The political economy of human rights Book

Chomsky and Herman are at the absolute top of their game here, witty, sardonic, and ruthless. They paint a chilling picture of the postwar world, with America protecting her national interests by exporting "sub-fascism" ("sub" because classic fascism at least had some kind of popular support) to inept, sadistic dictators and then looking away as these petty Hitlers repress and occasionally exterminate their people. The authors' examples are shamefully obscure; many have not even heard of Indonesia's invasion of East Timor in '75, but here they spend 200 pages on the issue. It serves as a much needed corrective, as does the entire book.

One of the most revealing parts was the section on the 20th Century genocide of the Ache indians in Paraguay and the terrifying, disgusting fundamentalist missionaries aiding and abetting in the extermination. We meet Jack Stolz of the New Tribes Mission who buys and sells the Ache as slaves and makes good money doing it. We hear descriptions of Death Camps that are compared to those run by the Nazis, and is it left wing activists saying this? No, its highly respected anthropologists who had only been in Paraguay to study the Ache when they discovered they were the target of a genocide. Before "The Washington Connection," I had never even heard of the Ache indians. That alone is reason enough to recommend this monumental work. I can't wait to read the second volume.