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The American Way of War: Guided Missiles, Misguided Men, and a Republic in Peril | 
 уголеми | Автор: Eugene Jarecki
Издател: Free Press
Категория: Book
Цена: $26.00
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Нов (49) Използван (19) от $12.45
Оценка:  17 ревюта
Позиция по продажби: 70484
Медия: Hardcover
Издание: 1
Страници: 336
Брой Продукти: 1
Транспортно тегло (lbs): 1
Размери (in): 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.3
ISBN: 1416544569
Номер по клас. на Деви: 973.931
EAN: 9781416544562
Дата на публикуване: Октомври 14, 2008
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Product Description
In the sobering aftermath of America's invasion of Iraq, Eugene Jarecki, the creator of the award-winning documentary Why We Fight, launches a penetrating and revelatory inquiry into how forces within the American political, economic, and military systems have come to undermine the carefully crafted structure of our republic -- upsetting its balance of powers, vastly strengthening the hand of the president in taking the nation to war, and imperiling the workings of American democracy. This is a story not of simple corruption but of the unexpected origins of a more subtle and, in many ways, more worrisome disfiguring of our political system and society.While in no way absolving George W. Bush and his inner circle of their accountability for misguiding the country into a disastrous war -- in fact, Jarecki sheds new light on the deepest underpinnings of how and why they did so -- he reveals that the forty-third president's predisposition toward war and Congress's acquiescence to his wishes must be understood as part of a longer story. This corrupting of our system was predicted by some of America's leading military and political minds. In his now legendary 1961 farewell address, President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned of "the disastrous rise of misplaced power" that could result from the increasing influence of what he called the "military industrial complex." Nearly two centuries earlier, another general turned president, George Washington, had warned that "overgrown military establishments" were antithetical to republican liberties. Today, with an exploding defense budget, millions of Americans employed in the defense sector, and more than eight hundred U.S. military bases in 130 countries, the worst fears of Washington and Eisenhower have come to pass. Surveying a scorched landscape of America's military adventures and misadventures, Jarecki's groundbreaking account includes interviews with a who's who of leading figures in the Bush administration, Congress, the military, academia, and the defense industry, including Republican presidential nominee John McCain, Colin Powell's former chief of staff Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, and longtime Pentagon reformer Franklin "Chuck" Spinney. Their insights expose the deepest roots of American war making, revealing how the "Arsenal of Democracy" that crucially secured American victory in WWII also unleashed the tangled web of corruption America now faces. From the republic's earliest episodes of war to the use of the atom bomb against Japan to the passage of the 1947 National Security Act to the Cold War's creation of an elaborate system of military-industrial-congressional collusion, American democracy has drifted perilously from the intent of its founders. As Jarecki powerfully argues, only concerted action by the American people can, and must, compel the nation back on course. The American Way of War is a deeply thoughtprovoking study of how America reached a historic crossroads and of how recent excesses of militarism and executive power may provide an opening for the redirection of national priorities.
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| Клиентски ревюта: Чети 12 още ревюта...
 An amazing jaunt through the history of the MIC(C) Декември 28, 2008
James Ridgway (San Diego, CA USA)
This book is different than I thought it would be. This book takes you through the history of the Military Industrial Complex starting during and after World War II and on through the current situation in Iraq. Jarecki takes the reader through the past 60 years of the MIC and creates real interest in what has gone before and where we find ourselves today. The dangerous increase in power that has come to the Executive branch of the US Government is nothing new, it has simply been brought to new heights with the latest 'regime'.
This is an excellent and easy to read book. The author keeps the subject interesting and puts everything in superb perspective.
 Misleading Декември 12, 2008
Michael Dawson (West Linn, Oregon United States)
2 от 2 намериха ревюто за полезно
There are three main explanations for the prominence of militarism in US society. The mainstream explanation is that people hate us for our democracy, so we need to be armed to the teeth to put these haters down. Jarecki states the case for theory #2, which is a runaway Pentagon and (in Jarecki's telling) Presidency. This is the claim that all our wars are just loose cannonry.
Jarecki states this thesis well, but seems never to have heard of the other alternative explanation, which is that constant and constantly expanding war is part and parcel of corporate capitalism, for both political and economic reasons. If you'd like to understand this third theory, go back to Baran and Sweezy's classic, Monopoly Capital: An Essay on the American Economic and Social Order (Library of Holocaust Testimonies,), from 1966. It offers a far more powerful and realistic explanation than Jarecki.
By the way, Jarecki is known for starting from Eisenhower's famous speech. Why in the world didn't Ike do anything about the problem while in office for 8 years? Jarecki never asks that question, because it doesn't fit his model.
This is an insidious book. Like Jarecki over-rated documentary on the same topic, it tries to get people fired up about being radical when the explanation on hand is a superficial wild goose chase. We need thoroughgoing economic democratization and reform at home and genuine respect for law and humanity overseas, not some vapid talk about constraining Presidents.
