Comment
In a speech to Congress on September 20, 2001, shortly after the terrorist attacks of
September 11, President George W.Bush posed this question: “Why do they hate us?”
And he answers: “They hate our freedoms, our freedom of religion, our freedom of speech,
our freedom to vote.” He commented later that he was amazed “that there’s such
misunderstanding of what our country is about that people would hat us.”
Coming from a President this statement serves well to illustrates both, the ignorance and
arrogance prevalent in the highest decision making circles in the US. This statement
goes beyond blunt deception, it is so far off target that it is difficult to find a common
denominator on which to base a counter argument. People genuinely believing in this
simplistic world view (President or not) unfortunately mostly do not find their way to
books like “Blowback.” It is easier to believe that Saddam Hussein possessed WMD,
or that he would cooperate with Al Qaeda to execute 911, a view that apparently was
shared by 75% of the US troops just before Iraq was invaded.
Like any other writer Johnson portrays his own view of his own field of expertise.
Given his history, this makes him an excellent source of fairly balanced information. He
presents his facts with much thought and restrains from abstractions which makes his
writings easily digestible.
As ancient Rome fell due to military overstretch and political infighting, one might assume
that our elites drew some lessons there, however, it seems that Churchill was write when
he said: “history shows that men do not learn from history”. If you want to broaden your
view on past world affairs that affect our lives today or even have a glimpse of the future, “Blowback” might just do that.
