Truth, Torture, and the American Way: The History and Consequences of U.S. Involvement in Torture

Note: It seems like a lot of my reviews are starting to sound the same, so I thought I'd try to make this one interesting by attempting to review this book in the form of a rap song. Obviously, some detail has been sacrificed. My apologies to any hip-hoppers I may have offended...

[beat box intro]

Smedly Butler wrote it true in War is a Racket
Foreign policy’s a tool of the highest income bracket.

Financial Elite in New York call the shots,
Top of the pyramid, safe on their yachts,
Sending our troops off to war, and for what?
Use public-wealth cash to fund private-wealth plots.

Bought-off politicians stand by to take their orders,
Underclass soldiers sent to march on foreign borders,
In the name of the banks, they spread death and show more disorder,
Media giant always sends a reporter,
Question the war, and they’ll give you no quarter.
Call you a traitor, if you’re not a supporter.

Layin’ a claim on the American sphere,
Owning a share of the war profiteer,
Using the C.I.A. to spread fear,
Locals who raise up a voice, disappear,
Propping up dictators year after year,
Putting their Treasury into arrears.
Puppets of the World Bank puppeteer,
Distributing drugs, and it’s perfectly clear:
What they sell on the streets back at home, they grow here.

[short instrumental]

In 1954 we covertly overthrew
An elected Guatemalan with a plan for something new-
A man who seemed to understand his land was getting screwed;
We called Arbenz a socialist and authorized a coup.
In his place, a Colonel, who predictably was shot,
After him, some others, not a good one in the lot.
All this carnage didn’t matter, we just raised a margarita;
Didn’t do it for security; we did it for Chiquita.

Later in Hondoras and El Salvador,
The Agency ran drugs to fund another war.
Kidnapping and rape, but none of it's official,
Murder on the side, but none of it's judicial.
Human rights abuses goin' down in Argentina.
Arms are being traded in the Panama arena...

[beat box breakdown]

During the peace, C.I.A. will invent,
Methods to generate profit percent,
Renegade agents collecting the rent,
Trafficking humans without their consent,
Never disclose how the money is spent,
Torturing leaders of local dissent,
Corrupting the plans of reforming intent,
Bustin’ up unions and tracking the scent,
Of just indignation and fair discontent.

[instrumental and fade-out] show less

Note: It seems like a lot of my reviews are starting to sound the same, so I thought I'd try to make this one interesting by attempting to review this book in the form of a rap song. Obviously, some detail has been sacrificed. My apologies to any hip-hoppers I may have offended...

[beat box intro]

Smedly Butler wrote it true in War is a Racket
Foreign policy’s a tool of the highest income bracket.

Financial Elite in New York call the shots,
Top of the pyramid, safe on their yachts,
Sending our troops off to war, and for what?
Use public-wealth cash to fund private-wealth plots.

Bought-off politicians stand by to take their orders,
Underclass soldiers sent to march on foreign borders,
In the name of the banks, they spread death and show more disorder,
Media giant always sends a reporter,
Question the war, and they’ll give you no quarter.
Call you a traitor, if you’re not a supporter.

Layin’ a claim on the American sphere,
Owning a share of the war profiteer,
Using the C.I.A. to spread fear,
Locals who raise up a voice, disappear,
Propping up dictators year after year,
Putting their Treasury into arrears.
Puppets of the World Bank puppeteer,
Distributing drugs, and it’s perfectly clear:
What they sell on the streets back at home, they grow here.

[short instrumental]

In 1954 we covertly overthrew
An elected Guatemalan with a plan for something new-
A man who seemed to understand his land was getting screwed;
We called Arbenz a socialist and authorized a coup.
In his place, a Colonel, who predictably was shot,
After him, some others, not a good one in the lot.
All this carnage didn’t matter, we just raised a margarita;
Didn’t do it for security; we did it for Chiquita.

Later in Hondoras and El Salvador,
The Agency ran drugs to fund another war.
Kidnapping and rape, but none of it's official,
Murder on the side, but none of it's judicial.
Human rights abuses goin' down in Argentina.
Arms are being traded in the Panama arena...

[beat box breakdown]

During the peace, C.I.A. will invent,
Methods to generate profit percent,
Renegade agents collecting the rent,
Trafficking humans without their consent,
Never disclose how the money is spent,
Torturing leaders of local dissent,
Corrupting the plans of reforming intent,
Bustin’ up unions and tracking the scent,
Of just indignation and fair discontent.

[instrumental and fade-out] show less