Imperial Crusades: Iraq, Afghanistan, and Yugoslavia

by Alexander Cockburn, Jeffrey St. Clair

The war on Iraq didn’t begin with the lethal pyrotechnics of Shock and Awe, and it didn’t end with George W. Bush’s made-for-TV aircraft landing. Undetected by the mainstream press, the US campaign against Iraq began many years before, featuring cruel sanctions, weekly bombardments, and assassinations. With Saddam deposed, the US now finds itself mired in a grinding occupation, its troops under constant attack with no exit in sight.

Iraq was just one of three major imperial crusades in the last decade, orchestrated by a new generation of American politicians, both Democrat and Republican, who backed pre-emptive strikes to overthrow unruly regimes in Yugoslavia and Afghanistan under the pretext of humanitarian intervention. Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair reported on these wars as they happened. Years ahead of the pack, they exposed the economic motives behind the wars and how fraudulent intelligence, a spaniel press corps, a servile United Nations, and corporate propaganda techniques were used to sell them to the public.

Imperial Crusades chronicles the lies that are now returning almost daily to haunt the liars in Washington and London, the secret agendas and the under-reported carnage of these wars. It is a ripely vivid, blow-by-blow commentary from Cockburn and St. Clair, and regular CounterPunch writers such as the late Edward Said, former marines Chris White and Scott Cossette, historians Gary Leupp and Doug Lummis, psychologist Carol Norris, economist Paul de Rooij, human rights lawyer Joanne Mariner, and former senior CIA analysts Bill Christison and Ray McGovern.

Genres: Politics, History, Nonfiction, The United States Of America, Middle East, American History, Sociology

352 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2004

About the author

Alexander Claud Cockburn was an American political journalist. Cockburn was brought up in Ireland but has lived and worked in the United States since 1972. Together with Jeffrey St. Clair, he edits the political newsletter CounterPunch. Cockburn also writes the "Beat the Devil" column for The Nation and a weekly syndicated column for the Los Angeles Times as well as for The First Post, which is syndicated by Creators Syndicate.

Reviews

[alisha · Rating 4 out of 5]

more than ever crucial to read.

[Izak Miklavčič · Rating 2 out of 5]

Weird anti-abortion stuff gets brought up for no reason.

[Isidore · Rating 3 out of 5]

These essays from the journal CounterPunch were of immense value when they were first issued, and my moderate rating is no reflection on the integrity with which these writers continued to pursue fact at a time when official mendacity and superpatriotism made it extremely difficult to do so. However, the viewpoints expressed seem much less startling than they were ten or more years ago, as mainstream journalism has slowly begun to catch up with reality, and their usefulness as a corrective to "orthodox" perspectives is now diminished. Also, quite a lot of new information has become available since the essays were written, and their primary value is now more historical than anything else; more comprehensive and up-to-date studies of the events described are available, or forthcoming.

Even the most dated Cockburn essay usually remains hugely entertaining, thanks to his waspish wit and brilliant turn of phrase, but here his contributions here seem relatively few compared with the other CounterPunch collections, and he scintillates less than usual.

Vexingly, there is no proper table of contents, so that it is impossible to conveniently locate a particular essay or contributor.