Praise for
Nemesis
“Nemesis,
the final volume in the remarkable Blowback trilogy, completes a true patriot’s anguished and devastating critique of the militarism that threatens to destroy the United States from within. In detail and with unflinching candor, Chalmers Johnson decries the discrepancies between what America professes to be and what it has actually become—a global empire of military bases and operations; a secret government increasingly characterized by covert activities, enormous ’black’ budgets, and near dictatorial executive power; a misguided republic that has betrayed its noblest ideals and most basic founding principles in pursuit of disastrously conceived notions of security, stability, and progress.”
—John Dower, author of
Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II
“Chalmers Johnson, a patriot who pulls no punches, has emerged as our most prescient critic of American empire and its pretensions.
Nemesis
is his fiercest book—and his best.”
—Andrew J. Bacevich, author of
The New American Militarism
“Johnson s book is a sober reminder that the U.S. has become an empire.... His most searing commentary to date on the current state of U.S. politics.”
—Financial Times
“Nemesis
is a stimulating, sweeping study in which Johnson asks a most profound strategic question: Can we maintain the global dominance we now regard as our natural right? His answer is chilling. You do not have to agree with everything Johnson says—I don’t—but if you agree with even half of his policy critiques, you will still slam the book down on the table, swearing, ‘We have to change this!’”
—Joseph Cirincione, senior vice president for national security
and international policy, Center for American Progress
“Each of Johnson’s erudite chapters both enlightens and disturbs.... His writing is often described as ‘epolemic,’ but that doesn’t capture the heartfelt concern that underlies his distress about our country.”
—In These Times
“The three volumes
(Blowback, The Sorrows of Empire, Nemesis)
constitute a well-written, detailed, and stimulating display of the radical anti-imperialist critique of American foreign policy.
Nemesis
is particularly good in sounding the alarm. Countervailing reactions are now clearly under way once again, and Johnson’s book is a primer on much that needs to be done.”
—The San Diego Union-Tribune
“Nemesis
is a five-alarm warning about flaming militarism, burning imperial attitudes, secret armies, and executive arrogance that has torched and consumed the Constitution and brought the American Republic to death’s door. Johnson shares a simple, liberating, and healing path back to worthy republicanism. But the frightening and heartbreaking details contained in
Nemesis
suggest that the goddess of retribution will not be so easily satisfied before ‘the right order of things’ is restored.”
—Karen Kwiatkowski, retired U.S. Air Force Lieutenant Colonel
“Last fall a treasonous Congress gave the president license to kidnap, torture—you name it—on an imperial scale. All of us, citizens and noncitizens alike, are fair game. Kudos for not being silent, Chalmers, and for completing your revealing trilogy with undaunted courage.”
—Ray McGovern, former CIA analyst;
cofounder of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS)
“Before 9/11, when Chalmers Johnson warned us of Blowback, too few listened. When Johnson then urged us to rethink America’s imperial course in
The Sorrows of Empire,
he went deeper, exploring the wages of global American militarism. Now comes
Nemesis,
the third in the trilogy, an urgent warning for a country that, in the words of Dwight Eisenhower, risks ’destroying from within that which it is trying to protect from without.’ Johnson is a national treasure. Let’s hope we listen this time.”
—Eugene Jarecki, director of
Why We Fight,
Grand Jury Prize Winner, Sundance Film