America's Deadliest Export

December 10, 2012
It’s striking but unsurprising that nowhere among the blurbs decorating this blistering treatise appears the endorsement that most recently made journalist Blum’s name as an opponent of America’s foreign policy: a 2006 Osama bin Laden communiqué. The terrorist leader’s unexpected recommendation of Blum’s 2002 Rogue State, which the author refused to disavow, is just one of many points discussed in this sometimes overreaching collection of new and previously published essays. Blum’s uncompromising thesis about the inherently aggressive role of the U.S. on the world stage may resonate with readers disappointed by the Obama administration’s failure to back away from Bush-era ”war on terror” policies, a subject amply covered here. Blum’s experiences, from serving as a young Vietnam-era State Department staffer to observing as a journalist the U.S.-endorsed Chilean coup, sharpens the sting of his polemic. Blum can sometimes be his own worst enemy, whether he’s hailing Muammar Khadafy and Saddam Hussein’s popularity at home or leaving foreign policy behind altogether to speak his mind on a formless grab bag of topics. However, Blum’s voice, for all its stridency, remains strong enough for this book to serve as a valuable corrective to complacent mainstream editorializing.