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The American Way of War: How Bush's Wars Became Obama's

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Tom Engelhardt is a national treasure. To attempt to describe this book in a paragraph or two would be to do author and reader a disservice, for its leading virtues are context and nuance, both of which would be lost in a brief review (as they have been long lost from our mainstream media). If you want to know what our ongoing wars are really about - and to appreciate how much the US has always had wars going on - read this book. I thought I understood the subjects he writes about - I focused on international law at Harvard Law School, have lectured on diplomatic and legal history at universities in the US and abroad, and have had books published on these subjects by major trade and academic publishers - but I doubled my knowledge with this book. READ THIS BOOK.

The American Way of War: How Bush's Wars Became Obama's (Paperback), by Tom Engelhardt, Haymarket Books, Chicago, 2010

This little heralded paperback masterpiece of only 216 pages should enlighten anyone who has not already come to the sad conclusion that the USA has turned into a dangerous empire. Be sure, after reading Tom Engelhardt's book, to read those books recently published with similar views such as Chalmer Johnson's "Dismantling The Empire: America's Last Best Hope" and Andrew Bacevich's "Washington Rules: America's Path To Permanent War".

Yes, we lost 3000 lives on 9/11, plus over 4,000 men and women in the current wars, but we killed 3 million in Vietnam, then hundreds of thousands in Cambodia and now hundreds of thousands in the Afghanistan and Iraq Wars, including many women and children. Such civilian losses are commonly referred to as "Collateral Damage" by our military.

While our Cold War excuses (Remember the Domino Theory and the Missle Gap?)may have had validity at an earlier time, the claimed threats that prompted our continued military escalations and expansions clearly need reassessment now.

From its first line, author Tom Engelhardt sets the motif for his tragic recitation: ""War is Peace" was one of the memorable slogans on the facade of the Ministry of Truth or Minitrue in "Newspeak" the language invented by George Orwell in 1948 for his dystopian novel, "1984"". From there his readers are tutored in how our fear of attack was obsessively co-opted by our government and its willing industrial military suppliers into a level of Cold War "preparedness" which featured a supply of nuclear weapons which could have blown up the entire human race.

Arguably, the use to date of our awesome war making power has failed us, but this author plausibly describes the spread like an octopus of American presence around the world in the form of over 700 military bases which could hardly be described as mainly defensive, most in places where our security clearly wasn't then and/or is not now at stake.

In retrospect our forays into Korea, Vietnam and now in the Middle East, proved that war was not the answer. While control of oil was clearly a prime motivation in Iraq, the cost in human lives and treasure and the escalating threat of terrorism cry out for a new evaluation of our present imperial policies which have been embraced by all Presidents since WWII including Obama, who has now bought into Bush's ultimate folly, continuing that "preventive war" in Iraq with no real end of our occupancy there and around the world in sight. For example, we have built perhaps our largest overseas embassy in Bagdad and have other large permanent military facilities in Iraq.

After noting Obama's submission speech to his military industrial advisors at West Point, Engelhardt writes for us, perhaps the book's most brilliant writing, the policy speech which he hoped Obama would have made upon entering his Presidency. The author has Obama reciting the agreed upon facts of the present situation in both Afghanistan and Iraq. Then he has Obama saying we will not continue to fight a counter-insurgency war, as such cannot be won, as we proved in Vietnam.

So the author then has Obama state, "It's time for a change.....I expect anger and debate. I take full responsibility for whatever may result from this policy of departure."

As in Vietnam, we will eventually come to this point of withdrawal, after the loss of hundreds of lost lives on both sides later and trillions in wasted money. We can hope that point in time will be ASAP.

Citing the disastrous effect on all our domestic priorities resulting from this overspending on defense, we can well understand how excessive fear about our security and the greed of those who continue to reap huge profits from "the permanent war" have driven our country into the control of an elitist oligarchy perhaps beyond citizen control.

"The American Way of War" by Tom Engelhardt is a collection of 29 insightful posts from the author's blog that have been arranged, revised and edited for book format to also include an introduction, epilogue, notes and index. Written as a running commentary on the Iraq and Afghanistan wars between March 2004 and early 2010, the articles have lost little of their energy and have retained all of their relevance. Written with intelligence and passion, Mr. Engelhardt's book should be read by everyone concerned about the militarization of American life and believe we can do better.

Mr. Engelhardt intends to raise public consciousness about the realities of our latter day American empire. Mr. Engelhardt detects a kind of Orwellian detachment where most Americans are at peace with the immense economic and social costs and the extreme suffering inflicted on others by Washington's perpetual wars. Mr. Engelhardt's description of a planet garrisoned by hundreds of U.S. bases whose arsenals include land, sea, air and space-based weaponry is a frightening description of an imperial America that has practically shed any semblance of its democratic past.

