From Publishers Weekly
Long before the events of September 11, Vidal's place was secured as a prolific preacher against America's imperialist policies. At age 76, he uses his exceptional talents to produce bound collections of his controversial essays and op-eds. However, this latest creation lacks the eloquence and grace that previously distinguished him from other writers in their attempts to uncover the hidden truths within our American republic. Vidal calls for a more thorough investigation into the response, or lack thereof, from the "Cheney-Bush junta" on September 11 and purports that corporate greed and American imperialism have been the driving themes behind our new war on terror. He explores the oil connections that Osama bin Laden's family established with Bush during his tenure as an oil magnate in Texas and implores us to probe further into America's real interest in conquering Afghanistan. According to Vidal, America's media elite perform the government's dirty work by spreading disinformation-including about Vidal himself-to the general public. As a result, Vidal spends much of this book refuting attacks from the mainstream media that portray him as anti-American, although his unabashed style gives readers final say in drawing their own conclusion. Regardless, faithful fans of Vidal will revel in his relentless adoration of Jeffersonian ideals and courageous dissection of the evil roots of American foreign policy.Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
We've all heard 9/11 compared to Pearl Harbor, but in one of the essays in this provocative and thoughtful collection, America's great literary dissenter finds deeper links. Both were seemingly inexplicable surprise attacks, but, Vidal argues, the "Cheney/Bush" (in that order, he assures us) "junta" knew 9/11 was coming as surely as FDR knew the Japanese would attack American interests in the Pacific. And just as Pearl Harbor got America into World War II, Cheney and Bush gleefully used 9/11 to begin a long war against enemies who just so happen to live amidst the oil reserves coveted by our executive branch (themselves former oil barons). Vidal backs his argument up with a stunning array of evidence culled from books, scholarly articles, and even the popular media he so despises. The essays on the so-called junta are, in and of themselves, worth the price of admission, but also included here are 10 Vidal articles published over the last decade, which discuss how, in the wake of World War II, America completely abandoned its republic for an imperial police state engaged in perpetual war. Vidal's talent for invigorating his polemics with lively prose and fierce wit (he describes Spiro Agnew as "Vice President to Richard Nixon and bribe-taker to many") shines throughout, and though some of the essays are dated, Vidalian vitriol never seems to go out of style. John Green
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Publishers Weekly, January 27, 2003
"Expect another bestseller."
Kirkus Reviews, December 15, 2002
"A pleasure for those convinced of the present ruling elite's deep-seated flaws and deeper evils . . . tasty food for thought."
Book Description
When Gore Vidal's recent New York Times bestseller Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace was published, the Los Angeles Times described Vidal as the last defender of the American republic. In Dreaming War, Vidal continues this defense by confronting the Cheney-Bush junta head on in a series of devastating essays that demolish the lies American Empire lives by, unveiling a counter-history that traces the origins of America's current imperial ambitions to the experience of World War Two and the post-war Truman doctrine. And now, with the Cheney-Bush leading us into permanent war, Vidal asks whose interests are served by this doctrine of pre-emptive war? Was Afghanistan turned to rubble to avenge the 3,000 slaughtered on September 11? Or was "the unlovely Osama chosen on aesthetic grounds to be the frightening logo for our long contemplated invasion and conquest of Afghanistan?" After all he was abruptly replaced with Saddam Hussein once the Taliban were overthrown. And while "evidence" is now being invented to connect Saddam with 9/11, the current administration are not helped by "stories in the U.S. press about the vast oil wealth of Iraq which must- for the sake of the free world- be reassigned to U.S. consortiums."
Dreaming War: Blood for Oil and the Cheney-Bush Junta FROM OUR EDITORS
Gore Vidal is at it again -- after making the politically incorrect allegation that the U.S. had provoked the 9/11 attacks through its decades-long history of military pre-emption and intervention around the world, he now takes on what he calls "the Cheney-Bush junta" for its actions in the "war against terror." Vidal is fearless in his assertions that the bombing of Afghanistan was more symbolic than militarily necessary and was simply, he asserts, a pre-emptive claim on foreign oil. The USA Patriot Act, he alleges, was planned far in advance of 9/11 and was simply inserted into the national agenda at the most advantageous time in order to curtail civil liberties. The book also contains essays written prior to 9/11 that reflect Vidal's non-interventionist philosophy, all the more timely in an atmosphere of escalating international tension.
