The United States of Fear

In 2008, when the U.S. National Intelligence Council issued its latest report meant for the administration of newly elected President Barack Obama, it predicted that the planet's “sole superpower" would suffer a modest decline and a soft landing fifteen years hence.

In his new book The United States of Fear, Tom Engelhardt makes clear that Americans should don their crash helmets and buckle their seat belts, because the United States is on the path to a major decline at a startling speed. Engelhardt offers a savage anatomy of how successive administrations in Washington took the “Soviet path"—pouring American treasure into the military, war, and national security—and so helped drive their country off the nearest cliff.

This is the startling tale of how fear was profitably shot into the national bloodstream, how the country—gripped by terror fantasies—was locked down, and how a brain-dead Washington elite fiddled (and profited) while America quietly burned.

Think of it as the story of how the Cold War really ended, with the triumphalist “sole superpower" of 1991 heading slowly for the same exit through which the Soviet Union left the stage twenty years earlier.

List of contents

1. Hiroshima Story
http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/108624/

2. When Was the Last Time You Visited Iraq? Exporting American Democracy to the World http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175223/tomgram%3A_engelhardt%2C_all_the_world%27s_a_stage_%28for_us%29

3. Believe It or Not (2010 Imperial Edition), U.S. War-Fighting Numbers to Knock Your Socks Off http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175228/tomgram%3A_engelhardt%2C_numbers_to_die_for__

4. Gods and Monsters, Fighting American Wars From On High http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175232/tomgram%3A_engelhardt%2C_the_view_from_mount_olympus__

5. Yes We Could... Get Out! Why We Won't Leave Afghanistan or Iraq http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175238/tomgram%3A_engelhardt%2C_the_urge_to_stay

6. Yawn... How Many Times Have You Seen This Headline? http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175243/tomgram%3A_engelhardt%2C_all-volunteer_wars

7. Obama's Flailing Wars, A Study in BP-style Pragmatism http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175248/tomgram%3A_engelhardt%2C_obama%27s_afpak_flip-flop_

8. American Denial, Living in a Can't-Do Nation http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175255/tomgram%3A_engelhardt%2C_living_in_the_51st_state_%28of_denial%29___

9. Call the Politboro, We're in Trouble, Entering the Soviet Era in America http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175261/tomgram%3A_engelhardt%2C_washington_drunk_on_war

10. America Detached from War, Bush's Pilotless Dreams, Smoking Drones, and Other Strange Tales from the Crypt http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175265/tomgram%3A_engelhardt%2C_the_perfect_american_weapon

11. Why Are We in Afghanistan? As Petraeus Takes Over, Could Success Be Worse than Failure?http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175272/tomgram%3A_engelhardt%2C_the_petraeus_syndrome

12. The Opposites Game, All the Strangeness of Our American World in One Article http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175277/tomgram%3A_engelhardt%2C_clueless_in_afghanistan_--_and_washington__

13. Whose Hands, Whose Blood? Killing Civilians in Afghanistan and Iraq http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175282/tomgram%3A_engelhardt%2C_out%2C_damned_spot!

14. What If Washington... Five Absurd Things That Simply Can't Happen in Wartime Washington http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175285/tomgram%3A_engelhardt%2C_the_war_mentality

15. Will Our Generals Ever Shut Up? The Military's Media Megaphone and the U.S. Global Military Presence http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175291/tomgram%3A_engelhardt%2C_the_pentagon_triumphant_on_the_media_battlefield

16. The American Way of War Quiz, This Was the War Week That Was (Believe It or Not) http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175294/tomgram%3A_engelhardt_and_turse%2C_the_wacky_world_of_american_war

17. One and a Half Cheers for American Decline, The Future's Not Ours -- and That's Good News http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175298/tomgram%3A_engelhardt%2C_why_the_troops_are_coming_home

18. The War Addicts, 2016 and Then Some http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175302/tomgram%3A_engelhardt%2C_forever_war

19. A World Made by War http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175308/tomgram%3A_engelhardt%2C_american_warscapes

20. Handicapping the Global Midterms, Winners and Losers http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175312/tomgram%3A_engelhardt%2C_placing_your_global_bets

21. Ballot Box Blues, The Most Dispiriting Election of a Lifetime (Mine) http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175315/tomgram%3A_engelhardt%2C_pentagon_lovers_and_welfare_queens

22. The Stimulus Package in Kabul, I Was Delusional - I Thought One Monster Embassy Was the End of It http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175320/tomgram%3A_engelhardt%2C_war_to_the_horizon

23. How to Schedule a War, The Incredible, Shrinking Withdrawal Date http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175324/tomgram%3A_engelhardt%2C_general_petraeus%27s_two_campaigns

24. The National Security State Cops a Feel, Taking Off the Gloves (and Then Everything Else) http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175325/tomgram%3A_engelhardt%2C_the_united_states_of_fear

25. One November's Dead, The American War Dead Disappear Into the Darkness http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175328/tomgram%3A__engelhardt%2C_epitaph_from_the_imperial_graveyard

About the author

Tom Engelhardt created and runs the TomDispatch website, a project of The Nation Institute, where he is a fellow. He is the author of the critically acclaimed The American Way of War and The End of Victory Culture.

Summary

In 2008, when the U.S. National Intelligence Council issued its latest report meant for the administration of newly elected President Barack Obama, it predicted that the planet’s “sole superpower” would suffer a modest decline and a soft landing fifteen years hence.

In his new book The United States of Fear, Tom Engelhardt makes clear that Americans should don their crash helmets and buckle their seat belts, because the United States is on the path to a major decline at a startling speed. Engelhardt offers a savage anatomy of how successive administrations in Washington took the “Soviet path”—pouring American treasure into the military, war, and national security—and so helped drive their country off the nearest cliff.

This is the startling tale of how fear was profitably shot into the national bloodstream, how the country—gripped by terror fantasies—was locked down, and how a brain-dead Washington elite fiddled (and profited) while America quietly burned.

Think of it as the story of how the Cold War really ended, with the triumphalist “sole superpower” of 1991 heading slowly for the same exit through which the Soviet Union left the stage twenty years earlier.

Foreword

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Product details

• Authors: Tom Engelhardt, Engelhardt Tom, Tom Engelhardt
• Publisher: Haymarket Books
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 13.12.2011
• EAN: 9781608461547
• ISBN: 978-1-60846-154-7
• No. of pages: 230
• Weight: 336 g
• Series: A TomDispatch Book; A TomDispatch Book
• Subjects: Social sciences, law, business > Political science > Political science and political education; POLITICAL SCIENCE / Essays, Political science & theory, United States of America, USA, Politics and government, Political science and theory