Lest anyone miss the point, Mr. Engelhardt writes how the Obama administration's war policies are all but indistinguishable from his predecessor's. It seems the institutional roots run too deep for the president to do much about the Pentagon, even if he wanted to. Consequently, while one might think that America's current economic crisis might hasten a dismantling of empire, the truth is that an enlightened and engaged citizenry represents our only hope for change; to which end this book makes an important and timely contribution.

I highly recommend this persuasive, eye-opening book to everyone.

The American Way of War: How Bush's Wars Became Obama's offers a fine survey of the art of making and marketing American military might around the world, and comes from an author who runs the TomDispatch.com website. His commentary on military procedures, politics and social issues draws important connections between all and makes this an invaluable recommendation for any military or social issues collection.

A sobering look at why we continue to stay in permanent state of war. These facts can be trusted to be valid. Tom Englehart has done much research and put a lot of thought into presenting his perspective.

Show me an intelligent war, without undue brutality and fatal blunders, and if one such narrative exists it will be called a fantasy fiction too unreal to be believed by any halfway intelligent person.

All violence, terror and wars are mistakes. If men were perfect, disputes and differences would be solved by calm reasoned discussion. This is certainly proving true in Afghanistan, where a ragtag band of warriors has literally stalled the world's mightiest and most sophisticated military by using roadside bombs, the 1947-designed AK-47s and century-old British 303 Lee Enfields.

Engelhardt writes with the same spirit as Thucydides, who had a contempt and an anger at the conduct of the Peloponnesian War. He recognized war is the exercise of pure politics, power vs. power, rights and wrongs and the morality of power. As for the cause, he eventually concluded, "the growth of the power of Athens and the alarm which it inspired in Sparta made war inevitable."

Unfortunately, no such insight is contained in this book. During World War II, both Allied and Axis governments gave considerable effort to the issue, "Why We Fight". President Franklin Roosevelt, even before the attack on Pearl Harbour, brilliantly answered this question with 'The Four Freedoms'.

Since 1991, the answer to the "why?" has been "terrorism." It's as vague and ill defined as a 'War on Poverty' or a 'War on Crime' or even a 'War on Litter'. Thucydides never did grasp the complexity of the war he set out to explain, nor did he find a solution with which he was fully satisfied. Engelhardt is equally perplexed.

Thus, he concludes of the Pentagon. "...no institution is more deeply embedded in American life or less accountable for its acts." He overlooks the banking industry, the empire of energy or even the Post Office. Show me a politician with the nerve to challenge any major national icon, from Pentagpn to Post Office, and this too shall be called a fantasy fiction too unreal to be believed by any halfway intelligent person.

Other than that, it's not a "bad" book. It's a brief account of the Iraq and Afghan wars with the inevitable "we shouldn't be there" conclusion. Oh? That's news? Likewise, with only a few chapters different, it could just as easily conclude, "We should be there."

Anti-war readers will be pleased; pro-war ones baffled. Isn't that the mark of a good book?

A thoroughly enjoyable read and one that disturbingly points up both economic and political fissures in American societal organisation in the first decade of the twenty-first century. Moreover, Mr. Engelhart theses with regard to 'American power' and corresponding conflict 'war' should prompt politicians on both sides of the aisle in Congress, policy makers, commentators and more importantly our polity (which unfortunately bear the utlimate price for our liberty) to revist then President Eisenhower's 1961 speech

"Until the latest of our world conflicts, the United States had no armaments industry. American makers of plowshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well. But now we can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense; we have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions. Added to this, three and a half million men and women are directly engaged in the defense establishment. We annually spend on military security more than the net income of all United States corporations.
This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence -- economic, political, even spiritual -- is felt in every city, every State house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.
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."

I trust that Mr. Engelhart's essay will prompt discussion with regard to the notion that economic, political and social progress amongst people and nation states, (one would trust) could potentially be fostered in an environment both internal and external that would ascertain, analyze and hopefully implement those measures that would potentially address the protracted and complex struggle of human endeavor with liberty at its core. Whilst not reacting towards a foreign or hostile belief that if exploited for the benefit of the few over the many will as former President Eisenhower noted "[i]n 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."

A great deal of this book is a polemic against strategic bombing or perhaps indirect fire of all sorts. The author apparently feels that weapons delivery without standing face to face with the enemy is somehow barbaric. While many have made the case that WWII strategic bombing (and Viet Nam as well) killed a lot of civilians unnecessarily, the real question is what effect did these campaigns have on the wars they supported? This raises the more general question of the relation of the use of military power to desired political outcomes. This is the issue that the US has not addressed realistically for a very long time, if ever. For the future, the US needs to understand what military power can do and what it cannot. Don't look to the generals for an answer either; they will say "can do, Sir".

Interesting analysis of how the Warfare State continues to roll on devouring the nation's resources and making us and the world less safe. However, it is curious that Engelhardt would choose to title his book THE AMERICAN WAY OF WAR. There is a recent book out by Eugene Jarecki with exactly the same title.

The book sheds light on several issues, but lacks a writing style that will only hold the interest of the already converted.