Dreaming War: Blood for Oil and the
Cheney-Bush Junta by Gore Vidal
The United Oil Oligarchy Of Amnesia And Entropy
When Gore Vidals recent New York Times bestseller Perpetual War for
Perpetual Peace was published, the Los Angeles Times described Vidal as
the last defender of the American republic. In Dreaming War, Vidal
continues this defense by confronting the Cheney-Bush junta head on in a
series of devastating essays that demolish the lies American Empire lives
by, unveiling a counter-history that traces the origins of Americas current
imperial ambitions to the experience of World War Two and the post-war
Truman doctrine. And now, with the Cheney-Bush leading us into
permanent war, Vidal asks whose interests are served by this doctrine of
pre-emptive war? Was Afghanistan turned to rubble to avenge the 3,000
slaughtered on September 11? Or was the unlovely Osama chosen on
aesthetic grounds to be the frightening logo for our long contemplated
invasion and conquest of Afghanistan? After all he was abruptly replaced
with Saddam Hussein once the Taliban were overthrown. And while
evidence is now being invented to connect Saddam with 9/11, the current
administration are not helped by stories in the U.S. press about the vast oil

wealth of Iraq which must- for the sake of the free world- be reassigned to
U.S. consortiums.
Personal Review: Dreaming War: Blood for Oil and the Cheney-
Bush Junta by Gore Vidal
...with free enterprise for the poor and socialism for the rich.
The label "conspiracy theorist" holds a powerful stigma. For the most part,
the conspiracy theorists themselves are to blame for that. For the most
part the people I've run across who propagate and perpetuate these wild
schemes are not the most critical thinkers out there. The evidence of this
is the way conspiracies run in packs. Once they're talking about secret
societies, secret connections and plots, more and more unfold, running off
in tangents. It might start with the Kennedy assassination but soon area
51 and Roswell are evoked, the moon landing is a hoax, the Loch Ness
monster and the inner Earth people. Not to mention the Catholics, the
Masons, and the Jewish-communists.
But that shouldn't dissuade us from investigating anything. The fact that
conspiracy theorists are nuts doesn't mean conspiracies never happen.
People who believe everything that's slightly exciting to believe are no less
critical thinkers than those who dismiss outright anything that threatens the
veneer of civility and order.
In reality, a conspiracy doesn't have to be an intricate web of deception,
some brilliant design everyone but you is in on. A conspiracy can be lots
of powerful people acting in a similar way, through sneaky means and
propaganda, for the sake of strengthening and securing their own power.
Hillary Clinton was lambasted for speaking of a vast right-wing conspiracy,
but as the story unfolds, we see a small handful of very powerful, rich
people using their influence to try and drag down a President and his
administration by any means necessary. She was right.
This book is a collection of essays unified by the assertion Gore Vidal is
making that American is an empire, and that American military action and
behavior, since before world war 2, has been an imperial attempt to control
as much of the world as possible. If one looks at the whole of human
history, none of this should come as a surprise. But in the modern debate,
where Neo-con imperialism is compared to Nazism, Mr. Vidal is telling us
that a better analogy would be the ancient Roman Empire, and that this
has been going on a whole lot longer than since the neo-cons have been
in power. The primary difference today is near-transparency of the current
administrations goals, and the deplorable depths of depravity to which
they'll sink to accomplish it. The unprovoked, unilateral invasion of Iraq
was just one of hundreds of unprovoked, unilateral military actions the
American empire has engaged in post-WW2. But in the past, America had
the self-awareness, pride and patience to do things in a deceptive manner,
exercising domination economically (the Marshall plan), or through low-key

military presences (like NATO in Western Europe) and by meddling around
the world with an alphabet soup of secret police (CIA, FBI, DEA, DIA...).
So, there's nothing new going on in the Bush-Cheney Junta. It is a matter
of degrees, but previous presidents and previous administrations don't get
off the hook unscathed.
And the media, owned by powerful, rich, well-connected corporations, don't
get off unscathed. Vidal discusses the role of the media, paid off to keep
two major characteristics of the America off the radar off the people, the
first being the existence- not to mention the pervasiveness- of a class
system, and the second being the nature of the U.S. Empire. Outside of
the United States, these are not secrets. When the twin towers fell,
Americans turned to each other and asked in genuine bewilderment how
anyone could hate us. When the answer was supplied for us, "they hate
us because they hate freedom," enough people could actually get
themselves to believe this to accomplish the re-election of the worst, most
venal bunch of ganefs in American history. American people could accept
the premise that people around the world want to attack us with suicidal
acts simply because they envy our goodness. That's not just us being
stupid, that's us being uneducated and misinformed. (And distracted! Was
that really a partial breast seen during a football half-time show? Heaven
forfend! Let's have congressional hearings about it.)
Drawbacks? Because this is a collection of essays written for different
sources at different times, you get a lot of redundancy if you read this book
cover to cover. Also, while I'm not a knee-jerk pro-Israel kind of guy (I
have plenty of criticism for the way Israel has acted and I see a lot more
complexity in the situation than people on either side ever acknowledge), I
do cringe a little bit when Mr. Vidal gets on the subject of Israel's role in
today's geopolitical scene. He hints at Israel's mistakes, but then, in his
wonderfully droll, mischievous style, declares that one can't criticize Israel
without being accused of anti-Semitism, complete with a sarcastic tone
that says `gosh, what could be worse than being an anti-Semite?' I know
he's making an important point but, as someone who grew up being taught
that they will eventually get around to blaming everything on the Jews
again, I can't help but feel a touch queasy.
All that being said, this is an important book, it offers an alternate take on
the modern situation that needs to be heard. And Gore Vidal, as opposed
to someone like Noam Chomsky, reports in his inimitable sassy style,
which turns a painful topic into pleasurable reading. That takes some
talent. Thumbs up.
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