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The Bubble Of American Supremacy: The Costs Of Bush's War In Iraq | 
 enlarge | Author: George Soros
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Category: Book
List Price: $13.00
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Avg. Customer Rating:  38 reviews
Sales Rank: 237993
Media: Paperback
Edition: export ed
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 224
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.3 x 0.6
ISBN: 1586482920
Dewey Decimal Number: 327.730090511
EAN: 9781586482923
ASIN: 1586482920
Publication Date: October 12, 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com Review
Proving that exorbitant wealth and allegiance to the Republican Party do not necessarily go hand in hand, billionaire George Soros offers a sharp critique of the neoconservative philosophy that he sees guiding the George W. Bush administration. In The Bubble of American Supremacy, Soros warns that American efforts to be the ultimate global superpower will not only be unsuccessful but will make America and the world infinitely more unstable. Bush and company, he says, have callously used the events of September 11th for their own political gain and misled the world about the threat posed by Iraq. In previous American presidential elections, billionaires Steve Forbes and Ross Perot have tried to run for president themselves to address the country's problems, but Soros--while no less zealous about his convictions--sees his role a little differently. "I have made it my primary objective to persuade the American public to reject President Bush in the upcoming elections," he writes, "We have been deceived." The arguments he makes and the evidence he presents are interesting enough, although there really isn't anything here that hasn't been written in scores of other anti-Bush books released around the same time. What sets Soros's book apart from all the others is the recurring presence of Soros himself, frequently citing previous books he's written, speeches he's made, and highlights of his career. The pronoun "I" is never far away. Granted, it's been an interesting career; his financial success coupled with his passionate political convictions would make for a terrific memoir, but at times in this book Soros's ego gets almost comically in the way. Referring to his long-held support for open societies, he says this philosophy "could almost be called the Soros doctrine" only to renounce propriety over it a page later. Soros is a capable writer and a clear thinker, and he ably articulates his views. Readers interested in criticisms of Bush and company have several options but readers interested in George Soros will find plenty to satisfy them here. --John Moe
Product Description
Long known as "the world's only private citizen with a foreign policy," George Soros combines his razor-sharp sense of economic trends with his passionate advocacy for open societies and decency in world politics to come up with a workable, and severely critical, analysis of the Bush administration's overreaching, militaristic foreign policy.
Soros believes that this administration's plans abroad come from the same sort of "bubble" psychology that afflicted our markets in the late 1990s. They have used a real fact, our overwhelming military supremacy, to create a deluded worldview, that might makes right and that "you're either with us or against us," in the same way that the recent boom used a real fact, the growth in technology, to lead to a delusion, the "new economy."
Like the best of the books that have responded quickly to world events, The Bubble of American Supremacy has a clear, intriguing, comprehensive thesis that makes necessary, and compelling, order of our seemingly disordered world.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 33 more reviews...
 The vision of the Left for America. October 16, 2007
Unless you delve into the depth of thinking in the ideas put forth by the Left and thus the Democratic Party;you may not know much about George Soros. Heck,most only know the names of a few prominent people on either side of the political spectrum.The people who run for office are picked for their ability to garnish voter support at Election time;but are not the real ideologists.
However; the real forces behind the candidates are those who are the ideologues who have the vision of where they would like to take the country on all issues from culture,monetary,politically,moral values,or any of the other issues the government ,whose role it is to serve the people,actually control.
George Soros is a huge influence on the Left in both ideology and financial support.The ideas influencing the left are put forth in as clear detail as possible in his book. The old adage of "Putting your money where your mouth is" couldn't apply more than to this man.
That he is a powerful force in the thinking and actions of the Left ;there is no doubt.
Much of his thinking is naturally very European,and although he is an American now,his background ,thinking and inspiration comes from Europe and he still sees the European thought process as superior to that of America and the Right,Concervative thinking of the Republican Party.His ideas are much further aligned with Europe,One world Government,Socialism,and other ideas than what has been the case of former greats in the Democratic Party such as Kennedy,Johnson,Truman Roosevelt,Stevenson,McGovern and even Carter and Clinton.
