The American Way of War: Guided Missiles, Misguided Men, and a Republic in Peril
by Eugene Jarecki
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Book Summary Information
Author: Eugene JareckiEdition: Hardcover
Format: Bargain Price
Published: 2008-10-14
ISBN: N/A
Number of pages: 336
Publisher: Free Press
Book Reviews of The American Way of War: Guided Missiles, Misguided Men, and a Republic in Peril
Book Review: A book well worth reading, regardless of your point of view.
Summary: 5 Stars
The author presents a point of view that is held by many but by no means all.This point of view changes as world situations change.Those who read it will either agree or disagree with the overall conclusions;because overall the author is one sided in his examples and conclusions.He never discusses the other side of any issue,and that is okay;but the reader should keep that in mind.This book will find a compfortable place on the bookshelf alongside Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11" or Gore's "Inconvenient Truth",and other left position books.If that is your position,then you will certainly agree with the author and believe he has presented fair and balanced analysis and conclusions. If you are of the opposing persasion ,you not agree with him.
What one should particularly remember in reading this book ,that if anything,there has always been different views on the part of liberals and conservatives whenever America has gone to war.As well,there has always been those who believe in appeasement as a way to deal with an enemy as opposed to those who are ready and willing to respond with action against an agressor.
The author goes into great detail in criticizing what he labels the MIC or Military Industrial Concept, and in fact portrays it as evil,self serving and in no way working in America's interest.However;he completely dismisses any thought that without it,the Nazi and Japanese quest for world domination in WWII,would have succeded.He ignores the whole idea that war in Europe and in the Pacific was in no way a quest for American empire building;by it took the will and strength of America to end it.He also overlooks the fact that over 60 million military and civilians were killed in WWII,and argues that Truman was wrong and had American self interests,for using the bomb to end it.
He also argues that the solutions to world conflicts would be better handled by European approaches and via organizations like the League of Nations and the United Nations.There may be validity in this thinking;but history has yet to prove this as successful;but then again,this is a view opposed to the author.
While the author is highly critical to a strong military and industry that provides the weapons to defend the country as well as to take action when necessary,he overlooks the fact that it was by their availability that Kennedy could stand up against Russia and make them stand down when they attempted to instal missels in Cuba.It was the same strength that Reagan used to convince convince Russia that an arms race with America was pointless. It was also the fact that in the Gulf War,that America's superior forces and arms quelled Saddam's march on Kuwait.This invasion could have well grown into what WWII became, because Europe preferred to deal with Hitler's aggression with appeasement.
Once again;I believe this is a good book in presenting a political viewpoint,but from one side only.
Another suggestion I would make is to read the Conclusion first, to see where the author is really coming from.
The fact that America has been the force that fought for liberty and freedom throughout the 20th century and defeated Nazism,Facism,The Japanese Empire and Soviet Agression;one cannot even imagine what the world would be like today without America. Those who endlessly oppose and criticise America should be careful in what they wish for;they might just get it.
As General Douglas MacArthur so aptly put it;
"The inescapable price of liberty is an ability to preserve it from
destruction."
Summary of The American Way of War: Guided Missiles, Misguided Men, and a Republic in Peril
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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