Book Review: Washington Bullets, by Vijay Prashad, 2020. Lefword Press
2020 was for many, including myself, a revealing of the starkest contradictions of capitalism laid bare. For me, these events sparked the beginning of a quest to better understand global history, politics, and the realities of globalization and colonialism. Reading Fanon’s absolutely essential Wretched of the Earth opened my eyes to the lived experiences of colonial subjects and the psychological condition of living under occupation within quasi-post-colonial nations. Fanon’s brilliant work illuminates the tenacity and strength of these nations who have fought back against colonial oppression, many of which are still among the handful of nations the US punishes for their refusal to play along with it or the UN, notably Iran and Venezuela. Indian scholar Vijay Prashad’s 2020 book, Washington Bullets is an excellent companion to Fanon’s work, providing the historical and social context for campaigns of terror and coup attempts, but from the opposite side of the southern hemisphere and primarily in South America.
My interest in the Cold War also peaked last year, with material conditions and political upheaval inviting me to seek information and critical history of western military and intelligence agencies, but literature on these issues takes, at best, an impartial stance, and at worst, a sympathetic or jingoistic attitude towards the CIA and other “alphabet” agencies. Whatever perspective I was looking for, Prashad has distilled in Washington Bullets, in which he explores why these aggressive attitudes have been so tightly wound into American culture, and how deeply the western intelligence apparatus is the nucleus at the center of our distorted view of “third world” and socialist nations, somehow existing in a liminal space; at once being a backward, pre-industrial “shithole” and an existential threat to our security and freedoms.
While many leftists may be familiar with much of the ground covered in Washington Bullets, this book reads as a very concise, tightly composed overview of events rarely discussed or taught in average history survey courses in higher education, and possibly never elsewhere. Bullets interrogate and reveal operations of direct, covert coup plots and the poisonous web of sanctioning and “lawfare” conducted by the US which continue to deprive nations like Iran and Venezuela from participating in trade for necessary commodities such as life-saving medicine, and now, makes the vaccine distribution all the more difficult. All of this to continue maintaining a posture of domination while little consequence is likely to be felt by the US or its allies for conducting, condoning, or ignoring such practices that are, technically, in violation of the Geneva convention and could be considered war crimes. Yet, the UN seems hesitant to address this dominant global position.
While the material covered in Washington Bullets is upsetting, angering, and deeply upsetting at times, Prashad’s readable, terminology-free prose invites readers to better understand history not as singular, disparate events, but as chains upon chains of events, all surrounded and imbued deeply with context, people, and voices. I would highly recommend this short, well-crafted book to anyone looking to better understand global history and politics.
Washington Bullets is available from LeftWord Press
