The Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This book was not easy to write. I do not like what it has to say about my country. But I am convinced by the course of events leading up to and the developments following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, that this analysis is fundamentally correct. It is because I do not like stating that the United States is probably lost to militarism that this book is so heavily documented. I want to ensure that readers know how I claim to know something. Of course, I leave it to others to decide whether I have been convincing and whether my alarm about the course our country is taking is well-founded. I do not think we shall have to wait long to find out.

In the course of writing, I received much editorial help and many useful comments from Sheila K. Johnson, my companion for forty-six years and herself a gifted writer and intellectual. I owe a great debt to Tom Engelhardt, my editor, who has himself been deeply involved in trying to find the analogies and precedents that might throw light on the suicide of the United States as a democracy. Sandra Dijkstra, my agent, and her associate, Babette Sparr, worked tirelessly to see that my ideas got a public hearing. Others who have drawn my attention to aspects of imperialism and militarism I did not know about or might have overlooked include Kozy Amemiya, Maricler and Alfredo Antognini, Walden Bello, Steve Clemons, Patrick Hatcher, Barry Keehn, Brian Loveman, Thomas Royden, Odete Sousa, Yoshihiko Nakamoto, and the editors of antiwar.com.