Soros is abundantly clear about what he thinks is wrong in the world and it is because of American Supremacy and that world affairs would be better administered with America taking its ideas from Europe and world bodies such as the United Nations;in other words these other forces are better able to direct the strength of America's success and power than America has done. Soros explains why it has been America and George W Bush that has been the force that kept Socialism from becoming the great promise for the world.
Soros continues to give us clues.... July 3, 2007
...to many Americans George Soros is a bad guy with an Eastern European name that tried to buy John Kerry into the White House, a sad and mistaken impression developed by the same folks that bring us more Brittany and Paris when we really need to hear about affordable health care and a plan for Iraq.
Just as Mr. Soros has spent $500 Million a year for more than a decade trying to relieve suffering and increase opportunity any where in the world that needs it, he has also spent many hours writing a series of books that explain a clear way to look at future needs and the tools to develop the International Policies that will meet those needs.
I can't recommend this or any other of Mr. Soros efforts strongly enough, you'll never look at the world the same way again.
A critique on government's fundamentalism September 16, 2006
In his last effort to dump George Bush, Soros resorts to his stern objectivity and economic savvy to expose the disastrous consequences of keeping a drug-rehabilitated and born-again Christian in the driver's seat of a superpower. Soros attributes to the latter traits, Bush's experience with the devil. Bush found his mission in 9/11 and the neocons found their man in Bush. That was crude social Darwinism achieved by military supremacy to ensure national survival and subjugate the rest of the world. The nation that is fittest militarily survives, others perish.
Hoping that Bush would lose the 2004 election, Soros described the Bush's doctrine as a bubble of supremacy that would soon burst. He likens military fundamentalism by market fundamentalism. Both tend to favor the interest of individual nations and disregard the collective welfare of whole body of nations. Thus, as the sole superpower, America is wasting its treasures and making its mistakes that caused far-from equilibrium world peace. Since there is no other nation stronger than America, America would only decline by virtue of its own mistakes. Those are plenty, thanks to Bush's doctrine.
Soros takes on Bush's proclamation to rally the world for the American cause and to take the war to the enemy. In an open society, people choose for themselves and do not need others to rally them. Thus, Bush's views of subjugating the world to his American causes are fundamentalist, not only militarily and economically, but also religiously. Secondly, the enemy has no address to wage war at. Soros brilliantly relies on the dictum of victim-perpetrator analogy to analyze many examples of international terrors. He concludes that America should have never overreacted to 9/11 in such manner that squandered opportunities for world peace. Terror was around since the beginning of history and would not disappear soon. It is even worse when nations turn terrorists and not realize it. He exemplifies that with our count of our deaths in Iraq while forgetting about the Iraqi deaths.
One of the craziest ideas, Soros discusses, is the MAD; mutual assured destruction, which calls for wide spread of nuclear weapons such that nations would be deterred by fear from mutual destruction. Similarly is the debate over the war on drug; whether to deal with addicts as sick or criminals? Whether illicit drugs made legal?
Soros outlines three scenarios for getting into the Iraq quagmire: Oil, Israel, and Imperial supremacy. Those are concealed under the facade of spreading democracy and ridding of weapons of mass destruction. He overlooks the personal influence of the rich Kuwaitis and Saudis dreaded Saddam's adventures.
To Soros' dismay, reason does not prevail in politics or in economics. His theory on reflexivity in economics, has a role in politics as well. Electorate has emotions that determine future leaders. Leaders have emotions that shape their decisions. Thus, world peace is as unpredictable as world market. The bust and boom, in economics, works well in politics. Yet, with all the criticism to Bush's policy in Iraq, history might credit Bush for his daring and charismatic risk in altering the course of a totalitarian regime. Getting Saddam into a prison cell would not be forgotten for generations and might even be correlated with biblical justice in the eyes of many Muslims. Major historical landmarks were made by radical leaders.
