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Dismantling The Empire
by Chalmers Johnson

Professor Johnson has finished his decade long career as America's scholarly Jeremiah; he passed away shortly after publication of his final book, Dismantling The Empire. Thus, he will never get to see if we follow through on his prescription and take the necessary steps to save our nation from financial and political ruin.

Dismantling The Empire, a collection of essays published variously throughout the last decade, focuses on the same ground as Johnson's "Blowback Trilogy"--namely the costs to the USA of militarism and imperialism, and the country's urgent need to rein in its "empire of bases" and restore true republicanism in its politics.

Not surprisingly, Johnson spends some time repeating himself; these essays draw heavily upon the Blowback books, and each other, to argue their case. Still, repetition helps to reinforce, and in this case Johnson's repetition solidifies his clearly argued points about the growth of militarism in American society and government, its costs in treasure, prestige, and lives, and the author's belief in the urgent need to reform our politics and reeducate our citizenry in what it means to live in a true democracy, before grim consequences such as bankruptcy, or even outright dictatorship, mark the end of the American experiment.

As with Johnson's other works, his background as a scholar and policy analyst--his academic focus centered on East Asian nations and their relationships with the USA--rather than a political ideologue lends crucial weight to his conclusions. Johnson's arguments are always logically consistent, forcefully clear, and strike the right balance between thoughtful reasoning and righteous outrage. (Two of the best, most entertaining reads in the book are an essay about disgraced ex-Representative Randy "Duke" Cunningham--Johnson's own former home district Congressman--and a review of the film Charlie Wilson's War, which includes the author's acerbic censure of the filmmakers for the parts of the story they left out of the film.) It is difficult to imagine an honest reader picking up any of Johnson's recent works and not being convinced by his rhetoric that this nation is in serious trouble.

Thus, the only question left in the wake of the author's death is simply this: will Chalmers Johnson's legacy be as one of the intellectual founding fathers for a revived, re-democratized United States, or as a prophet of doom whose voice was tragically ignored? For the sake of this nation's future, let's hope it's the former.