The Obama Syndrome: Surrender at Home, War Abroad
—Barack Obama, West Point, December 1, 2009
What has really changed since Bush left the White House? Very little, argues Tariq Ali, apart from the mood music. The hopes aroused during Obama’s election campaign have rapidly receded—the honeymoon has been short. Following the financial crisis, the “reform” president bailed out Wall Street without getting anything in return. With Democratic Party leaders and representatives mired in the corrupt lobbying system, the plans for reforming the healthcare system lie wrecked on the Senate floor. Abroad, the “war on terror” continues: torture on a daily basis in the horror chamber that is Bagram, Iraq occupied indefinitely, Israel permanently appeased, and more troops to Afghanistan and more drone attacks in Pakistan than under Bush. The fact that Obama has proved incapable of shifting the political terrain even a few inches in a reformist direction will pave the way for a Republican surge and triumph in the not too distant future.
Hardback, 168 pages
ISBN: 9781844674497
October 2010
$16.95 / £9.99
Other Editions
Ebook, 224 pages
ISBN: 9781844678280
September 2011
$8.99 / $16.00CAN
ISBN: 9781844677573
September 2011
$12.95 / £7.99 / $16.00CAN
Reviews
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“The Obama Syndrome will be a powerful boost to Obama dissenters on the left.”
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“The Obama Syndrome documents the collapse of the Myth into a thousand pieces”
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“A comprehensive account.”
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“Ali ... remains an outlier and intellectual bomb-thrower in his adopted London; an urbane, Oxford-educated polemicist.”
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“Ali is smart as fire.”
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“Ali doesn't put all blame on Obama and offers a prescription for the terrible problems confronting us: 'The lack of popular social movements in the United States enabled the elite to impose its own solutions, and these were, unsurprisingly, designed to boost the existing arrangements ... The lesson is an old one: without action from below, there will be no change above.'”
Blog
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Explaining the Israel-Palestine Conflict
Today is Nakba Day - the annual day of commemmoration of the Palestinian catastrophe, the expulsion of 700,000 Palestinians.
A selection of Verso's books on the Israel-Palestine conflict, from explanations to considered outcomes.
These are Verso's key books to explain the situation – what others should we include?
The Conflict Explained
The Case for Sanctions Against Israel edited by Audrea Lim
Leading international voices consider all sides of the conflict including boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel. With contributions from Angela Davis, John Berger, Naomi Klein, Omar Barghouti, Dalit Baum and Rebecca Vilkomerson.
The Punishment of Gaza by Gideon Levy
The powerful narrative of Israel's invasion and control over Gaza - examining the abandonment of diplomacy in favour of raw military power, turning Gaza into an enormous open-air prison.
“Gideon Levy’s passionate and revealing account is an eloquent, even desperate, call to bring this shocking tragedy to an end, as can easily be done.”
– Noam Chomsky
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Tariq Ali on Democracy Now: European Union awarded Nobel Peace Prize despite ties to NATO, crippling austerity cuts
Has the Nobel Peace Prize Committee jumped the shark? In what seemed an early April Fool’s prank, the Committee awarded the Nobel Peace Prize to the European Union for, in the words of chairman Thorbjoern Jagland, its historic role in transforming Europe "from a continent of wars to a continent of peace." This honor was bestowed despite the EU’s savage push for immiserizing austerity on Spain, Italy, and Greece—cuts that have led to violence on the streets, and the participation of many of its member states NATO military interventions in Afghanistan and Libya.
Today, on Democracy Now!, Tariq Ali, author of many books including The Obama Syndrome: Surrender at Home, War Abroad, discussed his reaction to the Committee’s decision, stating:
To give the prize to the European community, at a time, effectively, when economically, it is promoting unemployment, creating real class divides in virtually every country in Europe, where it has led to enormous violence on the streets of Greece, because of the policies being pushed by the EU ... it is a complete and utter joke.
Visit Democracy Now! to watch the interview in full. -
Verso Authors at the 2012 Brooklyn Book Festival!
Verso Books authors will appear on panel discussions alongside over 280 distinguished writers and thinkers at this year's Brooklyn Book Festival, the borough's seventh and largest international literary conference to date. Writers and book enthusiasts are expected to stage a veritable take over of Brooklyn, as the festival has expanded to twelve venues from Willamsburg to Gowanus presenting over 140 panels from September 17-23rd.
From David Harvey on American cities in the new economy, to Simon Crithley on the quest for the conversational sublime and Tariq Ali on the global revolution, we sincerely hope you visit our outstanding authors as they discuss and debate some of the most pressing issues of the moment.
Discussions
Begin a discussionOther books by Tariq Ali
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The Book of Saladin
by Tariq Ali -
Bush in Babylon
by Tariq Ali -
The Clash of Fundamentalisms
by Tariq Ali
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Kashmir: The Case for Freedom
by Tariq Ali, Hilal Bhatt, et al. -
Masters of the Universe?
Edited by Tariq Ali -
Night of the Golden Butterfly
by Tariq Ali
