred occasioned by our foreign presence

The latter point merits special emphasis. The author's views are totally consistent with my own reading and world experience:

1) Morality, as Will and Ariel Durant tell us in their The Lessons of History, is a strategic asset of incalculable proportions. Others, such as Max Manwaring, in The Search for Security: A U.S. Grand Strategy for the Twenty-First Century tell us that security–long-term security, can only come from legitimacy, legitimacy in the eyes of both our own citizens and denizens in every clime and place where we venture.

2) Bin Laden is on solid ground to use terrorism against us, an asymmetric method that is necessary for smaller actors, and the author is clear in validating the degree to which we merit and invite such terrorist attacks by intervening and by supporting debauched dictators like the Saudis. The author states clearly: “We must reduce the sources of foreign hostility to the US.” The author quotes Pape, author of Dying to Win: The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism among others on how suicidal terrorism is correlated with US occupations overseas, *not* with radical Islam per se. He goes on to say, as my colleague Robert Baer has documented in See No Evil: The True Story of a Ground Soldier in the CIA's War on Terrorism and Sleeping with the Devil: How Washington Sold Our Soul for Saudi Crude, that “American commitment to the Saudi royal family is a moral blemish and a practical danger. See also Ambassador Mark Palmer's denunciation of our support for 42 of the 44 remaining dictators in Breaking the Real Axis of Evil: How to Oust the World's Last Dictators by 2025.

In 1999 the author penned this statement against the Clinton Administration that applies equally today to the Bush-Cheney Administration: “Indeed, where the President and his aides are arrogant, ignorant, and incompetent, others must lead.” I agree with this author of the strategic logic of terrorism against US misbehavior, and point the interested reader to Pape's book above.

I am heartened to read this conservative author's sensible denunciation of both the lies of Bush and Cheney to all Americans, and of the idiocy of the neo-conservatives in striving for increased unconstitutional executive power, and in believing in an “immaculate presidency” that can do no wrong. He clearly labels Bush as wrong and as owing all Americans an apology. He properly dismisses the “stay the course” propaganda by pointing out that when you are on the wrong road, you get off at the first available exit.

He segues from that to a proper denunciation of American support for a genocidal racist Israel and offers this lovely quote: “Crackpot theology is no substitute for thoughtful analysis is developing foreign policy.”

The author offers an elegant essay against conscription and the draft. As a taxpayer who now seems that 75% of my taxes are misspent on elective war, secret earmarks, and fraudulent procurements that benefit a small elite while destroying the working poor and the vanishing middle class, I am now all for eliminating federal taxes and forcing the federal government to apply to the states for funding of “common” needs. War is not in our common interest, and we should not have allowed our Congress and our Executive to become spendthrifts with out money–as Davy Crockett learned–it is not theirs to give!

I part with the author only on the subject of Taiwan–he is wrong to see Taiwan as a beacon of freedom. Chang Kai Sheik was one of the greatest war criminals and thieves on the planet in his time, and a cursory reading of the literature, for example, the books by Sterling and Peggy Seagraves, will quickly document that Taiwan is both an inherent part of China, and not at all a bastion of freedom as much as limpet fish sucking the blood from the American's so naĆÆve as to believe these cheating miscreants.

Over-all I found this author to be inspiring. He neglects to address the war crimes of the extremist Republicans, nor does he venture to comment on the very high probability that Dick Cheney, Rudy Gulliani, and Larry Silverstein (and their insurance co-conspirators) are guilty along with Donald Rumsfeld of the mass murder of most of those who died on 9-11 to controlled demolitions in NYC and a missile into the Pentagon. Evidently there are some areas where “true blue” conservatives do not dare venture. For those interested in this aspect of the *other* neo-conservative crime of the century see my lists on 9-11 books and DVDs, and on evaluating Cheney, and most especially, Vice: Dick Cheney and the Hijacking of the American Presidency, where my review lists 23 of the 25 high crimes and misdemeanors of Dick Cheney that are documented in the public record (for the other two, see Ron Suskind's The One Percent Doctrine: Deep Inside America's Pursuit of Its Enemies Since 9/11)

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Review: The Folly of War–American Foreign Policy, 1898-2005

6 Star Top 10%, Congress (Failure, Reform), Executive (Partisan Failure, Reform), Strategy, Values, Ethics, Sustainable Evolution, War & Face of Battle

Folly of War5.0 out of 5 stars Truly Brilliant, Reflects a Sea Change in Scholarship

July 31, 2007

Donald E. Schmidt

There are some fine reviews, so my primary purpose in posting this review is to flag it for the folks that keep an eye on what I read.

