Book Description
In this, his first major book, Mark Steyn--probably the most widely read, and wittiest, columnist in the English-speaking world--takes on the great poison of the twenty-first century: the anti-Americanism that fuels both Old Europe and radical Islam. America, Steyn argues, will have to stand alone. The world will be divided between America and the rest; and for our sake America had better win.
Customer Reviews:
Unfortunately True.......2007-10-14
Every single American should read this book! He explains exactly how the Muslims are conquering the world. More wives = more babies = more Muslims = more terrorism. This is a religion that should nor even exist in the 21st century. They are commanded to murder everyone that refuses to convert to Islam. Most Americans do not understand that the greatest threat to the future of the world (especially America) is the Muslim religion.
America Alone.......2007-10-11
Every person in the USA should read this book. Today in the Dallas Morning news(10/10/07)there is an editorial by Anne Applebaum verifing one of the facts stated it this book. Ms. Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who is under death threat because of her comments about the mistreatment of women in the Dutch Muslin community had to move to the US because the Dutch say it is too expensive to protect her and she will not shut up. No free speech for her. Mohammed Bouyeri murdered the Dutch writer, Theo Van Gohg, because he made a film about the oppression of Muslim women.
Funny, but also an important message........2007-10-11
While I cannot say that anybody reading this should have more kids just out of the guilt this book might give you, it is an important message about the sad effects of low birthrates. Mark Steyn has a quick wit and funny tone that is clearly not politically correct (good for him). Anybody who enjoys a good laugh or is concerned about terrorism should read this.
A Must-Read!.......2007-10-10
This book was every bit as good as I had heard. I've always enjoyed Mark Steyn, but hadn't gotten a chance to read this yet because I had a stack of books in front of it. That's my loss, because this was one of the most profound and eye-opening books I've ever read. To be honest, I pay pretty close attention to this conflict we find ourselves in, so most of the individual facts in this book weren't exactly foreign to me. But Steyn pulls all this together and presents it in such a concise, clear and entertaining way that I was able to put the pieces together in a way I hadn't even imagined. His demographic data alone is shocking, and should make every person in Europe and Canada sit up and take serious note - I'll be paying very close attention to what happens over the next few years "across the pond", as they say, for how goes Europe, so will eventually go America. I plan to buy several more copies of this book and hand them out to friends and family. I highly suggest it.
Excelent book. Really crunches the numbers like no other book........2007-10-05
This book really lays out the problems with hard numbers and facts in a way I have never seen and is easy to understand. I recomend this book to anyone who is worried about the muslim issue. People in Europe better read it asap!
Book Description
Twenty-five years ago, when Pat Robertson and other radio and televangelists first spoke of the United States becoming a Christian nation that would build a global Christian empire, it was hard to take such hyperbolic rhetoric seriously. Today, such language no longer sounds like hyperbole but poses, instead, a very real threat to our freedom and our way of life. In American Fascists, Chris Hedges, veteran journalist and author of the National Book Award finalist War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning, challenges the Christian Right's religious legitimacy and argues that at its core it is a mass movement fueled by unbridled nationalism and a hatred for the open society.
Hedges, who grew up in rural parishes in upstate New York where his father was a Presbyterian pastor, attacks the movement as someone steeped in the Bible and Christian tradition. He points to the hundreds of senators and members of Congress who have earned between 80 and 100 percent approval ratings from the three most influential Christian Right advocacy groups as one of many signs that the movement is burrowing deep inside the American government to subvert it. The movement's call to dismantle the wall between church and state and the intolerance it preaches against all who do not conform to its warped vision of a Christian America are pumped into tens of millions of American homes through Christian television and radio stations, as well as reinforced through the curriculum in Christian schools. The movement's yearning for apocalyptic violence and its assault on dispassionate, intellectual inquiry are laying the foundation for a new, frightening America.
American Fascists, which includes interviews and coverage of events such as pro-life rallies and weeklong classes on conversion techniques, examines the movement's origins, its driving motivations and its dark ideological underpinnings. Hedges argues that the movement currently resembles the young fascist movements in Italy and Germany in the 1920s and '30s, movements that often masked the full extent of their drive for totalitarianism and were willing to make concessions until they achieved unrivaled power. The Christian Right, like these early fascist movements, does not openly call for dictatorship, nor does it use
physical violence to suppress opposition. In short, the movement is not yet revolutionary. But the ideological architecture of a Christian fascism is being cemented in place. The movement has roused its followers to a fever pitch of despair and fury. All it will take, Hedges writes, is one more national crisis on the order of September 11 for the Christian Right to make a concerted drive to destroy American democracy. The movement awaits a crisis. At that moment they will reveal themselves for what they truly are -- the American heirs to fascism. Hedges issues a potent, impassioned warning. We face an imminent threat. His book reminds us of the dangers liberal, democratic societies face when they tolerate the intolerant.
Customer Reviews:
Read this Book - Watch this Documentary - Then weep.......2007-10-07
I knew nothing about this, but now that I do it helps.
"Our cup runneth over with Enron arrogance and integrity. To fully understand what has gone so very wrong in this country you have only to watch the documentary, 'The Smartest Guys in the Room.' You will come face to face with incomprehensible evil, and naturally, George H.W. Bush and family are right in the middle of it.
"'I went to Washington to challenge the soft bigotry of low expectations,' the president said in his campaign for reelection in September 2004. 'It's working. It's making a difference.' It is one of those deadly lies, which, by sheer repetition, is at length accepted by large numbers of Americans as, perhaps, a rough approximation of the truth. But it is not the truth, and it is not an innocent misstatement of the facts. It is a devious appeasement of the heartache of the parents of the poor and, if it is not forcefully resisted and denounced, it is going to lead our nation even further in a perilous direction."
I had never heard of this book or documentary, and now I know why. Most Americans do not want to deal with facts like these. They want to stay in Camelot, but all that, like Enron is going to end. And this time, it'll not be someone else's life savings, it will be their's, and there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth all across this once great nation.
RAISES QUESTIONS AND SHEDS LIGHT.......2007-10-03
This rather incredible piece of scholarship raised some interesting questions:
What created the Fundamentalist Movement, and from where did it derive it followers?
What created the NRA, and to what Christian sects do its members belong?
Why did a government "by the people and for the people" give itself a Constitutional Right to Bear Arms"? And who will decide when and where those arms will be used?
Can now extinct religious strife be incited among the American Christian sects, or will they turn on those who are inciting them to religious strife?
To what ideological categories do those who have progressively secularlized the laws and schools belong?
Did the Christian God ever give His followers the right to practice Human sacrifice?
Did this author deliberately confuse his fantasies with reality?
Why is an excellent education so often not a cure for ingraind ideological prejudices?
Why is the Human the only species that is religious?
Who is afraid of Christian cultures?
Why do scare mongering books sell more copies?
What finally turns cultural wars into civil wars?
For thoughtful Americans who are unfamiliarity with this kind of fascist-baiting by elements in some of the popular press and schools, that has been going for at least 40 years, it sheds light on the fascist-baiting mentality. Historically, fascist-baiting is much older than this: it goes on everytime there is a new Christian revivalist movement.
Corporate Christo-Fascism's minds (and able-bodies) snatching.......2007-10-02
Upon finishing authoritative Chris Hedges's book (it's true: his credentials are impeccable), I think of a vision: arson fire set to a huge cinema theatre crowded with people distraught with sitcoms and "American Idol" and the like. Someone cries "Fire! Get out of here! but nobody seem to move, or grasp the full significance of the words, or the menace that now is full real. I sincerely hope the audience wakes up in time, that they render this a mere fantasy of the WASP Fundamentalists, and the American Christian right is not snatching minds and wills to such an alarming extent through false prophets and a false warrior Christ.
I knew W. Bush was their born-again Christian. I didn't know he had created by decree... (well, you'll see in the notes). From the innards Hedges exposes the connivance between corporate America and the powerful Dominionist leaders who in turn have their people's hands into the US Constitution to accommodate it to their own ends. For decades they've had the Economic and Political means. Now they're bent on really winning the hearts and minds of an intellectually challenged population so they'll be useful in the war against nonbelievers, who are us all who do not, and will not, share their distorted views or approve their robbing reality from under the feet of so many unwitting people.
