Imperialism

The Wall St. Journal Discovers Corporate Lawlessness

Many decades after 'environmentalists' raised the alarm, the WSJ has discovered that corporations can not be trusted to tell the truth about their environmental crimes.

"Even after BP PLC's broken well under the Gulf of Mexico stops spewing, we might never know how much oil spilled.The extent of earlier spills of comparable magnitude remains disputed, even though they were easier to analyze. Oil companies don't have much incentive to measure spills accurately, and government officials haven't always needed to get a reliable count.

The Secret History of the American Empire

Amazon Item:

The Secret History of the American Empire: The Truth About Economic Hit Men, Jackals, and How to Change the World

A tragic story told in a surprisingly engaging and readable style. Although the book lacks footnotes and source citations, the overall story still rings true. Should be required reading among the denizens of North America.

All the Shah's Men

Amazon Item:

All the Shah's Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror

Kinzer reconstructs the U.S. CIA's 1953 overthrow of the elected leader of Iran, Mohammad Mossadegh, who was wildly popular for having nationalized his country's oil industry. The coup ushered in the long and brutal dictatorship of Mohammad Reza Shah, widely seen as a U.S. puppet. A veteran New York Times foreign correspondent, he shows that until early in 1953, Great Britain and the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company were imperialist baddies.

The Sorrows of Empire

Amazon Item:

The Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic (American Empire Project)

Since September 2001, the United States has "undergone a transformation from republic to empire that may well prove irreversible," writes Chalmers Johnson. Unlike past global powers, however, America has built an empire of bases rather than colonies, creating in the process a government that is obsessed with maintaining absolute military dominance over the world, Johnson claims. The Department of Defense currently lists 725 official U.S. military bases outside of the country and 969 within the 50 states (not to mention numerous secret bases).

F**k your parliament and your constitution...If your Prime Minister gives me talk about democracy, parliament and constitutions, he, his parliament and his constitution (jof Greece) may not last very long.

— US President Lyndon Johnson