Following the US’s bungled withdrawal from Afghanistan, and the scenes of chaos at Kabul Airport, we could be forgiven for thinking we’re experiencing an ‘end of empire’ moment, that the US is entering a new, less belligerent era in its foreign policy, and that its tenure as self-appointed ‘global policeman’ is coming to an end.
Before we get our hopes up though, it’s wise to remember exactly what this policeman has done, for the world, and ask whether it’s likely to change its behaviour after any one setback. After 75 years of war, occupation, and political interference – installing dictators, undermining local political movements, torturing enemies, and assisting in the arrest of opposition leaders – the US military-industrial complex doesn’t seem to know how to stop.
This anthology explores the human cost of these many interventions onto foreign soil, with stories by writers from that soil – covering everything from torture in Abu Ghraib, to coups and counterrevolutionary wars in Latin America, to all-out invasions in the Middle and Far East. Alongside testimonies from expert historians and ground-breaking journalists, these stories present a history that too many of us in the West simply pretend never happened.
Featuring:
Payam Nasser and Olmo Golz on the 1953 IRANIAN COUP
Fiston Mwanza Mujila and Emmanuel Gerard on the ASSASSINATION OF PATRICE LUMUMBA
Ahmel Echevarría Peré and Felix Julio Alfonso Lopez on the BAY OF PIGS
Paige Cooper and David Harper on MKULTRA and THE MONTREAL EXPERIMENTS
Kim Thúy and Xuan Phuong on the VIETNAM WAR
Sema Kaygusuz on everyday life in Turkish Kurdistan during 1999
Lina Meruane and Francisco Dominguez on PLAN ZETA and THE CHILEAN COUP
Jacob Ross and Brian Meeks on the INVASION OF GRENADA
Hassan Blasim and Chris Hedges on ABU GHRAIB PRISON
Bina Shah on DRONE STRIKES IN PAKISTAN
Translations by: Sara Khalili, J. Bret Maney, Adam Feinstein, Julio Barrios Zardetto, Diep Lien Nguyen, Nicholas Glastonbury, Megan McDowell, Jonathan Wright, and Ian Shaw.