Among the impressive images there is the gathering in a desert resort of the New Class, the rich who will be raptured into Heaven (the poor are condemned, they're nonbelievers), and how they consort with the Catholic right and especially with Israeli representatives. Of course they have a racist hatred of Arabs, who they count as the main nonbelievers to righteously destroy. Really, if they read their Bibles literally, they would see that Arabs are descended from Ishmael, son of Abraham and Hagar, both of them thrown into the desert by Sarah's hurt pride so Isaac will be the heir. They will read also that God talks to Hagar, pledges protection for them and Ishmael's descendants. Therefore per the Bible and other sources, both peoples -Jews and Arabs- are semitic, having Abraham as their ultimate father, and anyone hating Arabs is also being anti-semitic. It woudl seem that Jews -who've had their huge portion of suffering themselves, especially poor Jews- have appropriated the name "semite" for themselves. Especially in "The New Class" is evident the upside down reality the American Fascists have created for their followers to live in, as compared to what the authentic Jesus Christ really taught as His doctrine. Never mind that the true Jesus, though a rabbi by right, made Himself one of the poorest in his homeland, and never had the refinement to pronounce "thou" or "thine", surely speaking in Aramaic as the language of the fishermen and peasants in Judea. Never mind that what Jesus taught in Judea was "A new commandment I give unto thee, that thou lovest..." (aw shucks). Again: "A new commandment I give unto you, that you love your neighbor just as you love yourselves." Christ never qualified what kind of neighbor, whether they should be white Anglo-Saxon Protestant, Black, yellow, brown, whatever. He just said the word translated into Latin and Spanish as "the one right next to you", i.e., "próximo" or "prójimo".
Using the tactics of a refined Scientology (I know, I lost a friend to that greedy "church" here in Mexico), only now taking advantage of deeper religious roots, the American Christian Right aspire to resurrect Lord God of Hosts in the mind of anyone having the disgrace to be approached in a moment of despair, and aspire to prepare them to aide in the ultimate Apocalypse, which they will have one way or the other. Unlike Scientology, darker and more evil goals are at play. They masterly bide their time in accordance to US's rulers' bellicous schemes, say an attack on the Middle East, and uncannily coordinate it with the race toward nuclear war. For this purpose they use every resource, even "museums" that, lacking sound scientific bases, are more like childish theme parks so that followers can feel they've had a spiritual "coming-of-age".
As for Mr. D. James Kenndy totally false notion (which I doubt even he believes) that Catholicism is no more than a "cult", please note that the true Christ taught first to the Jews to fulfill the prophecies, then to the Gentiles so that salvation could reach the most hidden corners of the Earth. Upon the creation of Christianity the Catholic church became its visible representative, it is from Catholicism's mother lode that Protestantism was born, and it is both faiths' teachings that now Messrs. Kennedy, Dobson, Robertson and the like take unashamed advantage of to create their lying, lucrative dogmas. Then they seek total war on unbelievers to boot. Having never witnessed war, I think how stupidly glib must be comments on war from people who've never been in a battlefield or a massacre, never have seen or touched dead bodies, felt or smelled fresh blood, or witnessed the authentic despair of the survivors, who for the rest of their lives will be encroached by the most extreme post-traumatic stress which will go untreated for as long as Empire-minded Christian right persists in their dreams of Rapture and Political and Religious supremacy. Has anyone reader even have a war nightmare? Being under sniper fire in Oaxaca? Being in the middle of the nastiest massacre in a hospital-school in a field in a Central-American impoverished country? May God wake up decent Americans that they may join forces of reason to revive the true prestige of the United States of America, that is, not being the Ultimate Imperialist Force, but the Philosophical and Ethical Beacon the US was once considered to be. Keep in mind that the authentic Christ came as a watershed separating Israeli primitive tribes' Lord God of Hosts from the Authentic Superior God of Love; love to your neighbor: the one right next to you, anyplace, anytime.
What's my vested interest in this as a Mexican and an American (as I live in the American continent)? With Benedict XVI as Pope, Catholicism is grossly regressing into the right with all the resulting injustice. The American Christian Right use Catholics as allies and despise them. As a semi-preserved Catholic who read her Bible since she was ten, I knew of the massacres that the people of Israel justified as mandated by the God Lord of Hosts, I witnessed how Christ sent His Apostles to go and teach; he didn't specify who to teach or not. He just said Go and Teach. Poor (nonbelievers) in my country are poorer than ever in large part due to US-advocated policies; foreign priests are sent our way to urge the poor to accept their plight and wait for Heaven. I'm sure they'll go right into Heaven as they have lived for so long in Hell. Even the richer classes should see the convenience of not letting the lower classes (in their own country or otherwise) fall lower. The former slave Frederick Douglass once said, " Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe." I doubt Bush know who Douglass was, but any USAmerican who dares go out of his/her bubble will see this is a reality wherever the American supremacists have trodden on justice on this Earth.
I for one would argue that religions divide; if the true Christ is one with God, then only the authentic God unites. And that is precisely what Fascists do not want.
Very interesting reading........2007-09-27
I heard Mr. Hedges on C-Span the first time I ever heard of him. I cannot remember if it was a review or reading of the book. But what he said made me interested enough to read the book. I found it was very interesting and solid writing.
STORM WARNING RED.......2007-09-22
Everyone concerned with the rising tide of fascism in America under the guise of Christian religious fervor should read this book. People who kill in the name of Jesus Christ are beyond the pale -- devoid of truth and reason. Hedges nails them to the cross they burden others with. The only caveat is that Hedges seems to be as befuddled about Christianity as the ersatz Christians he excoriates. Perhaps he spent too much time in theological cemeteries. Nonetheless, his warning is timely and should be well heeded.
Book Description
So says Fox News military analyst Colonel David Hunt in a book that cuts like a buzz saw through the half-measures and half-truths, the dangerous timidity, and the outright stupidity that—if left unchecked—will lead America to lose the War on Terror.
In the hard-hitting On the Hunt, Colonel Hunt draws on his twenty-nine years of active military service and his high-level military and intelligence contacts to give an inside perspective on this global struggle, setting him far apart from the usual pundits and talking heads. Here he presents fifty pages of previously unpublished documents that reveal the chillingly detailed plans of the terrorists and insurgents who target Americans, as well as U.S. tactics to stop our enemies.
From the Department of Homeland Security (“Get rid of it. Scrap it.”) to military leaders who have almost zero combat experience to risk-averse, politically correct strategic decision-making, Colonel Hunt pinpoints dire problems that need to be fixed before it’s too late (which it nearly is). Offering real solutions that most politicians and pundits are too timid to talk about, On the Hunt lays out specific steps to:
• Win the war in Iraq by changing the way we fight—by taking the gloves off and, in doing so, honoring the sacrifices our soldiers are making
• Deal with Iran, North Korea, and other dangerous threats
• Solve the illegal immigration crisis and keep America’s enemies from breaching our borders (both of them)
• Make our towns and cities more secure—not by looking to the federal bureaucracy but by taking responsibility ourselves
• Protect the liberties of American citizens at home
• Ensure that our soldiers are trained and equipped to fight today’s and tomorrow’s wars
As Colonel Hunt’s millions of viewers on Fox News and all the readers of his bestselling book They Just Don’t Get It will expect, he pulls no punches while incisively analyzing a war unlike any other. In On the Hunt, Colonel Hunt reveals exactly how high the stakes really are in the War on Terror. He condemns failed policies and the people who made them (and, yes, he names names). And most important, he clearly identifies the strategies, tactics, and qualities of leadership that we must bring to bear to ensure the survival of the proud and free nation we love.
Customer Reviews:
Hunt for President!.......2007-06-13
...or at least Secretary of Defense. Colonel Hunt doesn't hold back at all in this book, its not your typical academic style book.
I loved his style eg page 8 he says that all that matters is "killing the bad guys and bringing our boys home in 1 piece.F*** the rest" He's prepared to lay the smackdown on terrorists and the hopeless politicians in charge in D.C whom he calls "pantywaists" and says they need to 'grow a pair" ha ha love it! Finally a no BS look at the War and what needs to be done.
Essentially the Colonel says its quite simple:kill the bad guys, it doesn't matter what the politicians think, what the world thinks, how much it costs or who gets the credit. Any leader who can't handle this and is more concerned with their career is a girleyman who needs to be sacked. PC types won't like this book, heck they probably wouldn't be able to pick it up with their limp wrists, the stuff in this book is enough to make Ted Kennedy drive off a(nother) bridge.
