These essays chronicle the growing militarization of US policy in North Africa and the Gulf and the historic confrontation between the Arab democratic revolution and the imperial backed satraps; between Libyans fighting for their independence and the Euro-American naval and air forces ravaging the country on behalf of their inept local clients.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
About the Author
James Petras is a Bartle Professor (Emeritus) of Sociology at Binghamton University, New York. He is the author of 64 books published in 29 languages, and over 560 articles in professional journals, including the American Sociological Review, British Journal of Sociology, Social Research, Journal of Contemporary Asia, and Journal of Peasant Studies.
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NATO's War and the Phony "Rebel Uprising” Nothing is more obvious than the fact that the entire war against Libya was in every strategic and material fashion NATO's war. The casting of the rag-tag collection of monarchists, Islamist fundamentalists, London and Washington-based ex-pats and disaffected Gaddafi officials as "rebels” is a pure case of mass media propaganda. From the beginning the 'rebels' depended completely on the military, political, diplomatic and media power of NATO, without which the de facto mercenaries would not have lasted a month, holed up in Benghazi. A detailed analysis of the main features of the conquest of Libya confirms this assault as a NATO war. NATO launched brutal air and sea attacks destroying the Libyan air force, ships, energy depots, tanks, artillery and armories and killed and wounded thousands of soldiers, police and civilian militia fighters. Until NATO's invasion the mercenary 'rebel' ground forces had not advanced beyond Benghazi and could barely 'hold' territory afterwards. The 'rebel' mercenaries 'advanced' only behind the withering round-the-clock air attacks of the NATO offensive. NATO air strikes were responsible for the massive destruction of Libyan civilian and defensive military infrastructure, bombing ports, highways, warehouses, airports, hospitals, electrical and water plants and neighborhood housing, in a war of 'terror' designed to 'turn' the loyalist mass base against the Gaddafi government. The mercenaries did not have popular backing among Libyan civilians, but NATO brutality weakened active opposition against the 'rebel' mercenaries. NATO won key diplomatic support for the invasion by securing UN resolutions, mobilizing their client rulers in the Arab League, procuring US mercenary trained 'legionnaires' from Qatar and the financial backing of the rich rabble in the Gulf. NATO forced 'cohesion' among the feuding clans of self-appointed 'rebel' mercenary leaders via its ("freezing”) seizure of overseas Libyan government assets amounting to billions of dollars. Thus the financing, arming, training and advising by "Special Forces” were all under NATO control. NATO imposed economic sanctions, cutting off Libya's income from oil sales.. NATO ran an intensive propaganda campaign parading the imperial offensive as a "rebel uprising”; disguising the blistering bombardment of a defenseless anti-colonial army as 'humanitarian intervention' in defense of 'pro-democracy civilians'.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Current Arab Spring,
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This review is from: The Arab Revolt and the Imperialist Counterattack (Paperback)
The book gives other side of the picture in the Arab Spring. And it attributes the Imperialist role in countering its effect.
3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
TImely, Deep Historical Insights, Some Gaps & Biases,
By Robert D. Steele (Oakton, VA United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER) (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)
This review is from: The Arab Revolt and the Imperialist Counterattack (Paperback)
I would normally wait but in the absence of any reviews want to just praise this book as timely, with deep historical insights, and a few gaps and biases as well as no index, the latter almost always causes me to remove a star. The book has been rushed into print and suffers from that rush, but I fully anticipate that a second edition will be fleshed out, add an index, and be a full five star contribution. This is a print on demand book (Amazon's superb CreateSpace offering) and only 78 pages, it is properly priced and that I find especially commendable.The author is nothing less than a superior analyst with very high integrity, and his historical knowledge, as well as his historical contributions to non-fiction literature, cannot be denied. Among the core findings that I appreciate are the author's early focus on the complete ignorance of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) [and of course also the Departments of State and Defense] with respect to both the opposition leaders (all of them, not just the normal suspects] and the underlying preconditions of revolution across all dimensions. I am a little uncomfortable with the author's imposition of his own tried and true framework and his somewhat shrill condemnation of the West as "imperialist" but being guilt of the first flaw my first, and increasingly radicalized by what I see as an out of control US Government committing war crimes "in our name" and without Constitutional authority, I have to give this author and this book the benefit of the doubt and call this "required reading" for anyone who wishes to understand both the FAILURE of the Arab revolt and the ROLE of the US in undermining what the US SHOULD BE striving to support--the emergence of dignity and democracy for all. I think of Howard Zinn as I finish this short and totally incomplete review--public power is a power no government can repress, but the US Government lacks both intelligence and integrity, so it keeps on doing the wrong thing as expensively and as hatefully as it can. I pray the American people will wake and and realize that the USA is a two-party political tyranny in the service of Israel and Goldman Sachs and European banking families, and has zero commitment to the public interest at home or abroad. Buy the book--write strong critical reviews--this book certainly needs to be re-issued again in a year, fleshed out, but in the meantime, it is as good a starting point as exists. See Also: Web of Deceit: The History of Western Complicity in Iraq, from Churchill to Kennedy to George W. Bush The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 Freedom Next Time: Resisting the Empire Descent into Chaos: The U.S. and the Disaster in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Central Asia New Turkish Republic: Turkey As a Pivotal State in the Muslim World (Pivotal State Series) The Second World: How Emerging Powers Are Redefining Global Competition in the Twenty-first Century Why Leaders Lie: The Truth About Lying in International Politics Shooting the Truth: The Rise of American Political Documentaries Long Strange Journey: An Intelligence Memoir Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA
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