Book review of Killing Democracy by Finian Cunningham, Daniel Kovalik, Jeremy Kuzmarov, KJ Noh, and Ron Ridenour
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Whose democracy is being killed here? The great thing about this eye-opening and chilling book is that it shows how, in the process of killing democracy abroad, Western elites have all but killed their own.
In manufacturing consent for ill-advised interventions ranging from Chile (removing an elected government), Palestine (ditto, after Hamas won the national elections in 2005), and Afghanistan (creating mayhem), to Libya (left in chaos), Iraq (spawning ISIS), Syria (removing a secular government and installing Al Qaida) and Ukraine (helping stage a coup then using Ukraine to goad Russia) Western governments with their cheer-leading mainstream media acolytes have ridden roughshod over the wishes of not only local populations but also their own, ignoring or moulding opinion to suit. As someone said, only in a democracy can leaders totally ignore public feeling.
This book peels back the layers of deceit (including self- deceit) with which Western elites, with their media straphangers have covered the ugly truth behind their interventions, power grabs, and regime changes. It’s all about naked self-interest (by no means always well judged), moral posturing, geopolitical ambition, and national ideology (militarism, nationalism, and exceptionalism).
More cheeringly, the book identifies the ways in which democracy has a habit of slipping out of control as Western elites’ action begets others’ reaction, whether it is independent media challenging the monopolies of decaying and decadent legacy media, or the democratisation of geopolitics as the Global South becomes conscious of itself, or the democratisation of technologies of information (social media) or weaponry (drones).
This book could hardly have come at a better time, with Trump seemingly bent on taking us all back to the future with his take on the Monroe Doctrine, his attempt at regime change in Venezuela, and support for the recolonisation of Gaza, reminding us that for all the blather about change, some things never change, notably the imperialist urgings of the US.
This is also a moment in which that cardinal element of democracy, free speech, has never been under greater threat. Right now, in the guise of countering ‘disinformation’ (i.e., wrongthink as defined by the elites) European journalists and even politicians like Britain’s George Galloway are being taken aside at airports and held under terrifying counter-terrorism powers, some like the Swiss analyst Jacques Baud are being cut off at the knees financially by sanctions imposed by the executive fiat of an unelected bureaucracy (the European Commission), and nearly all sensible international affairs experts are excluded from mainstream media and publishing.
Buy this book quickly and hide it, before the thought police come for you!
Killing Democracy: Western Imperialism’s Legacy of Regime Change and Media Manipulation