The only criticism I would have is that the Colonel also advocates showering baddie countries like North Korea with aid and goodwill in return for them giving up their nukes and support for terrorists. The problem with this is that these baddie countries are unlikely to abide by the terms of such deals, eg North Korea got such a deal from America in 1994 only to reveal in 2002 that they had been cheating on it all along.
All in all a great book that pulls no punches and has the balls to say what needs to be said,its very easy to simply write off the Colonel as a trigger happy cowboy but that's overlooking the serious failings in this war on terrorism and the solutions to fix them, President Bush must read this book and so should you if you don't then you may as well as the Colonel says "bend over and starting praying towards Mecca"
A lesson in character this nation sorely needs.......2007-06-08
When one reads the news, and listens to the expert opinions of "talking heads" on TV, it's all too easy to believe that the free world is facing complex problems that allow for no reasonable or successful solutions. The messages we receive include the following: we face 1.3 billion Muslims who blame us for all the ills of the world, and we should understand that it's their world and not ours; nobody in Europe or Britain loves us any more, so we must be terribly wrong; every time we try and react, we only make things worse; we had our run, and now it's time for us to step aside; western civilization is obsolete and on the way out.
Reading Colonel David Hunt's "On the Hunt" tells us: No, we're still in the game; and now's the time for us to kick some butt, make no excuses, offer no explanations, come back home a victor, and marry the prom queen.
My experience, as just one reader, is that I sleep better when I read Hunt right at bedtime. It makes me feel safe knowing that somebody, somewhere, understands it the way he does. If I become discouraged by current events and find myself starting to whimp out and despair, a couple of pages of Hunt gets me back on track. You may have exactly the opposite reaction, and, if that's the case, I'd suggest you leave it alone because "On The Hunt" is pretty potent stuff, and not everyone can handle it.
Maybe the most reassuring part of "On The Hunt" is the author's attitude: David Hunt simply was not born to die as an enemy collaborator. His prose is personal, conversational, and expressive, and communicates his attitude and feelings as well as his ideas. When "his time comes" I suspect he'll go out a warrior, having never surrendered or submitted. That's a character lesson this country sorely needs.
If we heed Hunt's advice and follow his example, and he is wrong, at least we won't go down whimpering, soiling our drawers, and apologizing.
Much like I thought it would be........2007-06-01
No ground breaking here, just some enlightenment. The best part of the book deals with the kind of leadership we have and the leadership we are sorely missing.
On The Money.......2007-05-12
Col Hunt is right on the money. Until America puts the conduct of the war in the hands of field commanders with combat experience, we will not win. I do not believe in a cut and run philosophy, but politician must remove themselves from the tactical decision making. I recommend this book.
Jerry Berry
Salida, Colorado
The way it should have been.......2007-05-12
Just finished reading the book and it was a great read and told what should have been done during the Iraq War. It again proves to me that peacetime can be a badtime for the military in that many individuals rise up to leadership positions that are unqualified in the time of war.
Book Description
"Insurgents and terrorists retain the resources and capabilities to sustain and even increase current level of violence through the next year." This was the secret Pentagon assessment sent to the White House in May 2006. The forecast of a more violent 2007 in Iraq contradicted the repeated optimistic statements of President Bush, including one, two days earlier, when he said we were at a "turning point" that history would mark as the time "the forces of terror began their long retreat."
State of Denial examines how the Bush administration avoided telling the truth about Iraq to the public, to Congress, and often to themselves. Two days after the May report, the Pentagon told Congress, in a report required by law, that the "appeal and motivation for continued violent action will begin to wane in early 2007."
In this detailed inside story of a war-torn White House, Bob Woodward reveals how White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card, with the indirect support of other high officials, tried for 18 months to get Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld replaced. The president and Vice President Cheney refused. At the beginning of Bush's second term, Stephen Hadley, who replaced Condoleezza Rice as national security adviser, gave the administration a "D minus" on implementing its policies. A SECRET report to the new Secretary of State Rice from her counselor stated that, nearly two years after the invasion, Iraq was a "failed state."
State of Denial reveals that at the urging of Vice President Cheney and Rumsfeld, the most frequent outside visitor and Iraq adviser to President Bush is former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who, haunted still by the loss in Vietnam, emerges as a hidden and potent voice.
Woodward reveals that the secretary of defense himself believes that the system of coordination among departments and agencies is broken, and in a SECRET May 1, 2006, memo, Rumsfeld stated, "the current system of government makes competence next to impossible."
State of Denial answers the core questions: What happened after the invasion of Iraq? Why? How does Bush make decisions and manage a war that he chose to define his presidency? And is there an achievable plan for victory?
Bob Woodward's third book on President Bush is a sweeping narrative -- from the first days George W. Bush thought seriously about running for president through the recruitment of his national security team, the war in Afghanistan, the invasion and occupation of Iraq, and the struggle for political survival in the second term.
After more than three decades of reporting on national security decision making -- including his two #1 national bestsellers on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, Bush at War (2002) and Plan of Attack (2004) -- Woodward provides the fullest account, and explanation, of the road Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice and the White House staff have walked.
Customer Reviews:
Great Information .......2007-10-07
There is a reason our country is such a mess and this book will give you all the true facts
Fascinating but Painful.......2007-09-20
From a political perspective, reading this book is like watching a horrific car wreck happening at slow motion. The man at the wheel happens to be one George W. Bush. I never believed in him, but those that still do should read this tome with an open mind and come to their own conclusions. Woodward's sources and methods are objective and credible, and the only real criticism I have of the book is that it came out far too late to make any difference.
A Great Read!.......2007-09-16
As are all of Woodwards's books this one is well written and informative. I enjoy all his books and I have no problem keeping up with the events and my interest stays peaked. I'm sure you'll enjoy reading this book too. I would have given five stars but I just feel all books are too high priced!
Eye-opening.......2007-09-01
Woodard evokes honestly in all his writings. We can hear the credibilty of his words. Very thought provoking and this should raise many subsequent questions about how one in Washington power uses facts or fails to use people and facts.
getting an inside view of the war on Iraq.......2007-08-12
Bob Woodward's sweeping narrative is an eye opener into the elite world of political and military Washington. He rarely tells information, but lets the players speak for themselves. Reading this book, I often felt like I was in the oval office listening in on a conversation between Bush, Rice and Rumsfeld. The incredible incompetency, inefficiency, and hypocrisy of the adminstration is staggering.
One thing that I wish the book had was a character list. Because there are so many characters coming in and out of each chapter that it's hard to keep track of them. I suggest you keep such a list as you read.
This book really helped me to see why we are in the mess we are in, and I feel like I will be better informed as I read the news these days. (The situation in August 2007, today, seems just as bad if not worse than it was when the book was finished.)
In this book you find out:
The facts about Iraq
- An average of 2500 enemy initiated attacks a month since the war started
- Iraqis were relieved to have Saddam Hussein removed from power, but dismayed and angered by how long it took for basic services such as sewage, electricity, and food supplies to be restored.
- In 2006, at the end of the book, electricity, sewage, and oil pipelines were still mostly disfunctional in Iraq
- President Bush would tally the number of Iraqis killed as a measure of how successful is the war on terror, a number that the Iraqis use to recruit insurgents.
- Sectarian violence increased after the election.
- Death tolls are getting higher and the country becoming more insecure.
About why the administration failed:
- They all believed that it was going to be quick and easy, so there was no plan or funds allocated for an extended exit strategy.
- President Bush was adamant in staying the course, regardly of how the course wasn't working.
- President Bush never asked for alternative opinions or how things were really going, he only wanted to hear and speak of good news.
- Donald Rumsfeld was arrogant and domineering, often blocking the efforts of people around him to fix problems.
- Lots of people saw what was going on and gave advice on how to fix it, but it could never be implemented because of the fighting among the members of the administration, and Bush's policy of not revising their strategy.
- The administration hid the facts about Iraq from the public and often from themselves.
- Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld all held the incredibly callous view that Iraqi casualties are irrelevant, only winning matters
- The administration put into power people who agreed with them and ostracized the ones who were critical. 'If you don't agree with us you are not a team player.'
