Review
Boomerang: How Our Covert Wars Have Created Enemies Across the Middle East and Brought Terror to America, Mark Zepezauer, 2003, ISBN 1567512224
This is a country-by-country chronicle of how American covert wars throughout the Middle East have come back to haunt us, creating many enemies.
Saddam Husseins rise to power was helped by a CIA decision to assassinate one of his predecessors, General Abdel Karim Qassim. In Syria, the CIA sponsored a 1949 military takeover, the first of over a dozen coups in the next 20 years. American oil companies felt that an independent Syria was not in their interests. Sudan has been involved, off and on, in a bloody civil war for almost 50 years. Oil just happens to be a factor in this ongoing slaughter.
In Egypt, Hosni Mubarak has ruled with an iron fist ever since the 1982 assassination of Anwar Sadat, his predecessor. Mubarak uses billions of dollars in US military aid to beat and torture opposition politicians and journalists, many of whom have died in custody. Press restrictions are widespread. Egypt is viewed as a well-bribed client state of the US. The military in Turkey, a US ally and fellow member of NATO, has been one of the biggest human rights abusers of the 1990s.
America has always looked for a surrogate policeman in the Persian Gulf, to keep an eye on the huge oil reserves. First we armed the Shah of Iran, ignoring his repression, until he was overthrown. The we armed Iraq, ignoring Saddam Husseins repression, until he became too powerful, and a major war was needed to destroy his arsenal. Now America is arming Saudi Arabia, ignoring their repression, creating a generation of militants determined to overthrow the puppet regime propped up with American money.
Part of the blame for all this can be laid at the feet of Great Britain. They were the dominant power for much of the first half of the 20th century, and they had a tendency to ignore the ethnic makeup of an area while drawing boundaries.
Arab hatred of America has less to do with our freedoms and diversity than with our illegal involvement in other countrys internal affairs. This book easily reaches the level of Must Read. Its interesting and easy to read and its full of information that wont be mentioned in the mainstream media.