Rogue State

To lovers and admirers of the United States this book makes for tough reading as it openly discusses the crimes committed by the world’s only superpower. Nevertheless, having been lauded by Osama bin Laden, it was propelled to the top of the bestseller chart within hours. Successful as well were earlier books by white-bearded Blum (81), a writer of Polish background: West-Bloc Dissident: A Cold War Memoir (2002); Killing Hope: US Military and CIA Interventions since WW II - updated (2003); and Freeing the World to Death: Essays on the American Empire (2004): all titles revealing the author’s past love affair with his country of immigration. Now, however, the author sees the United States as ‘the world`s greatest threat’, striving for world domination with a ‘Holy Triumvirate’, including the NATO and the European Union. Therefore, the events of 9/11, while inexcusable, are explicable for the author who sees his country as ‘the Mecca of hypocrisy’. (pp. xiv, xx) Blum claims that, if he were the U.S. president, he would stop terrorist threats against his country within three days by (i) publically apologizing for American crimes, (ii) stopping US intervention globally, and (iii) dropping Israel from its position as the “51st American state”. Blum assumes, though, that on the fourth day he would be assassinated (p. xxxii).