- The competent people got frustated and some of them gave up trying to fix the problem.
Book Description
In yet another page-turner, New York Times best-selling author and acclaimed management expert Patrick Lencioni addresses the costly and maddening issue of silos, the barriers that create organizational politics. Silos devastate organizations, kill productivity, push good people out the door, and jeopardize the achievement of corporate goals.
As with his other books, Lencioni writes Silos, Politics, and Turf Wars as a fictional—but eerily realistic—story. The story is about Jude Cousins, an eager young management consultant struggling to launch his practice by solving one of the more universal and frustrating problems faced by his clients. Through trial and error, he develops a simple yet ground-breaking approach for helping them transform confusion and infighting into clarity and alignment.
Download Description
In yet another page-turner, New York Times best-selling author and acclaimed management expert Patrick Lencioni addresses the costly and maddening issue of silos, the barriers that create organizational politics. Silos devastate organizations, kill productivity, push good people out the door, and jeopardize the achievement of corporate goals. As with his other books, Lencioni writes Silos, Politics, and Turf Wars as a fictional but eerily realistic story. The story is about Jude Cousins, an eager young management consultant struggling to launch his practice by solving one of the more universal and frustrating problems faced by his clients. Through trial and error, he develops a simple yet ground-breaking approach for helping them transform confusion and infighting into clarity and alignment.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent explanation of how to solve this pervasive problem.......2007-10-11
I have experienced the silos problem in many places and the explanations about the problem and the causes are spot on. The model that this book explains very well how to over eliminate the causes and overcome the problem. Managers should read this book.
Silos,Poltics and Truf wars.......2007-10-05
Not your average Business book... Put in a story form so the reader is not bored with dry material... You need to look close to get the learning facts... A very good book would recomment to anyone with deparment disagrements...
The value of having a common definition of Performance.......2007-08-22
A short, well written, story about a most common business problem - lack of or differing definitions of performance by the senior leadership team. Using a common complaint heard within most businesses - the performance damage done by "silos" between departments, divisions, units, or whatever you call any internal enterprise - Author and consultant Patrick Lencioni again uses the popular business narrative format to show how the lack of a common definition of performance within the leadership team (even when they like each other and want to be a strong leadership team) will cause the organization to be pulled apart and under perform. He then goes on to solve the problem by getting the team to agree a singular, near-term problem they need to solve (thematic goal) and are willing to unit behind.
Although one can question if this condition can be solved in a two-hour meeting, as the hero of the story does; Lencioni's solution components - the thematic goal, a set of defining objectives, a set of ongoing standard operating objectives, and subsequent metrics - is a concept with practical merit. As with most business narratives, the single theme skips over the many other real-life business issues, making the solution seem more powerful and easier to implement than business reality often allows. The story does, however, identify a very real problem of leadership team members each defining performance from their individual perspectives and provides the beginning of the solution. The book is recommended for leadership teams.
Another Lencioni classic.......2007-08-14
Lencioni has written a very good fable that depicts the typical "silos" or turf wars that take place in any organization. Using several different case scenarios, Lencioni does a great job in describing the subtleties of turf wars and places the blame square at the top of the organization. (The ground troops are simply doing their jobs as described for them by their bosses.)
The answer to the turf war, according to Lencioni, is a thematic goal. This is not to be confuse with a vision statement or a BHAG (big fat hairy goal), as Porras and Collins describe. But it is more than strategic goals and objectives. I must admit, this was a new concept for me and I'm not quite sure of the concept even after reading Lencioni's concept.
Lencioni clearly states that a thematic goal does not exclude the need to develop a good, functioning executive team (cf. Dysfunctions of Teams). Indeed, good executive teams are a priority for Lencioni. But contends that even well functioning teams with good personal relationships will sometimes have organizational/structural weaknesses that allow "silos" or turf wars to develop.
Overall, Lencioni has written a very readable book that clearly describes the problem of politics among divisions in an organization. But the concept of a "thematic goal" (as opposed to organizational vision) is still a bit vague to me -- but it is clearly not to be dismissed.
Silos, Politics and Turf Wars.......2007-07-23
This book was reader friendly, very easy to navigate, and it was interesting and informative.I have used it as an educational tool.
Book Description
Donald Rumsfeld, who as secretary of defense oversaw the army, navy, air force, and marines from 2001 to December 2006, is widely blamed for the catastrophic state of America's involvement in Iraq. In his groundbreaking book Rumsfeld, Washington insider Andrew Cockburn details Rumsfeld's decisions in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and also shows how his political legacy stretches back decades and will reach far into the future.
Relying on sources that include high-ranking officials in the Pentagon and the White House, Rumsfeld goes far beyond previous accounts to reveal a man consumed with the urge to dominate each and every human encounter, and whose aggressive ambition has long been matched by his inability to display genuine leadership or accept responsibility for egregious error. Cockburn exposes Rumsfeld's early career as an Illinois congressman, his rise to prominence as an official in the Nixon White House, his careful maneuvering to avoid the fallout of the Watergate scandal, and his skillful infighting as secretary of defense under President Ford. Cockburn also chronicles for the very first time Rumsfeld's subsequent tenure as CEO of G. D. Searle (and his devoted efforts to get governmental approval for the controversial artificial sweetener aspartame) as well as his interesting behavior in secret high-level government nuclear war games in the years he was out of power.
President George W. Bush's hasty elevation of Rumsfeld as his secretary of defense proved historic, for it was the triumvirate of Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, and Rumsfeld who plunged America into the disastrous quagmire of the war in Iraq. Cockburn reveals how Rumsfeld's habits of intimidation, indecision, ignoring awkward realities, destructive micromanagement, and bureaucratic manipulation all helped doom America's military adventure. The book challenges the notion that Rumsfeld was an effective manager driven to transform the American military, examines the reasons that Rumsfeld was removed from office, and shows how his second appointment as secretary of defense reflects a deep conflict between President Bush and his father, former president George H. W. Bush.
Brimming with powerful revelations, Rumsfeld is sure to emerge as the must-have piece of investigative journalism as America grapples with its difficult involvement in Iraq and the uncertain path the country faces today.
Customer Reviews:
Rumsfeld.......2007-10-10
An excellent book describing the egomaniac called Donald Rumsfeld, he is just one of the crimminals that have taken over control of the United States and should be tried for being a war crimminal. America wake up you are ruled by gangsters-he is just one of them. Does RICCO apply here?
Sadly Accurate.......2007-09-11
What have we become as a nation, when a man as insidious as Rumsfeld can attain such power and cause such damage and harm? It is perhaps time that we as a people pay closer attention to the politics of the day, and not concern ourselves with Brittany's paunch. Democracy requires a well informed, literate, and discriminating citizenry. We do not live on ANIMAL FARM, and we do not have to mindlessly accept and bleat the mantra of the Neo-Cons.
Rumsfeld = Nazi by another name.......2007-09-07
Rumsfeld would have made Hitler so proud. America is much less of a nation thanks to him and the other malicious pirates in the Oval Office.
Republocrat zombies on the march
Heil Bush! they chant with glassy eyes
Subvert the Constitution for their corporate masters
Force their fascist god-book down everybody's throats
Stare at the tv, it'll all be ok they say
Turn off your mind and be a good zombie
Become infantile like us
Soulless neo-con automatons
Mindless Flag wavers
Hypnotized by the endless drone of propaganda
Memetic slaves of the Dark Lord Bush
Fine study of a 'ruthless little b******' and failure.......2007-07-20
Investigative journalist Andrew Cockburn shows how Rumsfeld has helped to push the US state into political and military disaster.
Cockburn introduces us to Rumsfeld's business career, which depended on promoting aspartame, a sweetener suspected of causing brain tumours. He swung a compliant Food and Drug Administration into approving it anyway and bought enough Senators to amend the Drug Act to extend its patent, yielding the company $3 billion extra revenue.
Rumsfeld played a key role in fixing the intelligence to fit the policy of attacking Iraq. Saddam's son-in-law Hussein Kamel told US officials about Iraq's arms build-up in the 1980s and also told them that in 1991 "all weapons - biological, chemical, missile, nuclear - were destroyed." The US state shouted worldwide about the build-up, but hid the destruction.
