A strong start and a whimpering finish.

Prashad illustrates the philosophical deadzone of enlightenment and democracy that is colonialism in a way that is compelling and brutal in its depiction of imperialist governments. However, the anti-imperialist frame softens and weakens as imperialist powers discard outright colonial barbarity for subtler financial destabilization, NGO displacement of government duties, and lawfare. The theory that they all stem from the same imperialism becomes less and less convincing as the book progresses.

For example, Prashad devotes an entire chapter to Brazil's lawfare coup and the rise of the far right government of Jair Bolsonaro as though it is performed by US government agencies rather than an endogenous fascist movement. It is always the imperialist, never the local bourgeoisie, that threaten popular movements. Lenin and then Stalin made ideological concessions of convenience a hundred years ago, and anti-imperialist intellectual development arrested there: The only way to destroy capitalism is to undermine imperialism, the only way to undermine imperialism is national liberation, and the only path towards liberation is the national bourgeoisie in control of a nation state. A lingering side effect of this is that any attempt to alleviate suffering outside of a national bourgeois is denounced, whether by a workers movement attempting to destroy capitalism, or NGOs inside a national territory, are branded a threat to anti-imperialism, and by association, capitalist. The former isn't mentioned in the book, but the latter is, for sure. ( )

I've reviewed this book in full here: https://niklas.reviews/2021/05/13/vijay-prashad-washington-bullets/ ( )