Mohamed F. El-Hewie
Author of
Essentials of Weightlifting and Strength Training
 A businessman's take on the neocons July 19, 2006
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Critiques of the neoconservatives often come from liberals, journalists, environmentalists, and pacifists. This is one of the few from a dedicated businessman. Drawing upon the history of other once powerful nations such as the Soviet Union, Soros gives his opinion on how and why the US is powerful. He then explains why he thinks this nation is more powerful than it should be, or is taken to be. He describes how recent actions by the US is creating enemies and impoverishing other countries in the world. He then lays out a series of proposals that the US should implement to help the poorer countries in the world. Overall, this book's ideas are not new, though the author is. It is a short and easy read, and worth the time.
 What Money Can't Buy July 9, 2006
5 out of 8 found this review helpful
Soros would like an Open Society created by peaceful means, where people can read what they want, criticize what they want, and elect whomever they want. Sort of like a utopia for intellectuals. Of course, that's preferable to the stage managed elections and callous warfare state that currently squats in Washington DC. Soros also includes much that Iraq protesters and anti-globalists can agree with, about how Cheyney and Co. are bringing the gift of freedom to the many dead Iraqis and how they want to sit on top the global dog pile permanently. No need to go into Soros' reasons here. Other reviewers have already done so, and besides, lambasting the Bush gang now amounts to a not-very-small publisher's bonanza.
However, there are two important points somehow overlooked by the author in his 200 pages-- namely `class' and `empire'. Yes-- `class' in that old Karl Marx sense of economic grouping that recognizes you according to where you fit in on that great ladder of production; and `empire', in the time honored sense of yanking wealth out of weaker foreign peoples, so that someone's core of rich and powerful can get richer and, uh, powerfuller.
Thumb through those 200 pages of Soros' book, you'll find not a single mention of American empire. Plenty of mentions of the Soviet empire, but nary a one of America's free fire zone. Yet what can be more obvious than the existence of an American imperium. Sure, it goes by many self-serving aliases, most often the 'Free World', but the reality is 700 military bases straddling the globe and a history of interventions from Central America to Iraq that can no longer be blamed on the Soviets, nor on the expansionist designs of the neo-cons. It really is difficult to talk about creating Open Societies when confronting an empire with a history of closing them down as soon as they become too threatening. George Soros, meet Noam Chomsky.
Then there's `class'. Our guardians thought they buried that concept along with the old Soviet Union. But here it is again. Market fundamentalism means the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, and what's left of the middle-class hangs on to home-owners equity. It's not just US workers going to the poorhouse, but Europeans too, swept away by the same tide of capital migration and dollar-a-day east Asians. Along with them goes the safety-net state, on which Soros apparently models his alternative to the current do-nothing state, which, by the way, liberals said had gone the way of Herbert Hoover. Hard to talk about Open Societies when the top 5 % of Americans own the majority of America's wealth and the bottom 40% owns 0.2% (Mark Weisbrot)-- while the disparities grow worse every day. The point is that the wealthy class smells blood and will not be compromised by some well-meaning uplift, no matter how far-sighted. Marx may have over-hyped the concept of class, but its power moves daily through the halls of government.
Of course, Soros condemns the naked effects of empire and class-- that's the point of his book, since the Bush gang does not bother masking the structural rule of the two. He's eager to deal with the effects, but makes no mention of their source inside the system. Instead, the author pretends that concern for national `sovereignty' is the only structural barrier to humane reform, spending pages agonizing over the difficulties. The bias is revealing. Unlike sovereignty, empire and class are generated not by some outside force, but by the internal workings of capital itself. Thus, Soros' insistence on private property maintains in his scheme the very impediments that will defeat it. How ironic -- but not surprising, considering that the author is one of the world's premier capitalists. Really, the only difference between his pipe dreams and yours and mine is the size of his bank book.
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