Bush appointed Rumsfeld the US Secretary for Defense in January 2001. Cockburn details Rumsfeld's catastrophic decisions in the disastrous wars against Iraq and Afghanistan. The US state has failed to focus on defeating Al Qa'ida, widening the wars into attacks on the Iraqi and Afghan peoples. So Iraq lost to the invader but is defeating the occupier. The Taliban lost Kabul but is winning the war.
Rumsfeld claimed that he could occupy Iraq with a small force. He apparently believed the crook Chalabi who told him there would be no postwar guerrilla resistance and that Iraq would quickly become a stable capitalist ally.
The US has the largest military spending ever and has spent $500 billion so far on the Iraq war, yet US soldiers' families have to buy them body armour and the soldiers try to protect their unarmoured Humvees with salvaged bits of plywood. No wonder the US army is at breaking point.
What was Secretary for Defense Rumsfeld doing meanwhile? He was calling Guantanamo Bay every week for reports on the torture of Mohammed al-Qahtani. He was personally specifying the torture techniques at Abu Ghraib - the use of dogs, stress positions, and deprivation of food and sleep.
Throughout his squalid career, Rumsfeld bullied, lied and cheated to get his own way. Richard Nixon, no mean judge, called him `a ruthless little bastard'. But as with all reactionaries, his scheming has brought only disaster to his cause.
It Proved It Was Worse Than Thought........2007-07-08
I'm sure the publisher blanched with the use of the word "Catastrophic" in the title, but it is a true description of the legacy, as noted and well-laid out in the book.
A definite keeper to help bridge gaps of other writings about the Bush Administration and its concept of what "Republic" and "Government" mean.
Rumsfeld was there from the beginning of the "Neo-Con Coupe" and following his many "snowflakes" in life will definitely bring the whole "grand plan" to light of public scrutiny.
It leaves the feeling of knowing you know now definitely what you really know you now don't know.
Book Description
Far from a monolithic block of diehard slave states, the antebellum South was, in William Freehling's words, "a world so lushly various as to be a storyteller's dream." It was a world where Deep South cotton planters clashed with South Carolina rice growers, as Northern egalitarianism infiltrated border states already bitterly divided on key issues. It was the world of Jefferson Davis, John C. Calhoun, Andrew Jackson, and Thomas Jefferson, and also of Gullah Jack, Nat Turner, and Frederick Douglass. Now, in the first volume of his long awaited, monumental study of the South's road to disunion, historian William Freehling offers a sweeping political and social history of the antebellum South from 1776 to 1854. All the dramatic events leading to secession are here: the Missouri Compromise, the Nullification Controversy, the Gag Rule, the Annexation of Texas, the Compromise of 1850, and the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Vivid accounts of each crisis reveal the surprising extent to which slavery influenced national politics before 1850 and provide important reinterpretations of American republicanism, Jeffersonian states' rights, Jacksonian democracy, and the causes of the American Civil War. Freehling's brilliant historical insights illustrate a work of rich social observation. In the cities of the Antebellum South, in the big house of a typical plantation, we feel anew the tensions between the slaveowner and his family, poor whites and planters, the Old and New Souths, and most powerfully between slave and master. Freehling has evoked the Old South in all its color, cruelty, and diversity. It is a memorable portrait, certain to be a key analysis of this crucial era in American history.
Customer Reviews:
Like Shredded Wheat - dry but nourishing.......2007-10-13
Due to the author's difficult style (which I would describe as awkward rather than boring) it took me a couple of years to slog through this book. I found myself constantly setting it aside to read more interesting works. Ultimately, I disciplined myself to finally finish it, and I'm glad I did. Despite Mr. Freehling's dense prose, there's a lot of very insightful analysis here, for anyone willing to overlook the author's stylistic shortcomings.
The first part of the book takes the reader on a tour of the antebellum South, and exposes the many regional differences that made the South difficult to unite. Freehling also describes the attitudes of the Southern slave-holding gentility. "Massa" could be a tyrant with the "darkies", but lenient and overly-indulgent with his own family. He wanted to be feudal lord over all, yet still clung to some of the ideals of Jacksonian democracy. At times, Freehling loses his objectivity and wears his anti-Southern bias on his sleeve, but overall his analysis rings true.
The remainder of the book explores the various controversies, such as the Gag Rule, the Nullification Crisis, the Annexation of Texas, the Wilmot Proviso, and other events that threatened to shatter the fragile Union. One surprising omission from this list is New England's threat to secede during the War of 1812. Although it had nothing to do with slavery and the South, it certainly falls under the topic of disunion. I was disappointed that Freehling didn't even mention it.
"The Road to Disunion" is not a light and easy read by any stretch, but it's packed with information. I would recommend it for any serious student of the Civil War and its causes.
Excellent social and political history.......2007-09-20
Many good reviews have already been written so I am going to keep this short and sweet. If you want to read a good, in-depth look at the social and political history and ultimate causes of the Civil War, this is an excellent place to start. Freehling covers just about every conceivable topic in the years 1776-1854 that caused friction between the North and South, but also touches on many social and political topics that are sometimes overlooked. He also writes some great mini-biographies of the many differing players and you will walk away with an excellent working knowledge of many topics, such as Thomas Jefferson and his thoughts on slavery, the Missouri Compromise, Virginia's slavery debate of 1832, the Wilmot Proviso, Texas' Annexation, and much more.
The only potential negatives are that Freehling's writing style does take getting used to and the book is massive. For quick readers, not a big deal. For slower readers like me, plan on investing time in this book.
In the end, I would highly suggest this for any people looking to bone up on antebellum U.S. history and/or causes of the Civil War.
A Plow Through.......2007-07-05
I debated giving this one 3 stars but the information in it is very good. A thurough evaluation of the subject. If you want a detailed history, this is it.
On the downside, it is a dense read. It took me a while to plow through the entire book. Part of this is the density of info but much is due to writting style. I also found it to be a bit redundant in parts, particularly early on (especially Part II, which you might want to just skip). Another reviewer stated it helps to know the background prior to opening this tome and I agree.
For a much easier intro to the topic, try: "The Approaching Fury: Voices of the Storm, 1820-1861 (Voices of the Storm)" by Stephen B. Oates.
Beginning a Journey in American History.......2007-06-09
Visiting a bookshop in 1990 I faced a choice of two books to purchase: America in 1857 by Kenneth Stampp and The Road to Disunion Vol. I by Wm. Freehling. Having read Freehling's book on the nulification crisis, I very fortunately chose The Road to Disunion. One of the most important revelations in this book is the tracing of the secesson movement's seeds to the forming of the United States. To any one acquainted with Freehling's writing will not be surprised by the depth of his research and thought provoking text. His views are always overviews that narrow their scope to individual incidents.
I spent seveteen years badgering the author for the second volume of this work. Readers now who have not yet read this book are more fortunate because they have the benefit of seeing the complete work at once. This is a volume well worth reading on its own, but it is a much better read when followed by volume two.
Bill Freehling is without doubt the dean of 19th century American history, a great human being with an appreciation of human feeling and a strict code of research taking the author wherever it will. There are no preconcieved notions of how history should be percieved.
Fear and Loathing in the Antebellum South.......2007-02-08
After a long time, in which a combination of increased workload and diversified reading interests have kept me away, it is good to be back to the world of antebellum 19th century America. Meeting Thomas Jefferson, John C. Calhoun, Andrew Jackson and a dozen secondary characters feels a little like coming home. But as the saying goes, you can dip into the same river twice. William W. Freehling's antebellum South is both familiar and foreign. Freehling brings forward a provocative thesis, which throws a bright light on some elements of the period, but also blinds you to some vital aspects.
I have previously read Freehling's brilliant essay collection, The Reintegration of American History: Slavery and the Civil War. That was one of the best books about 19th century America I've ever read. Using cultural history, comparative studies, biography, and even autobiography, Freehling brought a provocative new thesis to the field of 19th century antebellum South.
According to Freehling, the South was torn between two conflicting, contradictory ideologies - Aristocratic Paternalism, the 18th century view that the enlightened rich should govern all others, black and white and female, and Jacksonian 'Herrenvolk Democracy' - the view that America is the republic of the free white male, where the color line separates the master race - the Herrenvolk - from the inferior black folk.
