The reduction of cities to post-apocalyptic rubble, the immiseration and reduction to abject servitude of entire nations, and the massacre of countless innocents : all this can safely be ignored, so as not to interrupt the charade of lies, theft and corruption the world’s leaders have been pleased to call democracy . Jeff Zipper’s freedom to speak a tainted truth is meagre compensation for lives lost and ruined.

Showing the similarities of many colonial wars led by the Roman Empire,the Spanish Conquistadors or the US / Russian contemporary administrations,expressing the obsession of territorial domination,CONQUISTADORS is, in more senses than one, a diagnosis of imperial ills: the horrifying parade of scars and suffering.The political fanaticism and brutality to which Zipper testifies are not rapidly forgotten, and deserve far more attention than they are given. 

CONQUISTADORS  lays no claims to authoritative analysis—it is, after all, a book of reportage, of testimony rather than critical insight—but even so it is deeply flawed, and symptomatic of an universal madness.