FROM THE PUBLISHER
When Gore Vidal's recent New York Times bestseller Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace was published, the Los Angeles Times described Vidal as the last defender of the American republic. In Dreaming War, Vidal continues this defense by confronting the Cheney-Bush junta head on in a series of devastating essays that demolish the lies American Empire lives by, unveiling a counter-history that traces the origins of America's current imperial ambitions to the experience of World War Two and the post-war Truman doctrine. And now, with Cheney-Bush leading us into permanent war, Vidal asks whose interests are served by this doctrine of pre-emptive war? Was Afghanistan turned to rubble to avenge the 3,000 slaughtered on September 11? Or was "the unlovely Osama chosen on aesthetic grounds to be the frightening logo for our long contemplated invasion and conquest of Afghanistan?" After all, he was abruptly replaced with Saddam Hussein once the Taliban were overthrown. And while "evidence" is now being invented to connect Saddam with 9/11, the current administration is not helped by "stories in the U.S. press about the vast oil wealth of Iraq which must - for the sake of the free world - be reassigned to U.S. consortiums."
FROM THE CRITICS
Publishers Weekly
Long before the events of September 11, Vidal's place was secured as a prolific preacher against America's imperialist policies. At age 76, he uses his exceptional talents to produce bound collections of his controversial essays and op-eds. However, this latest creation lacks the eloquence and grace that previously distinguished him from other writers in their attempts to uncover the hidden truths within our American republic. Vidal calls for a more thorough investigation into the response, or lack thereof, from the "Cheney-Bush junta" on September 11 and purports that corporate greed and American imperialism have been the driving themes behind our new war on terror. He explores the oil connections that Osama bin Laden's family established with Bush during his tenure as an oil magnate in Texas and implores us to probe further into America's real interest in conquering Afghanistan. According to Vidal, America's media elite perform the government's dirty work by spreading disinformation-including about Vidal himself-to the general public. As a result, Vidal spends much of this book refuting attacks from the mainstream media that portray him as anti-American, although his unabashed style gives readers final say in drawing their own conclusion. Regardless, faithful fans of Vidal will revel in his relentless adoration of Jeffersonian ideals and courageous dissection of the evil roots of American foreign policy. (Feb.) Forecast: The many readers who snapped up Vidal's Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace will no doubt add this to their collection, too. Expect another bestseller. Copyright 2003 Cahners Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
Another deliciously ill-tempered screed from veteran gadfly Vidal (Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace, p. 398, etc.), perhaps our fiercest homegrown critic of American imperialism in general and the current administration in particular. In this gathering of pieces from the Nation, the Times Literary Supplement, and elsewhere, Vidal amply reveals just how deeply ticked off he has been by recent developments. The judicial appointment of "the charmingly simian George W. Bush" to run the front office is by now old news, but it proves, Vidal insists, that corporate America is really in charge of the whole show. The failure of American intelligence to foresee the 9/11 terrorist attacks, in his eyes, speaks mostly to the general stupidity of the "oil-and-gas Cheney-Bush junta," which neglected to pass on to us ordinary citizens mayday warnings that had emanated from "Presidents Putin and Mubarak, from Mossad, and even from elements of our long-suffering FBI." The weird fact that representatives of the Taliban had toured Texas oil facilities shortly before Osama bin Laden arrived on the scene, evidently with an eye to striking a mutually beneficial deal for a new pipeline across Afghanistan, and the equally weird fact that said Talibanistas had hired a niece of former CIA director Richard Helms to handle their PR, are two more items on the seemingly endless list of things that annoy Vidal. American support for Israel, the death of the old American republic and its replacement, along about 1950, with "the National Security State," the refusal of mainstream historians to admit the possibility that the Japanese had a point in bombing Pearl Harbor-he enumerates these aggravating items point by pointwith caressing venom. That Vidal is fonder of sermonizing than logical argument, of assertion rather than cold data, is no matter: this is trademark Goring and unforgiving: woe to its unfortunate target. A pleasure for those convinced of the present ruling elite's deep-seated flaws and deeper evils, and tasty food for thought even for the doubtful. Agent: Richard Morris
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