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29 of 42 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
I wanted to like this book, but..., April 29, 2007
This review is from: All American: Why I Believe in Football, God, and the War in Iraq (Hardcover)
I am also a Captain in the Army, so I was excited to come across a written account of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan written by one of my peers. I thought this book would be interesting and relevant to my own experiences in Iraq. However, I was very quickly disappointed by the book's one-sidedness and lack of insight. One of McGovern's main themes is that the positive stories from Iraq and Afghanistan are seldom reported, while violence and strife always make the nightly news. While there is truth to this, McGovern takes the opposite approach to the extreme. He cites children waving at soldiers and Iraqis voting as proof that US policies in Iraq are working and progress is being made, but he completely ignores any and all evidence to the contrary (worsening violence, Iraqi political ineffectiveness, millions of refugees fleeing the country, a steady decline of electricity and other services, children throwing rocks, etc). By far, the biggest flaw in this book is that McGovern never addresses or acknowledges the negative impact of having an occupying army living and operating for years within a civilian population. In the effort to catch the terrorists, soldiers kick in doors, round up detainees, seize and destroy private property, create collateral damage and civilian deaths, etc. These are the unavoidable side effects of fighting a war. Add to that the unscrupulous actions of the soldiers at Abu Ghraib and Haditha, and you'll find that the longer we stay, the less popular we become, and the more support the insurgency receives from the local population. A recent poll indicated that over half of Iraqis now support attacks against American soldiers. By ignoring half of the issue, McGovern abandons a reasoned, balanced appraisal in favor of blind ideology and wishful thinking. I haven't mentioned McGovern's career in the NFL or as an attorney, because the autobiographical aspect of this book is actually rather secondary to his promotion of US policy in executing the War on Terror. In this regard, none of his points are new, original, or insightful. Conservative ideology is haphazardly sprinkled throughout the book whether or not it is relevant to the ongoing story. For example, here is a quote from the NFL portion: "Of course, the hate [Vince] Lombardi was talking about was the football kind, not the hate that drives people to fly airplanes into buildings." By the time you reach the end of the book, it starts to sound like a White House press release from 2003. If you are primarily looking for a good inside account of the NFL, life in Iraq/Afghanistan, or the DA's office, this isn't the right book for you. If you're hells bells behind the war in Iraq and want to read something you're sure to agree with, then you might want to pick this up.
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28 of 41 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Little Patriotism Goes a Long Way, February 20, 2007
This review is from: All American: Why I Believe in Football, God, and the War in Iraq (Hardcover)
I just finished reading Captain Rob McGovern's "All American". Rob McGovern has had a front row seat to our country's most significant historical moments over the last 6 years, and his perspective is one of hope and optimism, rather than the constant pessimism and defeatism that are shoved down our throats. I was refreshed to hear a perspective from someone who doesn't want to make their name by seeing how many bad things they can say about their family, religion, and the United States. Captain McGovern tells stories about his life and the lessons he's learned through the people he met along the way; learning from both failures and successes. He uses a conversational style to talk to the reader, and relays a genuine passion for what he believes. Far from ignoring critics, he acknowledges the negative, but does not make it his job to rehash what we hear in the news everyday. He wants us to know the other side of the story; where good people are doing their best to do good things. I was very disappointed in Publisher Weekly's review, as I think whoever wrote it missed the point entirely. Apparently being a book reviewer doesn't require knowing the definition of an "autobiography". They seem to feel that when a person writes a story about THEIR OWN LIFE they must give equal time and confront potential critics. Captain McGovern's note to the reader at the beginning of the book makes clear he is talking from his point of view. Interestingly, PW's last review of Al Franken's Book "The Truth" (which is not an autobiography) is hailed for its attack on "the Right wing". Opposing points of view are not necessary as long as PW is happy. I highly recommend "All American". Captain McGovern balances the funny moments (e.g. his encounter with John Elway) with the seriousness of the subject matter. For anyone interested in sports, law, politics, and stories about people exceeding their potential through hard work, Captain McGovern's is a great story.
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5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Autobiography and Apologetic, September 20, 2007
This review is from: All American: Why I Believe in Football, God, and the War in Iraq (Hardcover)
Several reviews I have read have come down hard on the author for his stand on the war in Iraq. But this is his autobiography, the story of his life, and his opinion of the war is just one part of it. It is a well-written account of his childhood, his family, his education and his aspirations, and continues into his adulthood to the present time. He lets us know how he was trained by his parents to be unselfish and give back to the community some form of service, and this was undoubtedly the motivation for joining the Army Reserve, and eventually finding himself on active duty in Iraq. A good part of his story comes before that. He was competing with his older brothers in athletics, trying to be as good as they had been in high school football, and then in college football. He received an athletic scholarship from Holy Cross, an enormous accomplishment in his eyes, and he was grateful for the opportunity. And then came pro football, four years of it on three different teams. He was pretty good at it, but not outstanding. He simply was not big enough (hefty, bulky) to be a great linebacker. He was thankful for this chance to make the big league, but took the advice of one of his coaches to give it up. From there he decided to study law and with his law degree took a job as an Assistant DA in New York City. Then came 9/11, to which he was an eyewitness. In his role as a US Army Reserve officer he volunteered to help. Immediately following, he applied for active duty, leaving his job as assistant DA, and became a prosecutor for the Judge Advocate General Corps, and then deployed to Afghanistan and later to Iraq. His experiences there were extraordinary because he was involved in the trial of Hasan Akbar, the US Army Sergeant who killed two Army officers and wounded a number of others when he threw hand grenades into the tents of the soldiers. This is a well-written account of the life of a man who became a soldier in the US Army. Why would anyone find it strange that he has strong opinions in favor of the war in Iraq ? It is his contention that we are there as part of the war on terrorism. The patriotic feeling that he had on 9/11 was something that almost all of us shared at that time. For him it continued; for many of us it disappeared. Should we still be in Iraq? That is a matter for debate, which has been ongoing for some time now. Captain McGovern feels that we are making a difference, and that is why we are still there. This book is certainly worth reading, if only to gain some insight from a different perspective.
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