 A worthwhile summary Ноември 26, 2008
Mark Shanks (Portland, OR)
5 от 5 намериха ревюто за полезно
There isn't a great deal of "new" information here (Jarecki claims a scoop by saying that Colin Powell was fired, and that Dick Cheney really wields the power), but there IS a LOT of solid information for newcomers to the subject. Unfortunately, I think he could have used a better editor - the material doesn't flow very well, and the uninitiated may be overwhelmed if their worldview is more "Norman Rockwell" than "Francis Bacon". He jumps from the first bombs on Baghdad to the pre-Pearl Harbor McCollum memo and Roosevelt's possible knowledge and motivations with relationship to the Japanese attack. On to the 1947 National Security Act, then it's back to PNAC and the neocons, and a change of course to an interview with Dwight Eisenhower's son and Smdley Butler's "War Is A Racket". Some difficult transitions there.
That said, he makes a persuasive and generally fairly rant-free case that the military-industrial complex has developed to such an extent that the very foundation of government, the separation of powers, has been badly distorted, and not just by the current Administration. Of course, a single book couldn't possibly trace ALL of the circumstances that have lead to our present sorry Imperial state, but this is an excellent starting point.
Understanding the Military Industrial Complex and NeoCons Ноември 25, 2008
Joseph J. Slevin (Carlsbad, CA United States)
I have to admit, I am a bit of a centrist in many things and a conservative in others, yet this book took me out of my comfort zone and challenged my thinking, or should I say, propagandized mind.
Jarecki, the filmmaker of "Why We Fight," goes to the next level to delve into the history and development of America's way of war, particular since the end of the WWII and the beginning of the cold war. Jarecki starts with the present, flashes back to the times of Truman and Eisenhower and then back to the present again in reviewing how we got to where we are. He also goes into our going to war in WWII and how that influence the very important National Security Act of 1947 that eventually lead to the MIC (the Military Industrial Complex).
What fascinate me in all this is when he shows that Truman and the Dems of his time and for sometime there after were the ones engaging in developing our military capacity after WWII and the Republicans wanted to get back to isolationism. One area I wished he had spent a little time on would have been how did we get from that to the why, when and how the transition took place.
His approach to the NeoConservatives (fake conservatives) was really enlightening. So, really, we have a group of individuals who write a blueprint for the USA and it is followed almost to the letter after 9-11. He is really so very well researched and rarely allows himself to show any narrow mindedness in political discussion. However, there are times where he seems to contradict himself. Ike was warning that there was less need for nukes and Kennedy was for them, then a little later, Kennedy said Ike was all for nukes and not for conventional war making as much. He could have clarified his thoughts on things like this.
His book is also written with the framework of what the founders and framers of our nation and approach to our republic had written about foriegn entanglements. But, what is relatively glossed over is what do we do when the USA is really the only nation left standing intact after a great and terrible war? He does not weigh the difference with responsibility and meddling in the affairs of other countries.
Jarecki writes as if there are not even potential enemies. Although there was a lot of fearmongering during the cold war, was there relatively little threat during that time. He writes about specific programs that were wasteful, the exposing of corruption in Defense spending and related issues, but sometimes he asks if we really needed certain weapons. For instance the F22 fighter. The author mentions we have no enemies with an airforce, so why do we need fighter planes? Well, he is not asking this rhetorically, he means it and yes we did spend way to much on implements of war at times, but a reality check would say we have potential enemies, and there are other uses for fighter planes instead of dog fights.
As I write this, Venezuela is inviting Russian Naval warships to its ports. So close to us and the leader of Venezuela has let us know what he feels about us. So I ask the author and the readers of this very informative book, do we have potential enemies?
He asks or repeats the question "why do they hate us?" throughout the time frame of our present day. But do we ever ask the question has anyone really ever liked us? I had just ended reading Old World New World where the British and USA are featured as the leaders of the world for trade, finance and yes war making capacity and control. The world that was prior to WWII was not a pleasant place and has always been cursed with wars, skirmishes, persecutions and factionism.
Whether US should or not follow the Truman Doctrine, policing the free world, is another topic for another author. But, the issue he focuses on is not just the USA's war making capacity, it is the greed and corrupt way we go about the acquisition and procuring war making implements.
Telling in the book is his adding another C, congressional, to the letters MIC. He feels that Congress has become a unified whole, both sides of the aisle, in its support of the MIC and he gives reasons why.
I have to say, I was a little sceptical when I began reading this as maybe, he was going to rant. But I was looking particularly for one fact to be addressed to see if he completed his thought on the subject of US warmaking. Smedly Butler is the subject I looked for and because he mentions Butler, I continued this book until its end. You will have to read the book to really understand what I mean.
In our time, this is a must read. Although discussions should ensue surrounding what he says, especially poinant is the discussion of the NeoCons. This book can help our country look at itself and do what it can to get away from cronyism and corruption at the highest levels of our society. I guess, only time will tell.
A must read Ноември 23, 2008
A. Jones
1 от 1 намериха ревюто за полезно
Jarecki goes into great detail, with a comprehensive historical background framework, to explain how the United States has become today a monstrous war machine with 93% of the whole Defense budget going to the DoD and only the remaining 7% to the State Department. Which explains in a nutshell why, when problems arise, they are likely be solved militarily.
From the founders to the Bush administration, Jarecki explains how there has been a continuous erosion of the legislative power - with stunning insights into this last administration's wrongdoings leading to an unnecessary war in Iraq.
It is time for the American people to be aware of what is happening without their knowledge and to expose the wrongdoings of their corrupt politicians!
A good way to start is to read this book.
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