My one complaint is the tiny font size. I had to get special glasses from the supermarket to read this book, a $15 cost that should not have been necessary. The publisher made a serious mistake on the font size and I urge that all future printings be at least 11 font. This entire book is in a font normally used for obscure notes, and it takes dedication to get through this. Such valuable material should NOT be so parsimonesouly treated by a publisher, who should have known better.

I am among those that believe that war is a racket and that we live in an unconquerable world where the only possible positive outcome comes from combining the wealth of networks with the new craft of intelligence and free distance learning as well as on demand answers via cell phone, in order to empower the five billion at the base of the pyramid. Only they can create infinite wealth that stabilizes the entire planet in a sustainable fashion.

This author has ventured where few have had the imagination, persistence, or integrity to go. He has taken on the military-industrial establishment, the banks, the rule by secrecy and scarcity mandarins, and he has nailed it. This is a Nobel Prize level effort and I for one am deeply impressed.

His organization is superb, and even his fanciful conversation among all our Presidents is provocative. This is not “turgid text,” this is the fabric of history restored and rewoven.

Shortly Medard Gabel will have a book come out entitled “Seven Billion Billionaries,” and I urge one and all to buy that book along with this one. They are two sides of the coin. This book is focused on the folly of war (which today costs $900 billion a year across all nations, with the USA being the most spendthrift), while Medard's focuses on the inexpensiveness and achievability of peace and prosperity–in his carefully documented manuscript, every bit the equal of this author's, he shows how $230 billion a year–LESS than a third of what we spend on our varied militaries, could resolve every single one of the high level threats to mankind identified by LtGen Dr. Brent Scowcroft, USAF (Ret), and the other members of this United Nations panel.

I hope this book is put into the digital domain prompty, for the wealth of information it contains will be made all the more valuable as we move to an era of transparent budgets, digital democracy, and constant oversight from the people whose money has been wasted so cruelly all these years.

See my many lists for other recommended readings. Below are a handful of books that complement this one.
War Is a Racket: The Anti-War Classic by America's Most Decorated General, Two Other Anti=Interventionist Tracts, and Photographs from the Horror of It
The Unconquerable World: Power, Nonviolence, and the Will of the People
The New Craft of Intelligence: Personal, Public, & Political–Citizen's Action Handbook for Fighting Terrorism, Genocide, Disease, Toxic Bombs, & Corruption
Designing Web-Based Training: How to Teach Anyone Anything Anywhere Anytime
Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Movement in the World Came into Being and Why No One Saw It Coming
The Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic (The American Empire Project)
Rogue Nation: American Unilateralism and the Failure of Good Intentions
Wilson's Ghost: Reducing the Risk of Conflict, Killing, and Catastrophe in the 21st Century
Deliver Us from Evil: Peacekeepers, Warlords and a World of Endless Conflict
The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism

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Review: Dunces of Doomsday–10 Blunders That Gave Rise to Radical Islam, Terrorist Regimes, And the Threat of an American Hiroshima

5 Star, Complexity & Catastrophe, Congress (Failure, Reform), Empire, Sorrows, Hubris, Blowback, Executive (Partisan Failure, Reform), Security (Including Immigration), Terrorism & Jihad
Dunces
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5.0 out of 5 stars Citizen's Primer on Failure of Government & Parties

July 7, 2007

Paul L. Williams

I like the reviews I see here, so rather than repeat them I will simply say that I know Paul Williams, his first book, Osama's Revenge: THE NEXT 9/11 : What the Media and the Government Haven't Told You is first class, and both that book and this book are on my list of top 40 books for Earth Threat #9: Terrorism.

It should trouble all Americans that the US Government, under the failed congress (see The Broken Branch: How Congress Is Failing America and How to Get It Back on Track (Institutions of American Democracy) and Breach of Trust: How Washington Turns Outsiders Into Insiders), parties (see Running on Empty: How the Democratic and Republican Parties Are Bankrupting Our Future and What Americans Can Do About It), and Dick Cheney (see Vice: Dick Cheney and the Hijacking of the American Presidency, my long review itemizes the 23 high crimes and misdemeanors documented by the book), is focusing on terrorism rather than all ten threats. See my lists on threats, policies, and players.

I have put this book second in my list for terrorism, it is easier to read that Ralph Peters, but both books will make your blood boil. My own two books helpful to the public are available free at OSS.Net, but much more fun if you buy them in book form from Amazon:

The New Craft of Intelligence: Personal, Public, & Political–Citizen's Action Handbook for Fighting Terrorism, Genocide, Disease, Toxic Bombs, & Corruption
THE SMART NATION ACT: Public Intelligence in the Public Interest

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