Strange Liberators: Militarism, Mayhem, and the Pursuit of Profit (Paperback)

~ Gregory Elich (Author), Michael Parenti (Introduction), Mickey Z (Afterword)

Editorial Reviews

Review

A very detailed analysis of US foreign policy and especially how its words run utterly counter to its actions... How does one convey the nature of a rapacious, imperialist state to all but the already converted without reeling off statistics or resorting to lefty versions of sound bites? Elich does it with a good deal of sarcasm laced with irony, and then pours the facts on top as a rich source for us to relish... Gaining access to the facts is akin to an archaeological excavation that few either have the skill, understanding or patience to undertake. Luckily, we have people like Elich to do the digging for us. -- William Bowles, "Illusion and Reality," Investigating Imperialism, September 23, 2006

Radical political scientist and historian Michael Parenti writes in his introduction to Greg Elich's new book, Strange Liberators: "The difference between what U.S. citizens think their rulers are doing in the world and what these rulers actually are doing is one of the great propaganda achievements of history." With his ambitious attempt to combat that propaganda, Elich confronts the lies of the U.S. government and its servile media as he takes on what he calls the "hard cases." North Korea's nuclear program, the imperialist assault on Yugoslavia and the machinations against Zimbabwe are his major topics. Even for people who have been following these conflicts closely, Elich has found material that sheds new light on the events. His work regarding the DPRK is especially on target now. -- John Catalinotto, "Countering Imperialist Propaganda," Workers World, July 20, 2006

Product Description

"Gregory Elich is the model investigative journalist of the anti-imperialist left; tenacious, thorough, penetrating, meticulous and above all, uncompromising. On Yugoslavia, North Korea, Zimbabwe, and Iraq, no one digs deeper, and no one uncovers more, than Elich." Stephen Gowans, political commentator, What’s Left

"Using a wealth of historic evidence and revelatory analysis, deep research and eye-witness investigation, Gregory Elich treats what lawyers call the ‘hard cases’: Yugoslavia, Croatia, Zimbabwe, North Korea, and certain untouched questions about Iraq, issues that have been most thoroughly misrepresented in the corporate media and even by political commentators and activists who claim to be on the left. Elich wastes no time with genuflections to the dominant ideology. Instead he sticks to the awful facts and glaring truths that compose the underlying reality of the U.S. global empire. He ties in his deeply informed case studies to the wider issues of U.S. imperial policy, the broader questions of war and peace, and the general crisis that faces the entire world and the planet’s ecology itself. Thereby he performs a most valuable service to persons all across the political spectrum." Michael Parenti, author of The Culture Struggle, The Assassination of Julius Caesar and To Kill a Nation

"Gregory Elich offers a clear and vital analysis of the goals of private interests and their secret collusion with the Bush administration to cover up a broad range of dangers, from war to global warming. Scholars, researchers and the lay public interested in US foreign policy will find this book both vital and illuminating." Lenora Foerstel,vice president of Women for Mutual Security, and author of Confronting the Margaret Mead Legacy

"Gregory Elich has dedicated himself to skillfully unearthing and disseminating the information that typically goes unsaid. He provides us with the well-researched fundamentals we cannot and should not expect to get from our newspapers or televisions. Put another way, Elich teaches us to identify the ‘gates’ that restrict our freedom of thought." Mickey Z, author of The Seven Deadly Spins and 50 American Revolutions You’re Not Supposed to Know

"For years, Gregory Elich has made his mark as a journalist-historian who pairs a special literary flair with a talent for uncovering real time, tightly held intelligence secrets. In this profoundly ominous time of modern history, there are precious few contemporary writers who brook no compromise with the truth. This volume stands tall, and the author is a special breed." Louis Wolf, publisher of Covert Action Quarterly

"Informed Americans know about their government's interventions into Vietnam, Cuba, Afghanistan, Iraq, and elsewhere. They know about the violations of international law, the injustices, the lies, and the harm caused by these actions. But the case of Yugoslavia tends to draw a blank. Even worse, it tends to elicit support for this ‘humanitarian’ intervention. Correcting this gross misunderstanding and distortion of history is one reason among many for reading this book." William Blum, author of Killng Hope and Rogue State

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Product Details

• Paperback: 424 pages
• Publisher: Llumina Press (May 12, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1595265708
• ISBN-13: 978-1595265708
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #701,207 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Revealing and Provocative!, January 5, 2007

