Boomerang: How Our Covert Wars Have Created Enemies Across the M

From Afghanistan to Turkey, from the Caspian Sea to the Sudan, the U.S. has ripped through one country after another in the Middle East and elsewhere, manipulating and marauding for its own benefit. This is a history with which Arabs and Muslims are painfully familiar, but which Americans can no longer afford to ignore.

From the Author
For years, critics of US foreign policy had warned that we were endangering our own security by supporting repressive governments and terrorist forces abroad--that sooner or later it would come back to haunt us. When it finally happened, we were told that it was unpatriotic to ask why. I felt just the opposite--that it was unpatriotic to pretend that our foreign policies had nothing to do with it. I wanted to counter the "blame America last" crowd, who would bend over backwards to avoid finding any fault with our actions.

I wanted to write a book that would make it clear that the answer to "why do they hate us?" is "well, wouldn't you?" Not because I hate America, but because I love my country enough to want us to stop harming innocents and making needless enemies. If you know someone who has no idea of the history of our crimes in the Middle East and Central Asia, you can give them this book to help explain it. If you do know something about the topic, there may be some new information here that will open your eyes. But either way, we owe it to our children and grandchildren--and the children of Southwest Asia--to understand how we got to this point, before this cycle of violence spins out of control.

Mark Zepezauer is an author and cartoonist based in Tucson, Arizona. He is the author of Take the Rich Off Welfare and The CIA's Greatest Hits as well as the cartoon panel US History Backwards.