Chalmers Johnson - The Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic - Review..

One could call this text a scorching polemic concerning America's largely clandestine pursuit of economic and military world dominance. It is more a slap-in-the-face-wake-up-call to pull the reigns in on our current power hungry leaders, who are presently leading us into a black hole that will be all too difficult to escape from in the future.


Johnson outlines the United States' imperialistic intentions and its many acquisitions since the 19th century. Most students of history are aware of these early acquisitions, starting with the Spanish American War, and shortly there after, the brutal conquering of the Philippines. These wars were justified with jingoistic rhetoric; at times rationalized in unadulterated propaganda to the American people, and then played down after the colony was established. Johnson goes on to outline the proliferation of militarism throughout the 20th century, particularly since the establishment of NSC 68 after WW2. The problem however, as Johnson points out, is that militarism and the acquisition of foreign lands are becoming less and less justified with euphemistic rhetoric, and are now boldly rendered without the approval of international law and the United States constitution ' as if to say, ''we're going to do it any way, whether you like it or not, because if you disagree, we'll put you on the hit list as well.' In other words, we do it because we can, and you can't stop us. The evidence in this book, in most cases, is irrefutable, because the facts and actions speak for themselves.

A compelling example is the reasons given for the current conquering and occupation of Iraq. The Bush 2 administration defied the United Nations and most of its long-term allies and invaded Iraq, stating they knew best, because the regime had WMD and was ready to unleash them on the 'free' world. There are no weapons of mass destruction, and the administration was told this by expert authorities from the beginning. 

The new party line, then, was a necessary 'regime change' because Hussein was a ruthless dictator and was a potential danger to the region. Granted he was a ruthless dictator, and committed heinous crimes against humanity, but any informed person is aware that countries like Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, which are current 'allies', and play a strategic role in the Middle East, have appalling human rights records and are ruled by quasi dictatorships. Why not impale our moral superiority on them as well? Were we lied to? Johnson writes,

'If so, then it seems that high government officials falsified pretext for the second Iraq war and committed a fraud against the Congress and the American people. In a constitutional republic, these are impeachable offences. The fact that such proceedings have not been mentioned is a further sign of the political decadence brought about by militarism and imperialism.' (P.306)


The trillions of dollars poured into the military-industrial complex in order to maintain close to eight hundred American bases strategically placed around the world cannot last forever. Money is pouring out of the country in the name of 'defence' and nothing of any significance is being done on the domestic front.
In other terms, as usual, the elites are benefiting, while the many are barely keeping up with their rents and paying for food. This is just one issue, but an important one.

In the last chapter of the book, Chalmers asks us to actually take back the reigns of power as the people, and stop the endless supply of money to the Pentagon and the secret intelligence agencies, turning the American economy from a war based one to a peace based economy, thus avoiding another possible 'blowback' like 9/11, and improving the common man's standard of living.

This is an important book and a necessary one to begin positive change away from war towards a lasting peace.