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Editorial Reviews
Bloomsbury Review
"Few are as eloquent or as able to maintain lucidity for the lay reader as is Churchill."
Book Description
The United States has long been considered a deadly foe by the inhabitants of its ever-expanding "spheres of influence." In Reflections on the Justice of Roosting Chickens, Churchill examines the toll U.S. policies have taken on civilians around the world and the role activists are (or aren't) playing to stop the carnage. The Western world was stunned to wake up on 9-11 to find that the Third World had "pushed back." By ignoring the suffering and loss of life of their victims while grieving over our own, Amercans have made themselves complicit in their government's global slaughter. In a heartwrenching recount, Churchill reminds us of the untold millions who have perished as a result of U.S. military intervention (in either a physical, diplomatic or economic sense) in Iraq, Cambodia, Palestine, East Timor, the Americas . . . and the list goes on. To further illustrate his point, included are annotated chronologies of U.S. military actions from 1776 to the present and a compilation of International Laws either broken or ignored by the United States. Comprehensive, yet remaining concise, this book cannot be overlooked by those still asking: "Why do they hate us?" "Few are as eloquent or as able to maintain lucidity for the lay reader as is Churchill."-Bloomsbury Review "Ward Churchill has carved out a special place for himself in defending the rights of oppressed people, and -exposing the dark side of past and current history, often marginalized or suppressed. These are achievements of inestimable value."-Noam Chomsky Ward Churchill is co-director of the American Indian Movement of Colorado, a national spokesperson for the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee, and an associate professor of American Indian Studies and Communications at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Author of more than a dozen titles, he is also an indefatigable lecturer on government repression, American Indian affairs and global politics.
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188 of 231 people found the following review helpful:
 On the "Controversy"..., February 2, 2005
It is quite astonishing that such a flurry of activity can be aroused by one man's use of another man's analogy (John Zerzan actually started the "little Eichmann" remark) yet Madeleine Albright's comment that 500,000 dead Iraqi children's deaths was "worth it" stirred absolutely nothing--from even the "left".
After reading this book when was first published (and the original essay), it seemed only a matter of time before what did, indeed, initially seem quite abrasive was exploited. It would take a strong streak of denial to wonder why Churchill's language has been taken the way it has. But his employment of language must be distinguished from the message and his research, which have far more significance than his style which should be left to an aesthetic debate and tacticians, not to honest analysis.
What is particularly scandalous about this are the comments made by those who have taken it upon themselves to denigrate Churchill and his work with little to no reflection on what he and others like him have to say. It doesn't require a "leftist" to acknowledge the fact that U.S. foreign policy has been consistently disgusting to other people and has yet to change. What requires a bit more honesty, integrity, and hard work is to acknowledge our responsibility--as U.S. citizens--to prevent it from happening ever again. That is the America worth defending, no?
For all it's worth, I recommend taking a look at what has been written on a number of websites and try to discern what their underlying message is from their "style". Questioning Churchill's "Indianness", calling for his death, hopes of his winding up like "another Ira Hayes", among others is what this has amounted to in colloquial discussion. Was this perhaps among the concerns Churchill was referring to?
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165 of 207 people found the following review helpful:
why they hate us, February 5, 2005
Before 9/11 I had read practically nothing in the area of politics, but afterwards, as I assume most Americans were, I was terribly interested in the question "Why do they hate us so much?" Unlike most Americans, I began to seriously look for an answer to this question in the writings of Noam Chomsky, Chalmers Johnson, Samantha Power, William Blum, Ramsey Clark, etc., etc., etc., and most recently Ward Churchill. By presenting two chronologies Churchill demonstrates that a more appropriate question following 9/11 would have been "How could `they' possibly not hate `us'?" followed up with "Why did it take `them' so long to arrive?" and "Why, under the circumstances, did they conduct themselves with such obvious and admirable restraint?" The first chronology debunks the myth propagated by Woodrow Wilson that America is the "most peace-loving of nations." As the chronology shows, the U.S. "has after more than two centuries yet to evidence a single year during which it was not making war upon someone, somewhere, for some reason". The second chronology lists obstructions, subversions, refusals, and violations of international law by the U.S. since 1945. Upon reading this chronology it becomes painfully obvious that, contrary to the claim made by Justice Henry Brown, there are not "certain principles of natural justice inherent to the Anglo-Saxon character". Rather, it would seem that former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark was closer to the truth when he said that the "overriding purpose" of U.S. foreign policy is to "maintain the capacity to coerce everybody else on the planet, nonviolently if possible, violently if necessary, and once in a while just for kicks." Readers should be cautioned however. Those Americans with a shred of decency are likely to come away from this book rooting for the other side, the other side being for the most part the rest of the world. Holding such an opinion in a country where the average citizen, as defined by Churchill, is sanctimonious, smug, duplicitous, hypocritical, and ignorant could be unpleasant for those who'd prefer to avoid controversy. As for myself, in the immortal words of the Chief Ignoramus, "bring it on".
