The Killing Of Osama Bin Laden Hardcover

Seymour M. Hersh

In 2011, an elite group of US Navy SEALS stormed an enclosure in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad and killed Osama bin Laden, the man the United States had begun chasing before the devastating attacks of 9/11. The news did much to boost President Obama's first term and played a major part in his reelection victory of the following year. But much of the story of that night, as presented to the world, was incomplete, or a lie. The evidence of what actually went on remains hidden. At the same time, the full story of the United States' involvement in the Syrian civil war has been kept behind a diplomatic curtain, concealed by doublespeak. It is a policy of obfuscation that has compelled the White House to turn a blind eye to Turkey's involvement in supporting ISIS and its predecessors in Syria. This investigation, which began as a series of essays in the London Review of Books, has ignited a firestorm of controversy in the world media. In his introduction, Hersh asks what will be the legacy of Obama's time in office. Was it an era of 'change we can believe in' or a season of lies and compromises that continued George W. Bush's misconceived War on Terror?How did he lose the confidence of the general in charge of America's forces who acted in direct contradiction to the White House? What else do we not know?

1784784362

English

Verso Books

12-Apr-16

144

Seymour Hersh has written for the New Yorker and the London Review of Books, as well as serving as a Washington correspondent for the New York Times. He established himself at the forefront of investigative journalism more than four decades ago with an expose of the massacre in My Lai, Vietnam, for which he won a Pulitzer Prize. Since then he has uncovered stories from Kissinger's role in the Nixon Government to the expose of the military torture regime at Abu Ghraib prison. He has won the George Polk prize five times, twice the National Magazine Award for Public Interest, the L A Times Book Prize, and the National Book Critics Circle Award.

Richard Seymour has a brilliant mind and a compelling style. Everything he writes is worth reading. Gary Younge "One of our most astute political analysts turns his attention to Corbyn, and the result is predictably essential: not just to make sense of how we got to this unlikely situation, but for his thoughts on what the left might do next" China Mieville "Seymour is an essential voice on the left, and this book is a necessary intervention, explaining this daunting political moment and bringing the focus back to strategy. Not so much a call to arms as a call to brains." Laurie Penny "No one writes about politics the way Richard Seymour does. He takes a very British story of the rise of Jeremy Corbyn, with all its peculiarities and details, and turns it into a revelation of the international crisis of parliamentary democracy. Whether you love Corbyn or Sanders or Podemos or Syriza or loathe him (and them), you'll find here the most sophisticated diagnosis of why men and women across the globe are turning to the left and why their aspirations are so continuously being frustrated. Seymour is a magnificent explainer: pointed without being pedantic, funny with out being flip, and always insisting that we take in the whole." Corey Robin "The Anglophone left has been cheered by the surprising rise of Bernie Sanders in the U.S. and Jeremy Corbyn in Britain. Richard Seymour's elegantly written book is a reminder of all the obstacles facing Corbyn. Even if you're not as pessimistic as Seymour about his prospects, you really need to pay attention to this critique. It will make you a better fighter of the necessary class war." Doug Henwood, author of My Turn: Hillary Clinton Targets the Presidency "Long after the Labour left was thought to be dead, Jeremy Corbyn's emergence has inspired millions. There is no one better positioned than Richard Seymour to take a look at his emergence and whether Corbyn can actually turn Labour into a force for radical change." Bhaskar Sundara "Corbyn: The Strange Rebirth of Radical Politics is the fullest and fairest account of Jeremy Corbyn's rise released to date. In avoiding much of the rhetoric espoused in similar accounts focusing on Corbyn's early career this book provides a frank account of how the unlikely leader took charge of the Labour party. It is a very readable account too. Richard Seymour writes plainly but effectively and his writing is both accessible and incredibly informative." Liam Young, New Statesman "Lasersharp analysis of British 'Labourism' and its contradictions... This book is terrifically astute" Jamie Maxwell, The National "Corbyn: The Strange Rebirth of Radical Politics is the first serious analysis of Jeremy Corbyn's unexpected ascent." Yohann Koshy, Vice "A mustread for militants inside and outside the Labour Party." rs21 "Corbyn is not about Corbyn in much the same way that Richard Seymour's earlier and much shorter book, The Meaning of David Cameron, wasn't really about its eponymous antihero. Rather it is an analysis and an astute one of the sociopolitical conditions which have given rise to Corbynism, its future prospects and the substantial obstacles it will inevitably face." Tom Mills, Ceasefire "The best, and the definitive, account of what Corbyn's victory the first time round meant. One year on the essential summer 2016 read." Philosophy Football "A brilliant and incisive analysis by a longterm watcher of the party." Asa Winstanley, Middle East Monitor "It is a point of contention whether the politics represented by Jeremy Corbyn offers a pathway out of the crisis or we are instead witnessing the last hurrah of Britain's harried and diminished workers' movement. That is one of the questions Richard Seymour tries to answer in his excellent new book...Seymour's analysis remains indispensable" Alex Doherty, Red Pepper "The finest study of Corbyn yet written" Stephen Bush, New Statesman "Richard Seymour's Corbyn: The Strange Rebirth of Radical Politics not only shows how, amid Labour Party decline, Jeremy Corbyn and his supporters challenged the neoliberal consensus, but also considers the possibility of success and what form that might take." Times Higher Education [Books of 2016] "A witty and acute political and historical analysis from a position to the left of Corbyn...Seymour is utterly unsentimental in his analysis." Robert Potts, Times Literary Supplement