John Pilger – The New Rulers of the World - Review

John Pilger has had a long and infamous journalistic career in Australia and the United Kingdom. In one of his most popular texts, A Secret Country (1989) revealed the history of the systematic genocide of Australia's indigenous people. Aboriginal "deaths in custody" had reached epidemic proportions (Aboriginal "suicides" in prison) and this widely read book pushed those in government to investigate and form laws to prevent further deaths. Pilger also pointed out Australia's two-sided nature, that is, its multicultural diversity and tolerant people, but also its entrenched unspoken racism. He is an investigative journalist concerned about revealing the truth, which seems to be a rare attribute in our highly influenced mainstream media these days. In the New Rulers of the World, Pilger reveals American and British imperialism through economic and military actions in the guise of the "war on terror." 

 Pilger discusses the US invasions of Panama, Yugoslavia, Iraq and Afghanistan, and the killing of thousands of civilians either by bombing, starvation, or disease, due to the sanctions imposed by the government under the flag of the United Nations, and the mainstream media conveniently failing to report these massive deaths. The theme of this book, in Pilger's own words, is to "...compare the actions of politicians in western democracies with those of criminal tyrants." He writes that the central difference between the two is the "distance from the carnage," and the propaganda imposed to make it not a crime if "we." commit it. He goes on to write:

"It is not a crime to murder more than half a million peasants with bombs dropped secretly and illegally on Cambodia, igniting an Asian holocaust. It is not a crime for Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, Tony Blair and his Tory predecessors to have caused the deaths in Iraq of `more people than have been killed by all weapons of mass destruction in history', to quote the conclusion of the American study." (P.8)

Pilger points out our glaring "double standard" where the deaths of the "unpeople," that is, innocent citizens in other countries is somehow not a crime but most certainly is when our own people die. As a result of the sanctions on Iraq in the '90s, for example, up to 6000 children per month died as a result of the blockade. This was the obstruction of $4 billion of humanitarian supplies by the US and British governments, not the actions of Saddam Hussein.

These wars, specifically Afghanistan and Iraq, are about dominance over the richest regions in the world, controlling its gas and oil reserves. Studies have shown that Western nations will be without oil in ten years without these reserves, plummeting the American economy into a third-world country. The American government would never permit this to happen, thus the "war on terror," occupying sovereign states, and the loss of so many innocent lives.

The text covers a lot of ground and exposes the intention of governments in their strategy to dominate the world stage economically and by force. Interestingly, the geopolitical and military-strategic importance of Iraq and Afghanistan, in terms of natural resources, (Caspian sea) is paramount in the control of the entire Middle East.

According to neoconservatives and the then and now US administrations, the blueprint for the new imperialism is already mapped out and well underway. Pilger cites Zbigniew Brzezinski, adviser to several presidents, and his book, The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy and its Geostrategic Imperatives, as the bible for the past and present US administrations.

In the last chapter of this book, Pilger reveals the hypocrisy of the Australian government and their treatment and utter "denial." of the plight of the Aboriginal people. While other countries like Canada and the US have reconciled with their own indigenous peoples, land grants, etc., the Australian government refuses to even make a formal apology, as did the Canadian and American governments to the Indians. This is to point out the enduring legacy of imperialism left over from the 19th century in our treatment of the indigenous people.

This is an illuminating book and one all people should read to gain a greater understanding of the intentions behind the war and unending deaths around us.