The idea that the clash between these two ideologies, and indeed, the fractions between the various, and very different, elements of the South, is Freehling's key argument. And it illuminates many things:
The clash between Paternalists and Herrenvolk Democrats was most evident during the struggles for control of the legislations of Southern states, particularly Virginia. There, the lines were drawn most sharply between aristocratic slaveholders and slaveless white folks.
Freehling's high concept is also a part of the explanation for episodes such as the Texas annexation and particularly the gag rule. Slavocrats insisted that antislavery petitions to the United States Congress would not only be ignored, but actively rejected, thus 'gagging' opposition to Slavery and making a mockery of the democratic process. The gag rule was designed and led by South Carolina extremists, the most radical faction of the aristocrats.
But the explanation works less well when describing the major sectional conflicts - as one approaches the 1850s, Paternalists and Democrats all but disappear, and the struggle becomes one between Free and Slave states, with the Upper South and the Lower North trapped between them. This is a familiar story, and while Freehling tells it well, he does not really add much to the description.
A major point that is scored is Freehling's description of Slavery's malcontents. There really was, particularly in Texas and in Kentucky, an antislavery undercurrent, and Freehling does a superb job of describing its protagonists and enemies. As long as the North left the South alone, Southern Slaveholders could probably squash such movements, but their existence helps explain Southern fear of the rise of the Republican party - a strong Northern ally that could help Southern fifth columnist destroy the Peculiar institution from within.
But for the most part, Freehling's book fails to meet expectations. The title is more than a little Misleading - The Road to Disunion does not really show a path that led to the irreconcilable conflict. Unlike the events of 1848-1860, when each event called for its successor - the Compromise of 1850 led to the destruction of the Whig party in the lower south, which led to the radicalization of the Southern Democratic Party, and to the Kansas-Nebraska act and so on, the earlier incidents were fairly disjoint. The Virginia Slavery debate, the Nullification crises, the Gag rule - all ended without any real increase in animosity. Nor do we see "secessionists at Bay" - with marginal exceptions, until the late 1840s, few major Southerners were bona fide disunionists. Rather, like John C. Calhoun, they wanted to weaken the Union in order to save it.
For all of its sophistication and scale, Freehling's account feels incomplete. Mainly, I think, because until the middle 1840s, the themes Freehling invokes (sectionalism, slavery, colonialism) were relatively minor elements of political scene, where the major issues were banks, Indian genocide, internal improvements and the fans and enemies of `King Andrew` Jackson.
Ultimately, I think the road to disunion was not paved by Southern extremists. Southerners tried mainly to preserve their way of life against a world that was rapidly changing - Industrial rather then Agricultural, increasingly National rather than Local, and yes, Democratic rather than aristocratic. For all their belligerency, the Slavepower was essentially passive and fearful, lashing out in desperation against a new, modern world where there was place neither for slaves nor for masters.
Book Description
Robert Young Pelton first became aware of the phenomenon of hired guns in the War on Terror when he met a covert team of contractors on the Afghanistan/Pakistan border in the fall of 2003. Pelton soon embarked on a globe-spanning odyssey to penetrate and understand this shadowy world, ultimately delivering stunning insights into the way private soldiers are used.
Enter a blood-soaked world of South African mercenaries and tribal fighters backed by ruthless financiers. Drop into Baghdad’s Green Zone, strap on body armor, and take a daily high-speed ride with a doomed crew of security contractors who dodge car bombs and snipers just to get their charges to the airport. Share a drink in a chic hotel bar with wealthy owners of private armies who debate the best way to stay alive in war zones.
Licensed to Kill spans four continents and three years, taking us inside the CIA’s dirty wars; the brutal contractor murders in Fallujah and the Alamo-like sieges in Najaf and Al Kut; the Deep South contractor training camps where ex–Special Operations soldiers and even small town cops learn the ropes; the contractor conventions where macho attendees swap bullet-punctuated tales and discuss upcoming gigs; and the grim Central African prison where contractors turned failed mercenaries pay a steep price.
The United States has encouraged the use of the private sector in all facets of the War on Terror, placing contractors outside the bounds of functional legal constraints. With the shocking clarity that can come only from firsthand observation, Licensed to Kill painstakingly deconstructs the most controversial events and introduces the pivotal players. Most disturbingly, it shows that there are indeed thousands of contractors—with hundreds more being produced every month—who’ve been given a license to kill, their services available to the highest bidder.
Customer Reviews:
Perfect book on an intriguing subject.......2007-09-22
I bought Pelton's 'World's most dangerous places' a few years ago. I'm always interested in the shady world of mercenaries, contractors and hired guns so of course I wanted to buy this book as soon as it was out. And it was spot-on. This is a very well written book, it gives you a no-nonsense look into the world of the contractors and after you have read it, you know a lot more about the matter than the average newsreader. What I liked most was the parts about Sandline and Executives Outcomes. Definetely a must-read if you want to know something more about contractors and 'mercenaries', or better put: the difference between those two. I recommend it highly.
Contract Rifles.......2007-08-13
Robert Young Pelton's Licensed to Kill is a book well worthy of the time invested in reading it. Pelton illuminates the world of modern private security contracting both from the inside and from an historical perspective. He draws a distinction between the security contractor, who is essentially a defensive fighter, and a mercenary, who undertakes offensive actions. The reader meets individual contractors and a few of the men behind the organizations. Tales of trial by fire mix with broader-perspective cautionary tales about where the trend in security contracting may be headed and the gray zone between the private security company and the mercenary army. Pelton's work offers valuable perspective on a phenomenon that has erupted since the start of the War on Terror and which deserves serious attention.
Licensed to Kill is many things at once. Pelton's book is a jigsaw puzzle of personal experiences with contractors on the ground, small-picture stories about individuals in the post-9/11 world of gun-for-hire opportunities, and big-picture stories that serve to frame the pre- and post-9/11 world of security contracting. A literary critic might argue that Licensed to Kill is a postmoderist work that lacks central direction or a single message. I believe that Pelton's book is a creditworthy effort at giving a human face to security contractors while creating a context for the world in which the War on Terror contractor operates.
At the personal level, Pelton devotes several chapters to his experiences in Iraq and North Carolina with contractors. Based on his subjects, Pelton to enjoys the closest contact with the American company Blackwater--one of post-9/11 private security success stories and one of the big winners of the outsourcing of security in Iraq. Pelton describes the Blackwater people in detail. The reader is imparted the knowledge that these are real people. The author sees most of them as men of (surprisingly) complex motives: they want to fight for their country; they want to support wives, children, etc.; they don't want to put up with the Big Army's bureaucratic nonsense; they want better pay than an Army junior enlisted man gets for putting his life on the line; they fear they have no other skills, so they want to earn a living marketing what they have; many are too old to go active duty, anyway; they crave the high that comes from danger.
As a mid-thirties National Guardsman and junior NCO who served in Baghdad in 2005, I understand the men Pelton describes reasonably well. Pelton describes a run down Route Irish to BIAP (Baghdad International Airport) and back to the Green Zone. I've made that run more than once myself. Although I find Pelton's description a touch dramatic, he's very authentic when he describes the hazards of the situation. I understand completely why these men hate the Big Army way of doing business. Soldiers in Iraq--NCOs included--are treated like irresponsible children, forbidden any sort of liberties, and subjected to the attentions of bored sergeants major who think the insurgency will be defeated by proper uniforms and correctly-laced boots. The contractors Pelton describes have found a way to get into the fight while avoiding the Army's less-attractive aspects. Many of my fellow soldiers talked about trying to come back as contractors so they could make twice as much money (or more) and be treated like men into the bargain. Pelton gives the reader an idea of who the contractors, mostly prior military, really are. Seemn through Pelton's eyes, contractors are not predominantly bloodthirsty raiders looking to spill as much innocent blood as possible. They are men being paid to carry a rifle to accomplish specific tasks and trying to survive while doing it.
Pelton is clearly in the trenches with the contractors physically and sympathetically. He acknowledges as much, so we are free to take his anecdotal experience as exactly that: anecdotal.
