Bill Moyers' top recommended book is the 3-yo NEMESIS, by Chalmers Johnson

[clear eye]

Question to those who have already read it, does it suffer from its age? Does its reasoning and conclusions hold up under the new administration? Do you think he would have come to to different understandings and suggestions if he had known when he wrote it what we know now?

[SharonAnn]

1. I'll take Bill Moyers' word for it. I don't need to question his assesment.

He's got a great track record and is far more informed on this kind of thing than most people.

[clear eye]

2. Good point. n/t

[C_Lawyer09]

3. It was a good book

But there was much repetition from his previous two. What I liked about Nemesis, is the focus on CIA actions, and opaque budget, and the evolution of the agency, moving toward extraordinary renditions. Otherwise his arguments regarding our 700 and some posts in 130 plus countries, and their opposition by citizens of those countries have been covered in detail. One thing I don't appreciate in Johnsons books, although I like them a lot, is, while mentioning one side of the argument for forward presence in many countries, especially resources, he doesn't acknowledge other rationale. I'm not trying to be flip, but you may not see that there is a duality to our presence in some of the mentioned countries, so you may not have the same reaction. I have the same reaction sometimes to Zinn and Chomsky. While I agree with many of their arguments, they sometimes leave out counter-arguments, which to me sometimes have veracity. I would recommend it.

[clear eye]

4. Thank you.

I'm not sure I'm interested right now in an exploration of our dysfunctional foreign policy that doesn't contextualize it in terms of the control of gov't in the U.s. by mega-corporations. Just seems to miss the point. I mean, it isn't our gen'l public that is yearning for empire.