75 of 92 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Booking the Empire: Eugene Jarecki's AMERICAN WAY OF WAR, October 7, 2008
This review is from: The American Way of War: Guided Missiles, Misguided Men, and a Republic in Peril (Hardcover)
Booking the Empire: "Why We Fight" Filmmaker Makes His Case In Print
by Rob Williams; editor, Vermont Commons newspaper
What happens when an award-winning documentary film producer turns to a print monograph to make his case?
If you are Eugene Jarecki, the answer (to borrow a baseball metaphor) is: you hit a solid triple, with an eye towards home plate.
Jarecki's new book - The American Way of War: Guided Missiles, Misguided Men and a Republic in Peril (Simon and Schuster, 2008; 324 pages) - is a provocative and personal exploration of the same crucial themes he explored in his Sundance Film Festival 2005 Grand Jury Prize-winning documentary "Why We Fight." Ignore Jarecki's "confession" to being "first and foremost a filmmaker" on page 1, rather than a "policy scholar, a soldier" or an "insider to the workings of America's military establishment."
Pay his humility no mind. Jarecki possesses a keen eye for detail, an ability to listen closely to his subject's personal and professional motivations (and the often-felt tension between the two), and a knack for speaking synechdocally - that is, using individuals and moments to illustrate larger systemic and historical truths, and the reader is the better for it.
The book begins, as his film does, with President Dwight David Eisenhower's 1961 "Farewell Address," in which the prescient Ike warns Americans to guard against the dangers of the "military-industrial complex," that potent and profit-seeking combination of special interests that might spell the death of the U.S. republic. Jarecki then takes us on a historical and global tour of the United States, from its early 20th century emergence as a global imperial force to the present moment, with some remarkable stops along the way, from interviews with air force pilots and West Point cadets to conversations with those in the highest levels of government, including Richard Perle and Republican presidential candidate John McCain, who proclaims the United States to be "the greatest force for good in the world today."
How McCain measures this goodness is, of course, a matter for readers to ponder, given the economic and political realities of our current moment, and Jarecki's book, while wisely steering clear of an attempt to exhaustively chronicle America's empire-building abroad, explores the historical tension between America's desire to remain a neutral, even isolationist player on the world stage, and its desire to build an Empire. Eisenhower, for whom Jarecki has deep admiration (as have I, even more so after reading Jarecki's book) remains the central figure here, walking a remarkable line between competing pulls on his loyalty as a military man, a policymaker, and a compassionate human being in a tough position of leadership.
Not surprisingly, as Eisenhower himself warned, the war-making and profit-taking interests have dominated this debate during the past sixty years, and Jarecki takes pains to explain the nuances that undergird the building of the most powerful (and expensive) Empire in world history. His final chapter - "Shock and Awe at Home" - is a referendum on the past eight years of King George's administration. For anyone who is unfamiliar with or has forgotten how the USA PATRIOT Act, or John Yoo's new and novel legal theory of "the unitary executive," or the John Warner and Military Commissions Acts, or the FISA nonsense, or dozens of other presidential abuses of power have reshaped the federal government's very essence over the past eight years, a close reading of this chapter alone is worth the price of the book. And I am not comforted by the conclusion most observers make here - that, once Mr. Bush exits office stage right, somehow everything will "return to normal." Sunset clauses somehow provide little comfort here.
Speaking critically, as a U.S. historian and secessionist/ decentralist, my arguments with Jarecki's book are not insignificant. I find troubling his refusal to touch the mountain of evidence - the scholarly and well-researched work of David Ray Griffin or Michael Ruppert, for example - that suggests that the 9/11 attacks served as a "false flag" operation engineered by elements within the U.S. government to advance a "new Pearl Harbor." This is an odd omission, since this phrase is one he uses repeatedly in the book, quoting the Project For A New American Century's statement calling for a new "defensive" posture - one that essential advocates a policy of "full spectrum dominance" in which the U.S. militarizes the entire globe and outer space. (Orwell would be nodding knowingly right now.)
Jarecki's otherwise spot on "iron triangle" analysis - in which he masterfully considers the intricate interconnections among the U.S. military, profit (and war) seeking global corporations, and both the legislative and executive branches - largely leaves out the vital role of U.S. media and "news" outlets as propaganda arms for war-making (General Electric manufactures weapons systems for the Pentagon AND owns NBC, which hypes war 24/7. This is not a coincidence).
And, perhaps most importantly, Jarecki chooses to downplay the tremendous amount of money U.S.-based multinational corporations (and the politicians who front for and work with them - Dick Cheney, Don Rumsfeld, and the current occupant of the White House, He Who Must Not Be Named) have made supporting what former Bush I insider-turned whistleblower Catherine Austin Fitts calls "the tapeworm economy."
The country of Iraq is a perfect example here. Let's connect the dots: the U.S. military-industrial-media-energy-complex makes money bombing and destroying Iraq (Ka-ching!), "rebuilding" Iraq, often badly and/or corruptedly (Ka-ching!, Part 2), while privatizing all of its assets (Ka-ching! Part 3). Oil, black gold, is the bloody tip of the spear point here, as 1 million Iraqis have died since the U.S. 2003 invasion, 2 million more have been displaced, and the U.S. taxpayers have been left footing what Nobel Prize winning economist Joseph Stieglitz has estimated to be a $3 trillion dollar war ("on terror, that "will not end in our lifetimes," according to Mr. Cheney.)
If I sound outraged, I am - and, while I deeply appreciate Jarecki's willingness to listen to all sides, I found myself wishing he'd take off the gloves, at times. But I am also willing to own my own sense of outrage, and laud Jarecki for his vital contribution to this important and unfolding conversation about the future of the United States under the regime that is the "military-industrial complex." In turning to typography, filmmaker Jarecki has produced what many will see as a minor tour de force, an important book at a pivotal moment in the history of the United States republic-turned-empire.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Understanding the Military Industrial Complex and NeoCons, November 25, 2008
This review is from: The American Way of War: Guided Missiles, Misguided Men, and a Republic in Peril (Hardcover)
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
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.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A must read, November 23, 2008
This review is from: The American Way of War: Guided Missiles, Misguided Men, and a Republic in Peril (Hardcover)
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.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
![[Start the discussion]](http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/x-locale/communities/discussion_boards/start-new-discussion-sec._V192250339_.gif){kind=small}
