Nemesis
The Last Days of the American Republic
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
In the stunning conclusion to his bestselling Blowback trilogy, Chalmers Johnson exposes the overreach of the American empire and its dire consequences for the republic
In his prophetic book Blowback, Chalmers Johnson linked the CIA's clandestine activities abroad to disaster at home. In The Sorrows of Empire, he explored how the growth of American militarism and global garrisoning have jeopardized our stability. Now in Nemesis, Johnson reveals the ways in which imperial overstretch is undermining the republic itself, both economically and politically.
Delving into new areas—from plans to militarize outer space to Constitution-breaking presidential activities at home and the devastating corruption of a toothless Congress—Nemesis offers a striking description of the trap into which the ambitions of America's leaders have taken us. Drawing comparisons to empires past, Johnson explores in vivid detail the unintended consequences of our dependence on a permanent war economy.
What does it mean when a nation's main intelligence organization becomes the president's secret army? Or when the world's sole "hyperpower," no longer capable of paying for its leaders' vaulting ambitions, becomes the greatest hyper-debtor of all time? In his stunning conclusion, Johnson suggests that financial bankruptcy could herald the breakdown of constitutional government in America—a crisis that may ultimately prove to be the only path to a renewed nation.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Like ancient Rome, America is saddled with an empire that is fatally \t\t undermining its republican government, argues Johnson (The Sorrows of Empire), in this bleak jeremiad. He \t\t surveys the trappings of empire: the brutal war of choice in Iraq and other \t\t foreign interventions going back decades; the militarization of space; the \t\t hundreds of overseas U.S. military bases full of "swaggering soldiers who brawl \t\t and sometimes rape." At home, the growth of an "imperial presidency," with the \t\t CIA as its "private army," has culminated in the Bush administration's resort \t\t to warrantless wiretaps, torture, a "gulag" of secret CIA prisons and an \t\t unconstitutional arrogation of "dictatorial" powers, while a corrupt Congress \t\t bows like the Roman Senate to Caesar. Retribution looms, the author warns, as \t\t the American economy, dependent on a bloated military-industrial complex and \t\t foreign borrowing, staggers toward bankruptcy, maybe a military coup. Johnson's \t\t is a biting, often effective indictment of some ugly and troubling features of \t\t America's foreign policy and domestic politics. But his doom-laden trope of \t\t empire ("the capacity for things to get worse is limitless.... the American \t\t republic may be coming to its end") seems overstated. With Bush a lame duck, \t\t not a Caesar, and his military adventures repudiated by the electorate, the \t\t Republic seems more robust than Johnson allows.
