December 13th, 2009
reCENSORED AT AMAZON!
My new book The Art of War: Sun Tzu, Barack Obama, and the Modern Moment was censored at Amazon for three days after I wrote something starchy about Barack Obama. I wrote the book, one cover photo is licensed to me and the other is available for use from the White House photostream on Flickr, which prohibits only uses “that in any way suggest approval or endorsement of the President” — which, I think it’s quite safe to say, is not implied by my use. Or my blog. In any case, my book is now UNcensored RE-CENSORED partially censored by Jeff Bezos, who doesn’t want to talk about it.
While I don’t agree with some of your thoughtful criticism of Obama (I think Hendrik Hertzberg’s recent commentary in the New Yorker is close to where I stand on Obama’s incredibly complex problem regarding Afghanistan), I very much enjoy reading your work. This insult to you is outrageous. In fact, I would guess that Barack himself would not approve of Amazon’s pathetic little abuse of your first amendment rights. Keep in mind that this is Amazon, not the president or the government, doing this, and I hope you or your lawyer confront the bastards. It could just be the jolt of publicity your project needs. By the way, the other photo you used there on the cover absolutely rips my heart out every time I look at it. Best of good fortune to you.
Hi Paul,
Thanks for your comment. I don’t agree with me, either! Or rather, I would prefer not to. But boy howdy, is the evidence ever mounting. Malcolm Gladwell recently was quoted as saying that the first thing he’d do if he were becoming a writer today would be to get a master’s degree in statistics. The Gallup Pakistan stats don’t lie — people fear us and hate us, overwhelmingly. Combine that with what we’re doing with drones — not what we say we’re doing, but what the people who have been at the wedding parties and other gatherings have photographed and documented that we’re doing — and everything that is logical and true argues against our present course. So does Matt Hoh’s testimony, and Matt is a USMC captain, retired, who believes in capping bad guys. He just knows that we’re scorching a thousand little kids for every bad guy we get, and that’s going to come back to bite us. Unless the “us” is the guys making Predators and A-10s and Hellfire missiles.
I hope Obama proves me wrong. I can’t imagine they don’t have a hand in at Amazon since Amazon already approved the book and had it for sale. I wrote something strong about the President yesterday, and today you can’t buy my book. I rather doubt Amazon is reading my blog that closely. But I sent what I wrote to the President, as I always do, and presto! It doesn’t prove anything. It raises a troubling question, that’s all.
I have hope for him. It’s why I do what I do. (That, and the photo of Samar Hassan, and all the other photos.) But he’s up against some very powerful, very bent people. That, or he’s with them.
Thanks for your comment,
Brian