By	Netfa (Washington DC) - See all my reviews

I have never read a book that educated me in such a plain and detailed way about the means and methods of Western imperialism. Mr. Elich, the author cuts right through all the theoretical discourse one could have on such subjects and gets straight to the concrete information a person needs in order to know how hegemonic power works in the current world order. Also, the fact that this book touches on a diverse array of examples/places within major areas of the world is also fantastic. Elich does so with meticulous research and intriguing literary style. This book is a demonstration of major insight by Mr. Elich to focus on some of the most misunderstood places in the world, on exactly those things that are most misunderstood about them, and how the powers that be systematically generate these misunderstandings. The title is completely fitting. Now Iam always recommending it anytime and anywthere i get the chance, Strange Liberators; Militarism, Mayhem and the Pursuit of Profit!

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fascinating volume, December 8, 2006

By	A reader - See all my reviews

I was particularly impressed by Mr. Elich's exploration of Western perfidy in the dismantlement of Yugoslavia and its campaign to bring non-aligned Zimbabwe to its knees. His defense of the struggle to preserve socialist Yugoslavia and of Zimbabwe's program of equitable land distribution are powerfully documented and keenly argued. Mr. Elich is clearly a man of the left, and his book challenges misperceptions of important issues where the fate of entire peoples are in the balance.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent study of capitalism's real effects, November 28, 2006

By	William Podmore (London United Kingdom) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Martin Luther King noted in 1967 that the Vietnamese people `must see Americans as strange liberators'. In this brilliant and deeply-researched book, investigative journalist Gregory Elich shows how the US state has not changed its spots. He proves this by analysing its actions against Iraq, North Korea, Yugoslavia and Zimbabwe.

The US state promotes the `free market' across the world. Elich shows how Honduras, Bangladesh and China, among all too many others, compete in a race to the bottom, each forcing workers to work 14-hour days, 7 days a week.

The US state has committed many war crimes in Iraq, including the organised looting of Iraq's cultural heritage, sponsored by the `American Council for Cultural Policy', a group of dealers and collectors which opposes `retentionist' laws on the export of antiquities.

In 1993 the US state declared that it was retargeting many of its nuclear missiles from the Soviet Union to the DPRK. William Perry, Clinton's Defense Secretary, admitted that he "spent much of the first half of 1994 preparing for war on the Korean peninsula."

After the 1994 Agreement between the USA and the DPRK, the US state broke every single one of its pledges - to provide a light water reactor by 2003, to abandon its aggressive nuclear posture, to recognise the DPRK, to end its embargo of the DPRK's trade, investment and credit, and to provide substitute energy. The European Parliament as usual backed the US state by voting to cancel its contribution to the energy project.

NATO forcibly devolved the multi-ethnic state of Yugoslavia, carving it up into small, easily-controlled mono-ethnic puppet states, while claiming to defend multi-ethnicity against the Serbs! The US state backed the secessionists. It supported the KLA terrorists. In the first eight months of the NATO occupation, the KLA expelled 350,000 people from Kosovo. NATO created a Kosovo Police Force, composed almost entirely of ex-KLA soldiers, and a Kosovo Protection Corps, which, the UN pointed out, pursued "criminal activities - killings, ill-treatment/torture, illegal policing, abuse of authority, intimidation, breaches of political neutrality and hate-speech."

The US state also supported Croatia's 1991 secessionist war, when its forces expelled Serb civilians and, unreported in the West's media, tortured and killed their prisoners, for example at Camp Lora in Split.

In Zimbabwe in 2002, just 4,500 white farmers still owned 70% of the land. So the government stepped up land reform and ended the IMF's Structural Adjustment Program. In response, Bush, Blair, the IMF, NATO, the EU, and `Non-Governmental Organisations' funded by NATO and EU governments, organised a campaign of sanctions, covert operations, political interference and propaganda lies against Zimbabwe's government.

Yet this government proved popular with the people of Zimbabwe: in 2002 Robert Mugabe won the Presidential elections yet again, by 400,000 votes, in an election the South African Observer Team called legitimate. Then his party ZANU-PF won 2005's parliamentary and Senate elections, elections also deemed fair by independent observers. Mugabe drily noted, "There was no democracy here, no human rights at all until the people of Zimbabwe decided to fight."