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15 of 15 found the following review helpful:
Hope in a Dark Time Jan 23, 2006
It's a mess out there. The myriad problems, conflicts, and catastrophes America finds herself in are being abundantly documented hourly now in blogs, in documentaries, in alternative press articles, on talk radio, and even with growing frequency in the main stream media. More and more Americans are waking up and asking: "What went wrong?" And more and more Americans, who no longer feel secure in subways, shopping malls, or in tall office buildings, who are paying up to $4.00 per gallon for gasoline, who do not want to travel abroad because of growing Anti-American sentiment in all parts of the world... these Americans are realizing that something has gone terribly awry out there in the world, and that it is getting worse every month. Bottom line: The world is less safe than it has ever been, in spite of a trillion-dollar plus "War on Terror," and growing erosion of the Constitution here at home.
For any concerned American or world citizen who wants to cut through the spin and murk of Neo-Con war mongering and general confusion about how such a state of affairs has come upon us, Terry Arnold's new collection of essays, A World Less Safe: Essays in Conflict in the 21st Century (BookSurge Press, 2006) offers historical, geopolitical, and economic context for our current global problems.
With an occasional backward look, the essays in A World Less Safe focus primarily on events that have taken place after the start of the George W. Bush administration. And herein lies one of the book's unique values: Arnold untangles the Alice-in-Wonderland thinking that has been responsible for so many of our current debacles, and places blame where it belongs. Often using hard economic and historical analysis to support his arguments, Arnold provides irrefutable evidence of where we are going wrong, and why.
Under the searing light of Arnold's impeccable reasoning and trenchant common sense, the idiocy and hypocrisy of the current Bush Administration are exposed for all to see. For example, Arnold writes that "the stated goal of the Bush team was to make our country safe. For that purpose, the War on Terrorism was launched with the invasion of Afghanistan. For that purpose, the Bush team invaded Iraq at a cost of hundreds of billions of dollars, thousands of American lives, and tens of thousands of Iraqis killed and wounded. For that purpose, the United States rededicated itself to Israel, while continuing to turn a blind eye to the repression of the Palestine people. For that purpose, the United States now threatens Iran and fumbles around over threatening North Korea for thinking nuclear, while the United States launches a new effort to design and build new generations of nuclear weapons and deliberately talks about using them."
Several of Arnold's essays point out that we could have made more friends in the Middle East and elsewhere by focusing on programs to end poverty and disease, and by giving proper attention to the rights and needs of the Palestinians and other repressed peoples. In reality, however, on balance Bush/neo-con policies and actions make our situation in the world more difficult to defend. But even more disturbing, they make the world less safe for Americans and everyone else.
In a brilliant, incisive, and well-documented final section, titled "The Outlook," Arnold puts our global issues into context in terms of the consequences for all of us if there is not an immediate course-correct. In so many areas, the Bush positions are not only impractical, they are inhumane. Whether we look at growing population, shrinking resources, increasing competition, resurgent militarism, the growing gap between rich and poor, degradation of the environment (including global warming), there is a dreadful lack of a common set of answers to any of these challenges, and none appear to be forthcoming. Arnold writes: "Neither we nor the Third Estate, the media, are asking enough questions and insisting on enough answers. We need to look at the issues in a future oriented way with a view to judging what the most serious issues are, and how closely current policies fit our necessity."
This is a book for anyone who wants to know how we got where we are, and what we need to do, collectively, to change the imperiled course we are on. One could only hope that every Member of Congress would spend a weekend reading this book. But, more important, each and every American should set aside some time for this invaluable primer in current affairs, and the dangers of policies and politics now running rampant to our detriment on the world stage. Certainly, this should be required reading for the next President of the United States, whoever he may be and wherever he may be now. A whole campaign platform could be based in the wisdom Arnold shares here.
We have not been well-served by our national leadership as of late. "Our leadership," Arnold writes, "is standing out there in the altogether, trying to brazen it out, while borrowing heavily abroad to keep the neo-con power game going. The Bush team not only is squandering our good name: it is threatening our national survival."
This is a wake-up call of great import and urgency. Terry Arnold writes what I like to think of as "White Papers for the rest of us." Arnold's writing is hard-hitting, well-supported with facts and statistics, but it is also unusually clear and often humorous. It is writing that not only informs, but which educates in its uncommon literacy, wisdom and ultimate good sense.
One question that haunts even the most optimistic of us relates to hope. And so, we may ask, is there any hope? Clearly there is much at stake if the Bush neo-con global gambit comes a cropper. Arnold concludes on this note: "Other countries would most likely cooperate if the U.S. were to show signs of regaining its senses. That means our country starts taking a cooperative and supportive role in world leadership, not the combative and imperial one. Should that occur, may the understanding, goodwill, and enlightened self-interest of mankind pull us back on course."
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