PERTPETUAL WAR FOR PERPETUAL PEACE: How We Got To Be So Hated by Gore Vidal

 Refinished Mo 3/22/21

This is one of my trade paperbacks that I got on Amazon Th 9/7/17 and finished Fr 9/29/17

The book is a slight collection of essays for Vanity Fair that were first published in Italy because Vidal couldn't get an American publisher to do it.

The book seeks to examine the motives of Timothy McVeigh and Osama bin Laden. America demands that these two people are seen as 'evil' and 'not like us'. However, according to McVeigh's  court appointed psychiatrist claimed that McVeigh was 'not deranged, but serious and exacting'. He knew exactly what he was doing and why. Ruby Ridge and the Branch Davidians only made double-down on his belief that the government was a negative and, as a highly decorated soldier, there was nothing else for him to do but fight back. McVeigh also felt that America had allowed the wealthy class to buy out the vast majority of local farmers in the west. The federal bureaucracy destroyed America's family farms and this is the real reason that there is such a wide swath of the American public who do not trust the federal government. They have never received a fair hearing. And, Osama bin Laden was motivated to fight the west because they occupied 'Muslim territories', yet bin Laden was our partner in 'the war against terrorism' in the beginning.

Interesting quote:

Vidal quotes Justice Brandeis: “If the government becomes the lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for laws; it invites every man to become a law unto himself.” After the recent attack on the US capitol this is so relevant today. Half the country believed the lie that the election was fixed and this led to sedition.

America seems to demand 'Wars', and they usually end in failure; The War on Drugs, The War on Poverty. The reason is that the 'Wars' are actually excuses to delete American's rights and this is accomplished by both the republicans and democrats.

Our government barely recognizes individual citizens, but corporations are represented lavishly.

An enjoyable and easy read. Gore has an interesting grasp of history and I really liked his book '1876' and would read almost anything that he happened to write.