Saturday, November 28, 2009

English Civil War or Zionism Militarism and the Decline of US Power

English Civil War: Papists, Gentlewomen, Soldiers, and Witchfinders in the Birth of Modern Britain

Author: Diane Purkiss

In this compelling history of the violent struggle between the monarchy and Parliament that tore apart seventeenth-century England, a rising star among British historians sheds new light on the people who fought and died through those tumultuous years. Drawing on exciting new sources, including letters, memoirs, ballads, plays, illustrations, and even cookbooks, Diane Purkiss creates a rich and nuanced portrait of this turbulent era. The English Civil War's dramatic consequences-rejecting the divine right monarchy in favor of parliamentary rule-continue to influence our lives, and in this colorful narrative, Purkiss vividly brings to life the history that changed the course of Western government.

Publishers Weekly

There are many ways to approach the history of the 17th-century upheaval that beheaded a king and laid the foundations for democratic revolutions to come, and this absorbing, ungainly study tries them all. Oxford historian Purkiss (The Witch in History) draws a gallery of sharp biographical sketches of participants from Cromwell to ordinary soldiers, paying special attention to the oft-neglected doings of women, like aristocratic intriguer Lucy Hay and radical dissenter Anna Trapnel. She also slathers on plenty of social history, digressing on everything from contemporary housing to cookbooks. And she interweaves an avowedly disjointed, episodic kings-and-battles narrative of military campaigns and political maneuverings, replete with dramatic eyewitness accounts. Fixated on trees rather than the forest, Purkiss offers no clear overview of events or much coherent interpretation of the conflict, aside from some facile psychoanalysis ("Charles I's longing to make the monarchy independent of any hurtful criticism proceeded from the bullied child he was"). The book doesn't work as a general introduction, but readers who already know some of the history will find it full of colorful personalities and scenes and evocative period writings that bring to life the people, culture and violent turmoil of the age. Photos. (July) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.



New interesting textbook: One Nation Underground or American Made

Zionism, Militarism and the Decline of US Power

Author: James Petras

From 9/11 to the present, the pro-Israel power configuration in the United States has broadened its definition of 'the areas of interest to Israel', and thus the issues on which it will intervene. During the 1940s to 1950s, the main focus of the Lobby was to secure US diplomatic support for Israel's ethnic cleansing of Palestine. The Lobby's areas of interest to Israel extended to Israel's wars with Egypt and Syria in the 1960s and 1970s; to Lebanon and Iraq during the 1980s and 1990s; and to Iraq and Iran during the current decade. By defining the limits of action that the US President and Congress can take on issues relating to Israel, the Zionist Power Configuration now influences US policies toward the entire Middle East.

While it has been widely argued that the true reason for the US war on Iraq concerned oil, the influence of AIPAC and neoconservatives in the Bush administration acting on behalf of Israeli interests in the region has been largely ignored. Now, however, only pressure from the Lobby and the threat of pre-emptive attack by Israel can explain the current US aggressive posture (financial and economic sanctions, naval blockades) against Iran-all contrary to the interests of Big Oil, corporate America, and the weakened and overstretched US military.

In Zionism, Militarism and the Decline of US Power, Petras empirically demonstrates how the rigid structural parameters of Israeli politics are transmitted via the Zionist Power Configuration in the United States into the basic contradictory reality of US-Israeli relations-a tiny, isolated, militarized, settler-controlled state blocking economic transactions of a globalized imperial economy by forcing it intodisastrous military adventures and economic decline, with calamitous results for the world at large.

About the Author:
James Petras is a Bartle Professor (Emeritus) of Sociology at Binghamton University, New York



