[IMC-Editorial] After the War on Iraq

[The Disinformation Company]

The Disinformation Company’s international bestseller WHY DO PEOPLE HATE
AMERICA? has been updated with a new foreword bringing the book up-to-date
past the United States’ invasion of Iraq. Ziauddin Sardar and Merryl Wyn
Davies, the authors, have contributed the foreword, entitled “After the
War on Iraq,” for free download at the newly-redesigned Disinfo.com.

“The question ‘Why do people hate America ?’ has become even more
pertinent after the war in Iraq,” the authors state in their new foreword.
“Indeed, since our book was first published on July 4, 2002, it has
acquired a universal dimension. The question has been addressed by global
opinion polls; and commentators and newspaper columnists across the five
continents have wondered how, in less than two years after the atrocity of
9-11, a moment of universal sympathy for America has been transformed into
a growing fissure not only in public attitudes but in basic institutions
of the world order.”

Sardar and Davies reveal how:

* While few Americans follow events beyond their own country, there is a
growing global backlash against the United States that has only increased
in intensity with the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

* The war in Iraq has widened the rift between Americans and Western
Europeans, further enflamed the Muslim world, softened support for the war
on terrorism, and weakened global public support for the UN and NATO.

* America’s new doctrine of pre-emptively striking when it considers its
national interests at risk –as in Afghanistan and Iraq–firmly establishes
it as the world’s hyperpower. But these pre-emptive strikes leave their
targets in much worse condition than is conveyed in the American media.

* Afghanistan has witnessed a descent into the chaotic warlord state that
preceded the arrival of the Taliban, and is too insecure for any
meaningful efforts at reconstruction.

* Iraq has also fallen into chaos, as America establishes its own economic
and strategic interests in the country–privatizing large swathes of the
Iraqi economy and awarding contracts without open tender to major US
corporations, many with links to the Bush White House–instead of the
self-determined wishes of the Iraqi people. This approach is quickly
foreclosing the options for whatever major government eventually emerges
in Iraq.

* American nationalism is clothed in the creed of democratic values and
virtues, expressed in myth and historical narrative, expounded in the
products of American popular culture, exported around the world and seen
as the future inheritance of all peoples–but it is hidden in plain sight
in the United States, and even if Americans were to see it, they wouldn’t
recognize it as nationalism.

As Sardar and Davies show a world increasingly hateful of the American
hyperpower, they also argue that hatred is the worst possible basis for
relations between nations, and call for viable solutions and remedies to
lay the foundations for a truly peaceful world–and a solution to “the
problem of America.”

“After the War on Iraq” can be viewed at:
http://www.disinfo.com/site/displayarticle93.html

For more information on “Why Do People Hate America?” please contact Ralph
Bernardo at 212-691-1605 (tel), 212-473-8096 (fax) or books at disinfo.com.


WHY DO PEOPLE HATE AMERICA?
By Ziauddin Sardar and Merryl Wyn Davies
Published by The Disinformation Company.
Trade Paper * 240 pp * $12.95 * ISBN 0-9713942-5-3
Distributed to the Trade by Consortium Book Sales & Distribution.

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