Customer Reviews

The Complex: How the Military Invades Our Everyday Lives (American Empire Project)

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1 star:		(4)

 

 

This book begins with a short catalogue of the various products in your cupboard that are made by companies with huge Department of Defense contracts and continues by identifying the Navy technicians who helped design your child's computer games. In between, Nick Turse, an elegant writer, and clearly a fearsome researcher, details the ways the military has insinuated itself into all of our everyday lives -- from the products we buy, the toys our children play with to the institutions that we depend upon. It is a story that begins with President Eisenhower's famous parting words about the dangers posed by the military-industrial complex and continues through the Iraq debacle that we're now living through. This is an important book.

An important read for all Americans. Well written, with an immense amount of details about, who, what, when and where the money goes. Obviousely a great deal of research went into this book, but it is written in such a way that you don't get bogged down in the details, they become a fluid part of a well told story. Open almost any page, and the documented, outragous spending and corruption, will stare you in the face.
Nick Turse has put together a well documented account of the DoD, tax payer funded, feeding trough, that should alarm every American. At times he shows a flair for the humorous, ( the choices are, laugh or cry )but there is nothing at all funny about this book.
A must read for all elected officials, ( and the press )who are not already well entrenched in the fleecing of America.

This is a fast paced compelling read. Packed with startling revelations that will horrify some, while wowing others. Nick Turse opens our eyes, as to how pervasive the Military Industrial Complex has become in our lives. He lifts the curtain on billions of dollars of Pentagon waste that Americans tolerate without question. He details for the reader the extent of how the military has garrisoned the globe.
Sounding a warning to teens that "Uncle Sam Wants You" and will do almost anything toward that end, makes this mandatory reading for young men and women as well as their parents.
Sci-fi, buffs might find cool the idea of militarized moths, or spying spiders, but the programs Dr.Turse sheds light on, are cause for grave concern.
Throughout the book the author's clever wit is apparent and the level of research admirable. If you think the Military Industrial Complex is all guns, planes, missiles and tanks you should read The Complex. If you think that we as citizens are in control of the military you must read The Complex.

On Jan.17, 1961, outgoing President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned of the moral hazard created by the tight relationship between the congress and military, which have the power to wage war, and the corporations who prosper from military escalation.
Eishehower warned that,"In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the militaryindustrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together."
Eisenhower's speech was delivered over 48 years ago and he would, no doubt, be disappointed in this nation for not heeding his words. Not only has the complex grown in strength and power but it has spread to now include hundreds of corporations, all feeding at the trough of death and destruction.
Turse, who holds a doctorate from Columbia University, writes in straight forward and direct language, laying out the playing field of brands we are all familiar with from the food, entertainment, technology, consulting and other industries that have great incentive to see our military grow and spend.
Finally, Turse gives us a view to where this is all going in terms of advanced weaponry and military tactics to recruit anyone who can draw breath to use as cannon fodder for the US's global adventures.
Take Eisenhower's advice and take a few minutes to make yourself "alert and knowledgeable". A good place to start is by reading Turse's book.

A fantastic book! We have needed a book that rigorously examines our government's spending with regard to the military, and furthermore, how it is entangled in other areas of our lives that we typically (and naively) think of as wholly separate. What thinking person doesn't want to know where his or her money is going?

Which brings me to another point. What has happened to us that we can no longer analyze and question what our government gives to us and demands of us without being labeled "anti" something or other? Anti-military, anti-America, etc. Where is the criticism for anti-thinking? It's disappointing to see reactionary reviews to a book such as this, which sets out to inform us not to lambaste the government in a playground brawl. Why are smart Americans so upset when the system they put money into and live within goes under scrutiny? If a person had a tumor on his leg, would he not seek medical attention because he likes the leg and wants to keep it? Our system is ill, and we have researchers and writers like Mr. Turse to thank for the scrutiny that might help us (begin to) figure out how to save it.

On to the review. I've followed Mr. Turse's work for many years, in The Nation and on TomDispatch, mostly, as well as in the Los Angeles Times. He's a fine researcher and that rare individual who holds his own bar highest. Not only is The Complex a research feat that few of us have the mind, talent, or energy to even attempt, Mr. Turse makes connections between the data he's amassed-the true work of a writer.

Anyone who is shocked to hear of a $640 toilet certainly doesn't remember the Chicago scandal over ten years ago when a government official had used city funds for a $150,000 toilet. Are facts untrue because they are shocking to us? My grandmother can't believe gas is $4 a gallon, either...

We should be smart and skeptical enough by this point in time to appreciate the efforts of those such as Mr. Turse who data-mine for us so we don't have to. The book is well-organized and extremely readable, especially considering the wealth of information. Have I stopped supporting the companies in the book? No. Do I wish that I could? Sure. Do I get the sense that Mr. Turse is preaching to me to do so? Not at all. But reading The Complex made me realize that what we need is more awareness. It's impossible to live off the grid and the author isn't suggesting anyone do that. How silly and naive to read this book with that interpretation. Mr. Turse urges us to think. What's wrong with that?