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0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
 I'd take it a lot more seriously if he wasn't a fake, December 3, 2006
Okay book, some points are true, too bad he's a fake. FYI, this guy is not a real Indian-he is a white man pretending. That's been proven by DNA. And he was never a member of a tribe, it was "honorary" and was taken away. The AIM movement came out and said they don't want him speaking for them, that he's a "wanabee" and that they don't like his racism. If you don't believe me, go to their website. They have a whole section on him and others like him. That kind of make me not want to read anymore of his books. If he's lying about that, what else is he lying about? He's been accused of plagarism too. I full believe that what was done to the Indians was very wrong, and I disagree with several US policies, especailly now. But I'd like to hear about it from a genuine source, not some fake who apparently hates his own race. This is not a "victims" perspective at all. He's not the victim.
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7 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
 Lies and the Liar who tells them., May 21, 2006
Once again "Dr." Churchill (he of course could never actually submit himself to the discipline and hard work necessary for a doctorate} steps forward to spew forth his usual set of lies and distortions calculated to promote his extreme and anti-American ideological agenda. Hitler was right, and Churchill knows it: the bigger the lie and the more often it is repeated the more believable it becomes. In Churchill's case the lie that is implicit in his every word and contention is that America is a place of injustice, racism, and greed. Of course, what Churchill cannot provide is a reasoned account of the human past that makes meaningful comparisons between America and other mass societies. So if Churchill were actually a scholar and met his responsibility to place American history in context by referencing other cultures what other societies would he decide have a better humanitarian record? India, surely not, they still have unofficial untouchables there, and a hundred and fifty years ago they burnt widows alive. Russia, not worth discussing. China, yeah right. The British empire? Native American societies? Well, almost without exception they were warrior cultures in which men killed and stole from other Indians (or as in the case of mesoamerica ripped the bleeding hearts out of living adults and children) and that practiced slavery - not the idea most of us have of a just society.
No, Ward, America is not a place of injustice, racism, and greed, though of course as in all societies those elements are present. America is the place where popular sovereignty was implemented for the first time in the human experience, the place that in its two hundred years of history has steadily become more democratic, inclusive, and just, the nation that created the United Nations and that torpedoed Europe's hopes of reestablishing colonialism after World War II, the country that was instrumental in defeating fascism, the country that faced down the geniunely evil Soviet Communism (60 million unnecessary dead between 1917 and 1953)while spreading Western enlightenment ideas like natural rights and women's empowerment throughout the world, and the place that two to three billion people elsewhere would dearly love to live (gallup poll in Mexico showed that 46% of its people, for instance, wish to live in the United States). Were Indians displaced? yes. Did Indians die off from new and unfamiliar diseases brought to the Western Hemisphere by Europeans and Africans? Yes, but it is a fact that all of human history is a litany of stronger cultures overwhelming and frequently destroying weaker cultures. Indeed, human social and technological advancement has been held by some to be a function of that process. But of course, Ward Churchill is not interested in discussing this truth, just making points.
The other side of this book is the fact that it is written by a man who has been judged by an objective panel of his peers as a thief and a liar, and who have in detail demolished the factual basis for virtually all of Churchill's assertions (go see online the report of the faculty review committee of the University of Colorado). Inevitably there will be those so dissatisfied with their own life and reality that they will find in Churchill's work reenforcement for the righteousness of their own alienation. For the rest of us, Churchill's chief contribution is that he illustrates just how farcical and bizarre academia can be. It would be risible if it were not so tragic. Garbage, true, but interesting garbage that sadly speaks to our time and place.
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8 of 37 people found the following review helpful:
if sociopaths could write, April 14, 2006
Impersonating a mephitic injun in dungarees, Mr. Ward Leroy Churchill (who is not a native American) equates capitalism with genocide. In person, he reminds one of a Leninist Queequeg with a masters degree, but lacking the natural nobility that Melville attributed to the character. He likes to jabber in academic lingo about the criminality of "Amerika," the zionist manipulated plague on leftist humanity. He obviously sympathizes with the 9/11 fanatics who, in his estimate, are no different than fleshy smart bombs. The fact that the fanatics intentionally target innocent victims is a detail that is trumped by the larger significance of his message, viz., that every crime is permissible if it is perpetrated against Amerika or her evil spawn, capitalism. Such dishonesty and sociopathic indifference to moral categories used to insure that disaffected scamps like Mr. Churchill would live out their days in their rooms growing fat on TV dinners. Now it lands you tenure at the University of Colorado.
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24 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
WONDERFULLY TRUTHFUL, October 11, 2005
Finally, someone has written an historical work that actually exposes America as what it is: just like every other nation in history. We killed off our natives, held onto slavery as long as possible, and denied women and minorities the vote until far too late. For all the people that question their government and don't just wave a flag, this book is for you. Take a moment and examine what happens when America puts its economy and strangely vibrating foreign policy before common sense. I'll give you a hint: genocide, destruction, and WAR WAR WAR. We build more weapons than all other countries combined, and not for stockpiling. We like to export them to whichever country our government deems friendly, and sometimes also to the very countries we are currently fighting. For instance, when we fought the Iraqis in Desert Storm, why were they shooting at us with the weapons we gave them? Because we used to support Saddam Hussein. Read this book and learn the truth about our beloved country. I still love America, in theory, but our past is shameful at best.
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