Stewart provides the geo-strategic and political context without which the various elements of the jigsaw puzzle make little sense, with the illegal wars, rendition and torture, ever larger "defense" budgets and the growth of the national security state at home, oppressive and intrusive surveillance and curtailments of civil rights, entrapment and faked bomb plots -- all alleged to be responses to the specter of a claimed resurgent extremism in Islamic countries. Acceptance of any part of the official myth of Muslim or Arab blame for the major "terrorist" outrages of the last decade fatally weakens the case against the wholesale demonization of Muslims. If "they" did it, invasion, occupation, torture, and the rest are, in the eyes of many, justified "to prevent them doing it again." Following the evidence trail instead of the myth, Stewart exposes the hidden agenda of neo-imperialism and the driving force of the fear of the old enemy, Russia, which holds Western strategists in its grip.
Stewart's subversive heresy virtually guarantees that The Trojan Spy will be ignored by the propaganda machines of the corporate mass media. It's a dangerous book, and a very good one -- characters with complex personalities who act in unexpected ways, a well-structured story full of surprises, authentically rendered settings, and a direct but graceful narrative style. The writing shares the thoughtful, meditative qualities of le Carre's and the brooding menace of Ludlum's. If Stewart had followed the conventions of the genre, reinforcing the myth that the West is Best, The Trojan Spy could have been boosted by the media into a best seller. But it's a better book than that -- a book that tells the truth. Selections of it are posted on the publisher's website at http://www.puntopress.com/the-trojan-spy-selections/ .
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
1
1
1