There's a dearth of writing like Mr. Turse's in our world today. This book is the first of its kind and we need more writers like him that are willing to exercise the mental muscle it takes to analyze the government and its spending and influence with regard to its military. I have to wonder, do a lot of parents, for example, throw money at their kids without asking them how they are spending it? Perhaps so. But if you care about your kids (and likewise your country) you might want to know what it's up to with all that dough. If it's in trouble, you might want to look at why.

Mr. Turse's book makes me proud to know that I live in a country where we can question our government and criticize (in the interest of fixing) what's broken. If people aren't comfortable with this level of intelligent scrutiny, then perhaps North Korea is accepting residencies. I hear they have a lovely plan for blindly getting behind one's government without asking questions about what it's up to.

Everyone who pays taxes ought to have enough intellectual curiosity to ask where his or her money is going. Heck, this isn't intellect; it's common sense. Thank you, Mr. Turse, for an excellent book. Hopefully the first of many.

There is a tremendous amount of information in this book, and it's hard to think of anything that documents more conclusively -- indeed, exhaustively in several senses -- the military-industrial-entertainment-academic-congressional-executive-scientific-commercial complex as it exists in today's America. "The Complex" is a useful reference to have around, and deeply enlightening. Still, there are a couple of ways I think the book could have been improved.

For one thing, I went through the whole book lamenting that it was entirely unsourced: not only does author Nick Turse give no references for where he found all the facts and figures he reports, he didn't even footnote the books and authors he directly quoted in the text. It was only at the end, in a "bibliographic essay" I imagine most readers would probably skip, that he mentions "I have posted complete citations and further information online" (p. 273). Surely, for a book that depends so heavily on the reliability of sources, there was a less severe alternative than eliminating printed citations entirely?

The other thing I think I'd like to have seen is more explanation sooner about why all this matters. Given who's likely to be reading books in "The American Empire Project," maybe that wasn't considered necessary. But I thought the last chapter, "The Homeland Security State," was the strongest part of the book. The text as a whole would have benefited from having some of that argument in the front of the book as well.

Still, this is a very useful and impressive piece of research and compilation, and a valuable companion to other books in the aforementioned American Empire Project (I'm particularly a fan of Chalmers Johnson, as well as Andrew Bacevich, who isn't part of the AEP but covers similar issues of America's collapse into empire). While not everyone may want to read the dense and sometimes bewildering collection of connections Nick Turse outlines, it's hard to argue this isn't the sort of thing everyone should know about.

Some have complained here about the long lists of stats in Nick Turse's look at the pervasive spread of the Pentagon in our daily lives but isn't that the point? The lists reinforce how we can't escape the tentacles of the military/industrial complex. This is a fascinating, eye-opening and well researched book.

Nick Turse describes how big and inter-connecteted the U.S. military has become with U.S. corporations. And the book is eye opening as regards how large the military really has become. I am glad to have read Nick's book and am generally more knowledgeable on the overall subject.
Nicks military interconnectedness examples go on-and-on. Did you know about all the advanced educational programs the U.S. military sponsors? Did you know the military created the internet, the video gaming industry and DARPA? Did you know that army soldiers wear Oakley sunglasses, eat Dunkin-Donuts and play golf on army owned courses? Again, I am glad I read Nick's book. I learned a great deal.

I also read all the Amazon readers comments, pro and con. Well here are my other comments. Of course our military industrial complex is huge, that should be no surprise to anyone. But, the reader gets the feeling that the author is naive and surprised by all this. The reader gets the feeling that Nick spent a lot of time researching the military. But, you get the feeling you to could have found the same material and level of understanding by Googling the topic "military industrial complex." A good author should concentrate on a topic and present an in-depth understanding of it. Nick seems to just give you everything he found on Google.

Nick starts with his personal bias that the "military industrial complex is evil". This begins to wear away at the reader, so by the time you finish the book you are tired of the intense military bashing. Note to readers, Nick included everything negative that he found about the military and then applied his biased to it. It's as if the author took his pen to paper and proved his bias. The book needs to be abridged, stricken of Nick's bias and outlined to convey somewhat of a point in all this. It is an interesting book you wish has had a much better editor.

Considering all the detail in the book, Nick never footnotes his sources. How convenient for Nick, he even says as much at the end of his book.

Still, I did read it cover to cover and I do have a better understanding of the immense size of the U.S. military.
Robert F. McLaughlin AIA. NCARB

Scary. The American armed services serve, and are served by, many entities; but the least thing the military does "protect and serve" is our freedom to speech and religion or from want or fear; in fact, "the Complex" is nothing other than Satan physically constructed, and this entity is the most fearsome force this world has ever known!

Quite an eye-opening book!

God help us.

"The Complex" blathers on and on trying to impress readers with the numerous corporations doing business with the Pentagon, as well as the fact that the military uses market research to improve the effectiveness of its recruiting efforts.

The entire book could be replaced with a single paragraph noting how the size of the U.S. military compares with other nations (equal to the military spending of all other nations combined), and the number of nations in which we have foreign bases - 130.

As for the marketing research to improve its communications effectiveness - makes good sense!