What do you think?
Rate this book
Western State Terrorism
Western State Terrorism examines the political uses to shich the U.S. and its allies have put the terrorism perpetrated by their official enemies-often small scale terrorism compared to that sponsored by the West. The contributors to this study place such retail terrorism in the context of U.S. supported wholesale violence and offer an analysis fo the ideological goals that have been served by mainstream discussions of terrorism. This timely and controversial study radically questions current ideas and definitions of terrorism.
272 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1991
5 people are currently reading
207 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
October 20, 2014
Like Gross’ Friendly Fascism, I’d’ve loved this at university. Now, years down the road, am thinking that there’s not much here that isn’t available elsewhere, at least as far as leftwing polemic goes.
That said, the essays are all quality, and range from general discussions of the theory of “terrorism” to specific discussions of US foreign policy adventures that roughly conform to the propaganda usage of the term terrorism as it was understood by the reaganites during the Cold War. I personally don’t think that the term terrorism has any legal, philosophical, or theoretical rigor, so am not too interested in that aspect of this text. Anyone who deploys the term, IMNAAHO, in the absence of irony, is just re-publishing propaganda. That critique probably should apply to Chomsky & crew here--though their object is to point out that the US condemns “terrorism” in principle and then kills people anyway in a manner that fits its own definition. (A couple nice charts lay out the comparison, wherein victims of non-state “terrorism” can be measured in the four-figure range, whereas western state “terrorism” is in the modest seven-figure range. No surprises there.) Herman essay has a nice series of charts on major media commentators on “terrorism,” their funding, CIA connection, and so on.
Standouts are the last three items, which are fact-intensive critiques of imperialist policy in Northern Ireland, Indonesia, and South Africa. Very detailed.
Recommended for smug lefties and blinkered jingos who suffer from the hypotension.
That said, the essays are all quality, and range from general discussions of the theory of “terrorism” to specific discussions of US foreign policy adventures that roughly conform to the propaganda usage of the term terrorism as it was understood by the reaganites during the Cold War. I personally don’t think that the term terrorism has any legal, philosophical, or theoretical rigor, so am not too interested in that aspect of this text. Anyone who deploys the term, IMNAAHO, in the absence of irony, is just re-publishing propaganda. That critique probably should apply to Chomsky & crew here--though their object is to point out that the US condemns “terrorism” in principle and then kills people anyway in a manner that fits its own definition. (A couple nice charts lay out the comparison, wherein victims of non-state “terrorism” can be measured in the four-figure range, whereas western state “terrorism” is in the modest seven-figure range. No surprises there.) Herman essay has a nice series of charts on major media commentators on “terrorism,” their funding, CIA connection, and so on.
Standouts are the last three items, which are fact-intensive critiques of imperialist policy in Northern Ireland, Indonesia, and South Africa. Very detailed.
Recommended for smug lefties and blinkered jingos who suffer from the hypotension.
Displaying 1 of 1 review