The USA has embarked on what the great historian Charles A. Beard called "perpetual war for perpetual peace." The Federation of American Scientists has recorded approximately two hundred military invasions since 1945, in which the United States was the main aggressor. In a series of penetrating and awakening essays, centered around a commentary on the events of September 11, 2001 (which, until the publication of this book, was deemed too offensive to be published in America), Gore Vidal challenges the comforting consensus that followed both September 11 and the bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City by McVeigh, that these were merely acts of "criminal elements."
"None of these explanations were particularly convincing, but our leaders, for over half a century, have ensured that we will never learn the truth about what our governments have done to other peoples, much less, in the case of McVeigh, to our own... The possibility that the junta ruling us has a significant share of responsibility in the anger of McVeigh (a Gulf War hero from the American heartland) and Bin Laden, an aspiring Muslim defender of the Faith, was never considered... We, the consumers, did not need to know the causes of anything. It goes without saying that those of us who insist on seeking some cause go through fire and water until they manage to make their voice heard in the corporate-funded American media, ...so I thought it useful to describe the various provocations on our part that led these two individuals to commit such horrific acts."
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