A war that has killed over a million Iraqis was a ‘humanitarian intervention’, the US army is a force for liberation, and the main threat to world peace is posed by Islam.
Those are the arguments of a host of liberal commentators, ranging from Christopher Hitchens to Kanan Makiya, Michael Ignatieff, Paul Berman, and Bernard-Henri Levy. In this critical intervention, Richard Seymour unearths the history of liberal justifications for empire, showing how savage policies of conquest—including genocide and slavery—have been retailed as charitable missions.
From the Cold War to the War on Terror, Seymour argues that the colonial tropes of ‘civilization’ and ‘progress’ still shape liberal pro-war discourse, and still conceal the same bloody realities.
- ISBN10 1306920000
- ISBN13 9781306920001
- Publish Date 1 January 2014 (first published 28 October 2008)
- Publish Status Active
- Out of Print 1 April 2015
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Verso
- Edition Revised ed.
- Format eBook
- Language English