BC #4: Dirty Wars - No, it's not porn with a war theme.
Posted: Mon Dec 16, 2013 7:36 pm
Sorry about the delay.
Dirty Wars
By Jeremy Scahill
Rating
5/10 New and interesting ideas/facts
9/10 Compilation of facts (mostly already known)
Synopsis
Scahill basically starts at 9/11 and works his way through special operations performed by US forces over the last decade. This ranges from focusing on specific commanders such as General McChrystal and Admiral McRaven to investigating specific actions taken, why these actions were necessary, if at all, and where these actions occurred.
Review
There is good and bad (my English teacher is cringing right now with this poor opening paragraph).
I was as disappointed, as I was with Blackwater (Dirty Wars is my last Scahill book). I assumed a book of this size, one closing in on a thousand pages, would have brought new and interesting facts to light. Well, it did, but they are almost all minor details.
Yes, the details about the victims are in many cases heart wrenching. But, at other times you believe Mr. Scahill is being naive as he fails to question a story or at least point out the possibility of prejudice or duplicity when a story was told to him.
The other issue I have with Scahill is that he seems to try and paint certain facts like he is the first one to find them. JSOC, the Joint Special Operations Command, is a prime example. He brings this up like it’s a gem only he has found. Like they have been hiding in the shadows with no one knowing they exist, which is just not true. I had heard of JSOC and knew what it was years before even having the information crutch of the internet.
Ok, I’ve complained enough about this book. Time for me to move on to what it does right.
Scahill does an excellent job of detailing the historical timeline and scope of these black operations. He isn’t going to surprise you with facts very often if you have been paying attention to the US “war” on terror, but now and then he ferrets an interesting tidbit out.
For instance, he notes that we have black operations in over 75 countries. This is an eye opener considering there are only roughly 190-200 countries in the world (the number fluctuates rather wildly based on your criteria and the day you count them), that is almost half of all countries. The scope is rather staggering. Of course, not all of those operations are Afghani level Tier 1 assaults.
This scope, along with a lot of other facts (1 or 2 targets taken out at the cost of 20 or more collateral targets killed, Americans targeted, etc.), does back-up one of the more interesting themes of the book, which is the growth in JSOC and its associated power. It does appear that we have built a monster and that monster only knows how to do one thing…hunt and kill.
This is not the monster’s fault, it’s what we have trained and asked them to do. It is the lack of real leaders and a corrupt bureaucracy. Of course, we these failures in a myriad of other subjects.
My major takeaway from the book is the lack of soft power in our strategic plans. Yes, I know this is somewhat of a confirmation bias, but it seems extremely valid. In the book, one operator sums it up with his own take on a common saying, “What we have essentially done is created one hell of a hammer, and for the rest of our generation, for the rest of my lifetime, this force will be continually searching for a nail.”
Discussion Questions
1. When is it ok to assassinate/target Americans without due process?
2. When is it ok to assassinate/target foreign nationals in countries we aren’t at war with?
3. At what point are we creating the nails by using the hammer?
4. How do we regain control of JSOC?
Note: There is a documentary on Dirty Wars, which I watched along with reading the book. It's a little Dateline NBC with the victims, but isn't bad. If you don't want to spend the time on the book, which is big, take an hour and half and watch the documentary.
Dirty Wars
By Jeremy Scahill
Rating
5/10 New and interesting ideas/facts
9/10 Compilation of facts (mostly already known)
Synopsis
Scahill basically starts at 9/11 and works his way through special operations performed by US forces over the last decade. This ranges from focusing on specific commanders such as General McChrystal and Admiral McRaven to investigating specific actions taken, why these actions were necessary, if at all, and where these actions occurred.
Review
There is good and bad (my English teacher is cringing right now with this poor opening paragraph).
I was as disappointed, as I was with Blackwater (Dirty Wars is my last Scahill book). I assumed a book of this size, one closing in on a thousand pages, would have brought new and interesting facts to light. Well, it did, but they are almost all minor details.
Yes, the details about the victims are in many cases heart wrenching. But, at other times you believe Mr. Scahill is being naive as he fails to question a story or at least point out the possibility of prejudice or duplicity when a story was told to him.
The other issue I have with Scahill is that he seems to try and paint certain facts like he is the first one to find them. JSOC, the Joint Special Operations Command, is a prime example. He brings this up like it’s a gem only he has found. Like they have been hiding in the shadows with no one knowing they exist, which is just not true. I had heard of JSOC and knew what it was years before even having the information crutch of the internet.
Ok, I’ve complained enough about this book. Time for me to move on to what it does right.
Scahill does an excellent job of detailing the historical timeline and scope of these black operations. He isn’t going to surprise you with facts very often if you have been paying attention to the US “war” on terror, but now and then he ferrets an interesting tidbit out.
For instance, he notes that we have black operations in over 75 countries. This is an eye opener considering there are only roughly 190-200 countries in the world (the number fluctuates rather wildly based on your criteria and the day you count them), that is almost half of all countries. The scope is rather staggering. Of course, not all of those operations are Afghani level Tier 1 assaults.
This scope, along with a lot of other facts (1 or 2 targets taken out at the cost of 20 or more collateral targets killed, Americans targeted, etc.), does back-up one of the more interesting themes of the book, which is the growth in JSOC and its associated power. It does appear that we have built a monster and that monster only knows how to do one thing…hunt and kill.
This is not the monster’s fault, it’s what we have trained and asked them to do. It is the lack of real leaders and a corrupt bureaucracy. Of course, we these failures in a myriad of other subjects.
My major takeaway from the book is the lack of soft power in our strategic plans. Yes, I know this is somewhat of a confirmation bias, but it seems extremely valid. In the book, one operator sums it up with his own take on a common saying, “What we have essentially done is created one hell of a hammer, and for the rest of our generation, for the rest of my lifetime, this force will be continually searching for a nail.”
Discussion Questions
1. When is it ok to assassinate/target Americans without due process?
2. When is it ok to assassinate/target foreign nationals in countries we aren’t at war with?
3. At what point are we creating the nails by using the hammer?
4. How do we regain control of JSOC?
Note: There is a documentary on Dirty Wars, which I watched along with reading the book. It's a little Dateline NBC with the victims, but isn't bad. If you don't want to spend the time on the book, which is big, take an hour and half and watch the documentary.