That much said, Pelton is not a mindless promoter in Licensed to Kill. He raises questions about the legal framework of contracting. To whom do the contractors really answer? Soldiers are clearly representatives of their nation, and they are held to well-published standards of conduct. Contractors, though as former soldiers may be guided by the same moral and ethical compass as their uniformed brethren, are not bound by the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Pelton points out that contractors exist in a sort of legal and ethical limbo. This, Pelton claims, is what the US government wants. When a contractor messes up and is called to task for it, the US government can claim that the contractor does not represent the policies and intent of the United States. The contractor can be dismissed out of hand, Pelton tells us, and the government thereafter washes its hands of the whole thing. Deniability, the author claims, is one of the chief virtues of the contractor and, by extension, one of the chief moral pitfalls. What does it say about the United States of America when we engage disposable men to fight for our causes? Soldiers are expendable in that their lives may be sacrificed to accomplish a mission. However, soldiers receive a host of benefits and long-term investment as part of their service. Contractors receive pay and nothing more. Currently, they are mostly immune from legal consequences in Iraq; but when and if they do start to be charged with crimes for their activities, the US government can give them up with a clean conscience--no harm, no foul to the government. Compare this to the fallout associated with Abu Ghraib and other poor conduct by American troops, and one can see the allure of disposable, deniable contractors. Whether or not the rest of the world will buy the argument that the actions of contractors do not reflect on the government sponsoring the contract remains to be seen. Pelton's point is that the US government has been entranced by the prospect and is likely to remain so until circumstances invalidate the idea.
Pelton devotes some narrative to the world of security contracting prior to 9/11. The main point of doing so seems to be to illustrate the fact that while private security contracting is by no means a new activity, the War on Terror has completely transformed contracting and contracting companies. He also points out that the more mercenary activities of private contracting that occurred in the 1990's still exist as possibilities in the 2000's and beyond. Pelton tells us that the leadership of Blackwater in particular is interested in building a force larger, more capable, and much more powerful than the armies of a number of Third World countries. Pelton seems assured that the Blackwater leadership assumes a priori that a Blackwater army would be used only in support of American foreign interests and that this fact creates a satisfactory moral and ethical framework for the use of said force. At the same time, Pelton raises the question of what will happen when the bounties of the War on Terror cease to provide satisfactory employ for the growing mass of men and companies under arms by contract. Men like the men Pelton describes in detail in Iraq, Afghanistan, and North Carolina may find that having decided to live by the rifle in their post-military careers they are unable to resist bending their codes of conduct to take jobs that are neither entirely in nor out of line with American foreign policy and interests once the ratio of contractors-to-contracts starts to become more competitive. (Sooner or later, this will happen. The market makes it inevitable.) Where in the gray zone between security contractor and mercenary will these men then operate? This is no academic question. As Pelton points out, it is a reality being rushed along by the decision of the US government to privatize much of the security force of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Licensed to Kill is a worthy read. The men are real. The world in which they operate is filled with dangers, rewards, and uncertainties. The national policies unfolding today lead us down a road fraught with hazard and paved with the bodies and rifles of security contractors and those they have been engaged to fight. Pelton provides the reader with an interesting, informative read. Whether one agrees with him or not, Pelton paints a fascinating picture and raises important questions.
Pelton Explores the Rise of Military Privitization.......2007-08-13
Robert Young Pelton has been reporting from global hotspots for the past 15 + years. His record of reporting from far a field is impeccable, including stints in Afghanistan, Columbia, Kashmir, Algeria, and now Iraq. Having long been acquainted with private military contractors throughout his travels, Pelton ventures to Iraq to experience first hand the move towards privatization in the US military.
Pelton spends the majority of his time in Iraq with the controversial Blackwater USA; making runs along the "highway of death" between Baghdad Airport and the Green Zone. He gives a good description of the life of a military contractor in one the world's most dangerous zones. Pelton refrains from painting a too glorified picture of contractor life, and seems more to concentrate on the motivations of men working in the field.
Pelton also describes the history of the military contractor beginning in the early 1980s with such firms as the South African Executive Outcomes, and the British Sandline. He illustrates both the perceived benefits of private military intervention, such as quelling the RUF in Sierra Leone, to the not so clean interventions in Equatorial Guinea sponsored by the wealth-seeking interests of international business and finance.
All in all, I think Pelton does an excellent job refraining from the political bias which clouds much of the recent work on military contractors. Licensed to Kill serves as a readable description of the unstoppable move towards the expansion of private military contractors, and provokes thought and discussion on this new Pandora's Box.
Fascinating read that explores the implications of private security forces.......2007-08-07
This book reflects on the history and modern evolution of private security forces, their influences on the war on terror and the implications of the acceptance of private security forces in society's future.
Beyond just a dry assessment of private security contractors in Iraq, Pelton, adds dramatic personal narratives of his interactions with security contractors, aptly painting a picture of their experiences in Iraq.
This is a must read for anyone interested in the blurring of the line between the military and privately fielded armed forces, which raises interesting questions regarding the US Military's self-sufficiency, the allegiances of private forces, the skill-drain occurring in the armed forces and the future of warfare.
Bull's Eye!.......2007-05-22
In his book, Licensed to Kill, Robert Young Pelton hits the bull's eye with a sweeping, crash course in the explosive growth of private security contractors.
Thrust from the sweltering groins of Africa, Papua New Guinea and other trouble spots around the globe where hidden treasures of oil and minerals tempt buccaneering entrepreneurs, the private security industry is now bursting in full multi-billion-dollar glory on the bloody streets of Iraq.
Pelton chronicles it all with gritty first-hand experience and a keen, knowing vision: the past is prologue and the present boom in Iraq screams a cautionary tale for tomorrow. We may be witnessing the birth of a roving, freelance warrior class in constant search for new wars. (On second thought, the world may already have one. It's called the global war on terror.)
Licensed to Kill, proves once again that Pelton gets the interviews and access that few writers even dream about. He gallops into the secret mud brick camps of Afghanistan; lifts glasses with big wheels while toasting back-room money deals; sweats through a Triple Canopy training camp in Arkansas; barrels down the dangerous highways of Iraq; explores the twisted life of a self-aggrandizing bounty hunter searching for bin Laden; and lives the daily tensions of retired cops and veterans struggling to make a living for their families back home as hired guns.
Although these blue-collar workers may earn $600 a day, they work 24/7. It is grueling and deadly work. Just ask Miyagi, one of the many characters percolating through the book. Sent home by Blackwater to his wife and nine-year-old son in Santa Barbara, an IED drove a gash through his arm and left a fist-sized hole in his [..]. Now, he's waiting for a new assignment. He says it's too tough to make ends meet for his family as a cop in California.
Others, like Erik Prince, a politically-connected former Navy SEAL, never faced those worries. As the founder of the North Carolina-based Blackwater, USA, Prince hit the jackpot a long time ago with a multimillion-dollar family fortune. Today, his company banks on government security contracts totaling $750 million or more won after the Sept.11, 2001, attack on the World Trade Center. Blackwater's success may be only the beginning. Prince envisions taking part in contracts all over the world with Blackwater's own private air force. The company claims it can deploy a private regiment of 1,700 anywhere within a 24-hour notice.
"Prince likes to think of Blackwater's relationship to the traditional military as something akin to FedEx's relationship to the U.S. Post office," Pelton observes after meeting with Prince on several occasions.
Then there's Col. Tim Spicer, a former Scots Guardsman, who first plied his mercenary trade on the outskirts of the developed world by getting mixed up with coups, mineral rights and guns for cold hard cash. Today, Spicer has reinvented himself with the newly-formed Aegis Defence Services. His company holds the largest security contract in Iraq and is charged with coordinating the chaos among tens of thousands of gun-slinging contractors working for scores of companies.
But who will coordinate the chaos of private security companies after Iraq? The business is already on the prowl for new work. "The thing to watch," Pelton cautions, is if hired guns become a permanent fixture in foreign policy.
Even more troubling, is the prospect that the private warriors will begin to freelance in backing political coups -- sometimes unknowingly -- because their mission can be disguised by contracts to protect oil fields, gold mines and other corporate property.
Pelton recounts chilling incidents of this already happening before Iraq sucked up the talent from around the world and then went begging for new recruits. No one knows how many trained and battle-hardened private warriors are working in Iraq. Some estimate 30,000, others say 50,000 or more. Most of these fighters will have few crossover job skills once they leave, but they will have proven resumes showing they carry guns for hire and answer to no one but their company boss.
Licensed to Kill may be just the first chapter in what leads us to ask: what monster is this that the world has created?
