Book Forum on US Empire: Causes and Consequences

News Release

BOOK FORUM OCTOBER 7, 2011, at OMNI, 6:30  

Contact: Dick Bennett 442-4600

Subject: FORUM ON CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES OF US EMPIRE, MILITARISM, AND WARS

October 7 is Afghanistan Invasion Day.

 THIS OMNI BOOK FORUM brings you BOOKS dedicated to preventing more unnecessary, illegal, catastrophic US wars by explaining why and how they occurred, the devastating consequences to the world and to the US itself, and how we might best convert from empire and militarized economy to peace and cooperation with the rest of the world.  These books and others in my annotated list (contact Dick) enable us to resist effectively.

The Forum will occur on October 7, the day the US invaded Afghanistan, 2001.    6:30 PM, at OMNI, 3274 Lee Avenue, northeast of Fiesta Square across College Ave. between Liquor World and Office Depot.

PANEL

John Rule:  War Is a Lie by David Swanson  (13 deceptions, myths enabling US wars)

Carl Barnwell:   American Wars, Paul Buchheit ed.  (19 illusions the US elite employ to go to war)

Paul Leonard:   Four books by Chalmers Johnson (Blowback Trilogy plus Dismantling the Empire, wide-ranging indictment of US empire)

 Dick Bennett:   Two books by William Blum, Killing Hope and Rogue State (US has illegally intervened or invaded some 50 countries since 1945 resulting in the deaths of millions of innocents)

Mark Arnold:   Richard Rubenstein, Reasons to Kill: Why Americans Choose War (the rhetoric and the cultural and social factors that sell war)

Dick Bennett:   Nicholas Davies,  Blood on Our Hands: the American Invasion and Destruction of Iraq (the invasion—and other invasions--illegal and US combat behavior illegal under UN Charter and Geneva conventions) 

Claire Detels:   Sheehan, Where Have All the Soldiers Gone? (European nations long at war turned to peace)

Nightbird Bookstore has a special display of these and related books.

There are many more exposes of the US National Security Empire (see my selective list).     A single, comprehensive book on the crimes and abuses of the US War on Terror as a continuation of the Cold War and permanent war is needed.   It should include what we know about the impact of US wars on the environment, earth, and species (another Forum).