Libertarian Librarian

One of my responsibilities as a librarian is to select new books for the collection. In particular, I select, in conjunction with the appropriate faculty, history, geography and environmental science books. Periodically through the year, I'll receive pre-release notices from various publishers, as well as reviews from a variety of sources on forthcoming or recently released monographs. Today, I received a bunch of pre-release notices from Nova Science Publishers, Inc. including one for The Global War on Terrorism: Assessing the American Response, which is described as follows:

The signal events opening the global war on terrorism were the attacks of September 11. The world media began to focus on one of the terrorist groups, as-Qaeda, a well-funded terrorist organization headquartered in Afghanistan or Pakistan with offshoots in many countries. American has turned out to be the primary target of al-Qaeda. America's first response was the attack on Afghanistan and the establishing of a puppet government. Next America attacked Iraq under the guise of a response to terrorism although no connection has been proven or even alleged except by hardcore neocons aligned with certain elements in the Washington power establishment. This new book pierces the veil of disinformation with frank assessments of the progress or lack thereof of the war on terrorism.

Wow. Now remember-- this isn't a coffee table book or a mass market publication. This is supposed to be scholarly. Yet we have such lovely catch phrases as "establishing a puppet government," and "this new book pierces the veil of disinformation with frank assessments...." Fair and balanced, one suspects, is not a phrase considered by the editor or authors except, perhaps, to belittle Fox News while they go along on their merry little government ripping way. My favorite, though, is "Next America attacked Iraq under the guise of a response to terrorism although no connection has been proven or even alleged except by hardcore neocons aligned with certain elements in the Washington power establishment."

Okay, first of all, the attack on Iraq was not solely "under the guise of a response to terrorism...." It was about WMD's, it was about Iraq's refusal to abide by UN resolutions, it was about liberating the people and establishing a democracy in the Mid-East. And yes, it was also about the fact that there were connections between Iraq and terrorists, including, but not limited to, al-Qaeda operatives. But I mean, really, could we break out any other tired old liberal canards against the war in Iraq?

Oh wait, yes we can. Because we also have the rest of the sentence, "...although no connection has been proven or even alleged except by hardcore neocons aligned with certain elements in the Washington power establishment." Well, this is just wrong. The 9-11 report stated there was no cooperation between Saddam's Iraq and al-Qaeda, but there definitely was a connection. And beyond that, al-Qaeda is only one terrorist group-- there are plenty of others, and at least some of these were directly supported by Saddam. We are not at war with al-Qaeda. We are at war with terrorism. Anyway, I love the last bit most of all, where there are shadowy references to neocons and "certain elements in the Washington power establishment." I mean, come on. Could we make the executive branch of the United States sound any more menacing or full of subterfuge? What a perposterous bunch of puffery.

The most interesting thing about the blurb is that it's a publishers blurb-- they want you to buy this book for your library. Now, do you suppose it's just possible that the blurb is phrased that way because they're trying to appeal to a particular audience? Say, a heavily liberal faculty base that was mostly against the War on Terror in the first place? Nah, that can't be-- universities are for the free expression of all viewpoints. Right?

Labels: Oh That Ivory Tower