Amazon.com
Daniel Yergin's first prize-winning book, Shattered Peace, was a history of the Cold War. Afterwards the young academic star joined the energy project of the Harvard Business School and wrote the best-seller Energy Future. Following on from there,
The Prize, winner of the 1992 Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction, is a comprehensive history of one of the commodities that powers the world--oil. Founded in the 19th century, the oil industry began producing kerosene for lamps and progressed to gasoline. Huge personal fortunes arose from it, and whole nations sprung out of the power politics of the oil wells. Yergin's fascinating account sweeps from early robber barons like John D. Rockefeller, to the oil crisis of the 1970s, through to the Gulf War.
Book Description
Pulitzer Prize Winner -- and Now an Epic PBS Series
The Prize recounts the panoramic history of oil -- and the struggle for wealth power that has always surrounded oil. This struggle has shaken the world economy, dictated the outcome of wars, and transformed the destiny of men and nations. The Prize is as much a history of the twentieth century as of the oil industry itself. The canvas of this history is enormous -- from the drilling of the first well in Pennsylvania through two great world wars to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait and Operation Desert Storm.
The cast extends from wildcatters and rogues to oil tycoons, and from Winston Churchill and Ibn Saud to George Bush and Saddam Hussein. The definitive work on the subject of oil and a major contribution to understanding our century, The Prize is a book of extraordinary breadth, riveting excitement -- and great importance.
Customer Reviews:
First to cover the topic, but still a facile book.......2007-09-17
Yergen gets kudos for being the first to cover this topic, but his account (perhaps because it's now outdated) is facile and pro-oil company. Every time the oil companies are thwarted he seems to blame straw men for it: tree huggers, the people that hounded poor misunderstood Tricky Dick Nixon, the Saudi sheiks (best friends of Bush, Cheney, et al). He never turns his gaze on the corruption of the oil companies themselves. We hit peak oil in the U.S. in the 1960s. The oil companies suppressed any attempts since then to find alternative fuels. Now we are up the creek, so to speak, with the Oil Men running the Show. Some "Prize". I'd say it's the booby prize. The best overview of our current fix is Lawrence Wright's The Looming Tower.
The Age of Oil.......2007-07-04
We are living in the Age of oil.
World and human civilization have experienced different "ages" such as the Bronze Age, Iron Age, and Gilded Age, and so on. The 20th and 21st Centuries are indeed, the "Oil Age." We are living in it. This book is one of the most informative and relevant books published in recent years, In my opinion. This work by Daniel Yergin was and still is prescient today, in 2007. "The Prize" tells the story of where we are today, and how we got here. It also latently foresees where we're going in the future. The book doesn't tell us - we just know. We're human. This book is so comprehensive and has so much information only a small portion of it can be noted. Below relates to WWII, and former Iranian leader Dr. Mohammed Mossadegh.
"The Prize" proceeds chronologically. And within the chapters there are numerous mini-subtitles for sub-chapters that connect the big picture. The bibliography and index are excellent and can be used to tie in different figures and historical occurrences. The 'history of oil' is actually the history of the world: humankind, business, innovations, globalization, war, and geo-political power-plays. The very survival of a nation-state is based upon oil.
"The Prize" begins with tiny puddles of black, sticky, goo, in Pennsylvania in the mid 1800s. Locals collected this goo and realized its many uses. In 1859 oil was struck. Almost immediately, the wealth and power amassed from possession and control of oil was realized. The initial trust acts in the U.S. are related to the oil industry, in which Barons quickly gained gargantuan amounts of wealth and political power.
Enter WWII:
The Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor because of oil. Japanese conquests throughout South-East Asia and the Pacific were motivated not only by the quest for dominance but for securing oil and keeping their oil (fuel) supply lines open. Without supply lines of oil, the war machine would completely break down, as it later did (Chapter 8).
The Americans sacrificed a lot, but Japan in large part lost WWII because of its lack of fuel for planes, ships, and ground forces. Domestically, the Japanese economy collapsed because of its inability to import oil. The Kamikazes were brought into existence after the Battle of Leyte Gulf, Philippines, in 1944. Lack of oil meant lack of fighter plane fuel. Fuel supplies became so low they actually stopped training Japanese pilots at all. Pilots were ordered to "follow the leader" to the attack site because they didn't even have navigation training.
There was even an "Oil Czar" In the U.S. during World War II in PAW, the Petroleum Administration for War. The Oil Czar was Harold Ickes.
In the European Theater's Eastern Front Germany invaded Russia with Operation Barbarossa mostly to get the oil in the Caucuses (In addition to "lebensraum" and "untermensch" beliefs). In addition, a needed land-route to Iron Ore in Scandinavia via the Baltic SSR Republics was a factor. Hitler also began making synthetic oil because without enough of it Germany's war machine, domestic economy, and arms production were doomed. These synthetic oil factories were top targets in Allied bombing missions.
Oil and the Cold War World:
The Soviets dominated Eastern Europe and exerted its influence after WWII for 45 years because the Allies ran out of gasoline. When the British 3rd Army and U.S. 1st Army were advancing eastward toward Berlin chasing demoralized, retreating, and broken German troops in disarray. But because of the lack of gasoline for the Allied Armies, a million people ended up losing their lives and war was prolonged because the Germans were able to retreat and re-organize (page 388).
If someone says "it's not about the oil" today in 2007, tell them to read this book. Oil encompasses almost all things in our daily lives, whether we are are conscious of it, or not.
Oil, Military, and Economic Interests:
Democratically elected governments are overthrown by foreign governments because of oil. In 1953 Dr. Mohammed Mossadegh was democratically elected in Iran. He was an anti-communist. He didn't like the 93% to 7% profit sharing split with a British Oil company operating inside Iran. He changed it to 50-50. The CIA sponsored a coup to overthrow him. Americans were repeatedly told by the U.S. media that Mossadegh was a communist and communist sympathizer, although factually untrue. The American public believed this propaganda, according to poll results. Gullible? Mossadegh was ousted and the Shah was placed in power. Democracy has never been supported in the Middle East and it isn't now by the U.S. government. Also see the Carter Doctrine of 1980.
Most of us as individual consumers literally need oil to function. Dependence upon oil is for the continuation of the nation-state, its military machines, and domestic economy. More critical today, is that nation-states need a *sufficient* supply of it.
This is a positive book. It's a history book.
We're in the heart of the "Oil Age."
Amaze.......2007-06-19
This book is the better form to say what means the oil in the world. The history is well clear end real. There are many important information and who is curious or needs to know the subject this is a perfect one.
It's interesting to know the past to forecast the future..........2007-06-14
I really appreciated Daniel YERGIN's book.
The history of oil is crucial to try to solve the huge demand for future oil. History tells us that oil is limitless in virgin deserts...
The Prize : The Epic Quest for Oil, Money & Power.......2007-06-12
Excellent, well chronicled book showing the inside of the oil world history. Amazon shipment was a slick execution which makes the book more valuable..This book is a must-have for oil and gas pros.
Book Description
From Afghanistan and Iraq to Europe and the United States we are engaged in one of the most heated wars of all time. In this incisive new book, the man that has been called--the only one to understand the mind of the jihadist--shows that the most important battle is actually taking place in the hearts and minds of the world's population. This is the war of ideas, where ideology is the most powerful weapon of all. Phares explores the beliefs of two opposing camps, one standing for democracy and human rights, and the other rejecting the idea of an international community and calling for jihad against the West. He reveals the strategies of both sides, explaining that new technologies and the growing media savvy of the jihadists have raised the stakes in the conflict. And most urgently, he warns that the West is in danger of losing the war, for whereas debate and theorizing rarely translate into action here, ideas and deeds are inextricably linked for the forces of jihad.
Customer Reviews:
Required reading by every self-respecting journalist........2007-08-23
The facts will set you free. Well researched. Bluntly honest. A very readable treatment of Islamofacism every self-respecting journalist should read. It is now on my short list of books that correctly shape one's understanding of this century's principal narrative.
Great Read!.......2007-06-13
We need more literature like this that expounds on our current situation and dilemma our children will soon face.
The War of Ideas: Jihadism against Democracy .......2007-05-07
This is a very scholarly book. This is not a rabble rouser. It is an excellent book to gain understanding of "Jihadism against Democracy"
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