Table of Contents:
Zionism and Us Militarism
How Zionist Power in the US Promotes US Wars in the Middle East     15
The True Cause of the War on Iraq: From Pretexts to Cover-ups     15
The War for Oil Argument     16
The National Security Argument     19
From Iraq War Cover-up to Iran War Propaganda     20
Israel, the ZPC and the Run-up to the Invasion of Iraq     22
War with Iran: The Highest Priority for the ZPC (and Israel)     25
Zionist Power in the United States     27
'Jewish Vote', 'Israel Lobby' or 'Zionist Power Configuration'?     29
War for Oil or for Israel: What the Public Record Reveals     31
Zionist Warmongering: Fear and Venom     34
From a Scratch to Gangrene: The Transition from Zionism to Zion-Fascism     35
Deflecting Peace Initiatives     37
The ZPC and Armenian Holocaust Denial: At the Service of Israel     39
Anti-Iraq War Democratic Presidential Candidates Pro-War on Iran     40
The Impact of Zionist Authoritarianism on American Democracy     42
War on Iran: The American Military versus the Israel Firsters     55
Introduction     55
Recent History of the Civilian Militarists versus Anti-War Movements     56
American Military Fights the ZPC over Middle EastWars     56
Israel-Firsters Win Round One     57
Round Two: American Military Resists War on Iran     58
Making the IAEA Report Safe for American Public Consumption     63
Fundamental Issues in Dispute by the US Military and Israel-Firsters     64
Military/Zion-Con: Punch and Counterpunch     68
Conclusion     69
Burying the National Intelligence Estimate     73
Introduction     73
Israel Rejects "the Intelligence Report from the Other Side of the Earth"     77
The "International Community" Climbs on Board     78
The Drumbeat Goes On     80
Provocations as Pretexts for Imperial War: From Pearl Harbor to 9/11     85
Provocation as Pretext for the US War Against Japan     86
Provocation as Pretext for the US War Against Korea     87
The US Indochina War: Johnson's Tonkin Pretext     89
Provocation as Pretext: 9/11 and the Afghan/Iraq Invasions     91
The Politics of Military Provocations     94
Military-Driven Empire Building: The Zionist Connection     96
The Terror Bombing: White House and Zionist Complicity     98
Provocations and Pretexts: The Israeli/US War Against Iran     99
Zion-Con Zelikow, the 2002 National Security Strategy and 9/11     102
Embracing the Israeli Modus Operandi of Endless War
The Palestinian Sewage Disaster: The Political Ecology of US/Israeli Responsibility in Microcosm     107
General Petraeus: From Surge to Purge to Dirge     111
Introduction     111
Petraeus' Phony Success in Northern Iraq     112
An Armchair Strategist     113
Madness in His Method: The Petraeus Manual     114
Petraeus' Double Discourse     118
Petraeus' Political Ambitions     119
Petraeus Panders to Israel's Fifth Column: "The Iran Threat"     120
Conclusion     121
Militarism and the Decline of Us Power
Military-Driven over Market-Driven Empire Building: 1950-2008     125
Introduction     125
Immediate Post-WWII: The Combination of Market and Military Roads to Empire     126
Divergence in the World Economy: US-Europe-Japan     127
Market Versus Military Empire Building in the 1990s     128
Historic Comparison of Market- and Military-Driven Imperialism     131
From the Gulf, to the Gulf and Back to the Gulf: 1990-2008 (and beyond)     132
Military-Driven Empire Building and Zionism     132
Imperial Wars, Social Revolutions and Capitalist Restorations      134
Was 'Socialism a Detour to Capitalism'?     135
Were 'Imperial Wars Necessary for Capitalist Expansion'?     136
Military-Driven Imperialism Today and the Newly Emerging Imperial Powers     138
Market-Driven Versus Militarist Alliances     138
Conclusion     141
US Militarism and the Expanding Israeli Agenda     145
Introduction     125
New Directions for US Policy: A Moderate Arab Agenda?     146
'New Facts' and the New Middle East Realities     147
The Iraq War: A Success for Israel     1149
Democrats Capitulate to the Pro-Israel Lobby on Bush War Powers     151
Israel-AIPAC-US Middle East Wars     152
Democratic House Majority Leader Serves as Israel's Messenger     154
Buying Israeli Permission for Arms Sales to Saudi Arabia     155
Democratic Party Presidential Candidates Truckle to the Lobby     156
The Lobby Versus Federal Prosecutors: The AIPAC Spy Trial     157
AIPAC Trial Inadvertently "Outs" Israel's Strategic Informant in the White House     158
Israel Pushes Islamo-Fascism Rhetoric     159
Re-arming Clients: The Washington/ZPC War Machine Rolls On     159
In Lebanon     160
In the Occupied Territories      160
In Iraq     161
In Somalia     162
Judeo-Centrism: From Ghetto Defense to Imperial Ambitions     163
Challenging the Lobby
American Jews on War and Peace: What the Polls Do and Don't Tell Us     169
Introduction     169
The Poll: A Re-Analysis     170
The Failure of Jewish Anti-Zionist Resistance     171
Israeli Anti-Arab/Muslim Racism     172
The Role of American Jews in the Peace Movement     173
Why Condemning Israel and the Zionist Lobby Is So Important     175
Introduction     175
ZPC Deniers: Phony Arguments for Fake Claims     175
The Careful Crafting of Critiques of Israel /the ZPC     177
The ZPC Lobbies For War     178
"Democratic" Israel Diminishes Democracy in the United States     179
Israeli Interests Trump US Interests     180
Social Opposition and Political Impotence     182
What Happened to the Peace Movement?     183
No Naming and Shaming for the Israel War Lobby     184
Why Confronting the Lobby Matters     185
Index     188

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