The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned Into a War on American Ideals
by Jane Mayer
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Book Summary Information
Author: Jane MayerEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2009-05-05
ISBN: 0307456293
Number of pages: 432
Publisher: Anchor
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780307456298
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Book Reviews of The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned Into a War on American Ideals
Book Review: The War On Terror has itself become a dangerous threat to our security and liberty.
Summary: 5 Stars
When a government kidnaps, tortures, uses indefinite incarcerations, and kills without accountability, it is a danger to its citizens. But, as The Dark Side shows, that is exactly the power the US government secretly claimed and exercised after the 9/11 attacks. The US government denied any limitations on it power to conduct - as it saw fit - the War On Terror. This book documents many scary ways the government conducts the War On Terror.
Even democratic governments assume dictatorial-like powers in wartime. But the War On Terror is different. Congress never declared a war. There is no government, or state, or nation with which we are at war. There will always be "terrorists." There always have been. There is no way to know when the War On Terror is over and has been won. So, the War On Terror will have no end. It will be perpetual. The wartime powers the government assumed will never end.
War On Terror enthusiasts rely upon the claim that due to War On Terror we have not been hit since the 9/11 attacks. There are two main responses to this mistaken notion. First, we don't know if there has ever been another credible terrorist threat comparable to 9/11. In his book, Overblown, John E. Mueller argues that there has never been and likely will never be another such terrorist threat. His book is an excellent companion book to The Dark Side. Second, many more Americans have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan (over 5,000) than died in the 9/11 attacks. Those two wars have been more costly to the US than all the damage from the 9/11 attacks. War On Terror enthusiasts also ignore the estimated over 100,000 Iraqi's and Afghans killed, the over 2 million refugees just from the Iraq War, and the enormous devastation wreaked on both Iraq and Afghanistan in the name of the War On Terror. The magnitude of the US government overreaction to 9/11 in Iraq and Afghanistan is staggering. The War On Terror has been much more deadly and devastating than the evil it purports to combat.
Lord Acton famously pointed out that "power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." With history as our guide, we know that all of the War on Terror abuses our government inflicts on foreigners will eventually be inflicted on our own citizens as well. We already see evidence of that happening. Abuse always tends to escalate. Power corrupts.
The War On Terror corrodes our liberties and its proponents can't convincingly show any improvement in our security. The Dark Side provides a lot of scary information to alert us to the dangerous road we are on. This country was founded upon the right of active citizens to oppose government abuses. We can draw upon that heritage to meet today's new threats to our security and liberty. The War On Terror is indeed such a one.
*****
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Summary of The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned Into a War on American Ideals
One of The New York Times 10 Best Books of the Year National BestsellerWith a New AfterwordNational Book Critics Circle Award Finalist A Best Book of the Year: Salon, Slate, The Economist, The Washington Post, Cleveland Plain-DealerThe Dark Side is a dramatic, riveting, and definitive narrative account of how the United States made terrible decisions in the pursuit of terrorists around the world?decisions that not only violated the Constitution, but also hampered the pursuit of Al Qaeda. In spellbinding detail, Jane Mayer relates the impact of these decisions by which key players, namely Vice President Dick Cheney and his powerful, secretive adviser David Addington, exploited September 11 to further a long held agenda to enhance presidential powers to a degree never known in U.S. history, and obliterate Constitutional protections that define the very essence of the American experiment.21st Century Books
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