Drift: The Unmooring of American Military Power [Hardcover] [2012] First Edition Ed.

by Rachel Maddow

Hardcover, 2012

Call number

306.2 MAD

Collection

Publication

Crown (2012)

Description

Maddow shows how deeply militarized our culture has become--how the role of the national security sector has shape-shifted and grown over the past century to the point of being financially unsustainable and confused in mission.

Media reviews

War, in Maddow's world, is not in need of abolition so much as proper execution, which sometimes means more massive and less hesitant execution. LBJ "tried to fight a war on the cheap," Maddow quotes a member of Johnson's administration as recalling. On the other hand, when Colin Powell and
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Norman Schwarzkopf propose five or six aircraft carriers for the First War on Iraq, Maddow recounts that this "would leave naval power dangerously thin in the rest of the world." Dangerous for whom?
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Library's review

This book is full of facts and wit and impressive synthesis of foreign policy decisions over the past four decades. If you love Rachel Maddow, you'll enjoy this prose (you can hear her MSNBC style voice in the writing). If not, well, give it a try anyway. One of its most important contributions is
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a debunking of the myth that Reagan was a great President. So not true (she gives us the details of why, including testimony from people in his own party, at the time, who have since participated in the revisionist historical project called the Reagan Presidency). Maddow ends with an important conclusion: “Policy decisions matter. Our institutions matter. The structure of government matters. They can all be changed… There were specific decisions made in time that set us on our current war-is-normal course. If specific decisions in time landed us where we are today, we can unmake those specific decisions.” And then she offers a specific “to-do” list, including pay for all wars up front (taxes, war bonds, etc.) instead of using deficit spending (this as a way of avoiding more and endless wars); get rid of the secret, outside the government military (e.g. remote drone pilots); make CIA ops accountable; get rid of the privatized war and military operations; return war-making authority to Congress. (Brian)
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User reviews

LibraryThing member msf59
“we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex.”

-Eisenhower 1961

Rachel Maddow takes on the US military and she’s done her homework. You do not have to be a fan of this unapologetic lefty, to admire this book.
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Maddow pretty much keeps to the facts and maintains a non-partisan balance. Of course she hammers Reagan and the Bush duo, but she saves some ammo for Clinton and Obama too.
The author proposes that this “drift” began during Vietnam, where our military slowly began to build into this monolith; a huge ungainly, incredibly expensive machine, that knew no bounds and was always on the hunt, like a ravenous pitbull, sniffing out the next conflict.
Maddow also explores the out-sourcing of the military, which really began to blossom under Clinton and thanks to groups like Blackwater, really began to run rampant, without any government oversight. She also looks at the US nuclear program, which to date has cost America eight trillion dollars. A stunning figure. And we’re worried about “welfare queens”?
This should be required reading. As Americans we have safely distanced ourselves from these ongoing wars and need to be reminded occasionally of the horrendous cost in both lives and the monumental debts we are creating.
Maddow does have a good sense of humor too. She dedicated the book to Dick Cheney.
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LibraryThing member lostinalibrary
According to author and political pundit, Rachel Maddow, Thomas Jefferson believed that the executive branch of the US government would always be tempted to take the country into war. To prevent this, the power to declare war was given to congress in the belief that, with so many people with
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different and conflicting agendas, it would be much harder to get such a declaration. Jefferson also believed that the burden of war, both the financial and human cost, must be shared by all, thus adding another strong deterrent.

However, in the last few decades all of this has changed - the US has been at war almost without cease since Reagan. Since then, a series of wars have been declared by each successive President regardless of political stripe without Congress' approval or, in some cases, knowledge. At the same time, fewer citizens have taken part in the actual fighting while the rest stay at home. War, in effect, has become almost painless for the vast majority making waging war more attractive. There has also been a huge rise in the use of private contractors in war zones (sadly, who have few if any restraints on their behaviour) making war not only less painful but much more profitable for some.

Maddow's book gives us a well-documented, well-researched explanation of how this happened. She points out that this has been the result of policies of both parties, that presidents on both sides of the aisle have been willing to embrace this drift away from the Founding Fathers' original intent and that Congress, again on both sides of the aisle, have allowed this to happen with almost no objection.

There is also a chapter where Maddow lists all of the nuclear accidents which have occurred on American soil in this same time period, a list scarier than anything Stephen King has written.

Maddow makes her points about the unmooring of military power clearly, cogently, and with a great deal of wry humour. Most importantly, it is non-partisan and very accessible. If you read only one book on politics this year (or even if you have no plans to read any), you should really read this one - I can't think of a more important message that everyone needs to hear.
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LibraryThing member traumleben
Rachel Maddow is one of those media figures people seem to love or hate, depending on their own ideological bent. Whether you identify yourself as a liberal or conservative, you may find yourself in the uncomfortable predicament of agreeing with her on much of her thesis. Her main argument is that
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we've strayed from the founder's intent, that war be something difficult for our republic to get itself into. Presidents from LBJ henceforward have sought to end run Congress and minimize the public's influence over the commitment of troops abroad. We go to war, but it seems We the People have little say over the matter. Further, through privatization or over classification of countless military functions, we sacrifice public accountability for convenience. Maddow is relentless in her bashing of Reagan -- not altogether unwarranted -- but she doesn't cut Clinton or Obama any slack either. While her snarky tone matches that of her broadcast style, it's clear she's put together a serious piece of work that deserves consideration in the debate over the future of our military.
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LibraryThing member auntmarge64
Maddow, a popular commentator on MSNBC, traces the changes made in the last 50 years in how the U.S. decides to go to war; that is, who makes the decision, and who fights the war. The Founding Fathers established Congress alone with the power to make war, fearful that vesting such a decision in one
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person (the President) would make the choice of war too easy for reasons of vengeance, greed, pride, or just plain stupidity. But a combination of willful Executives, determined to use legal trickery to give them what they saw as their proper due to wage war as they saw fit, and weak legislators, who never knew what hit them, undid the Fathers’ careful plans. One device increasingly used by recent Presidents has been the private army, unhampered by legal niceties or oversight, and enabling the U.S. to remain in a state of constant war with the citizenry largely unaffected and unaware. A fascinating overview which is guaranteed to make the reader more informed about not only how our country operates but how inconsequential the average citizen has become in directing its future.
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LibraryThing member PaulaKrapf
This is a book for anyone interested in how our government works. While the topic is our military, Drift really addresses how our approach to war has drifted away from the intent of the Founding Fathers. They did not want the executive branch to have unilateral war powers, noting that presidents
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like wars because wars tend to be good for them (yet not beneficial to the country). Giving war powers to Congress - a slower, more deliberative body - ensures we don't rush into every and any possible conflict.

Maddow traces how the executive branch began to find ways to circumvent Congress in order to go to war (or continue wars), beginning with LBJ during the Vietnam War. Subsequent presidents - both Democrats and Republicans - have done even more to work around, or without Congress, and Maddow's book makes a great case for why this secrecy not good for our government, our country and our military.

There's more to Drift as well, including how poorly we manage our military arsenal; when Maddow relates one nuclear incident that keeps her awake at night you'll really understand why. In addition, Maddow examines the newest way we fight wars: using contractors. We have more contractors in Iraq than U.S. military personnel. However, the contractors are NOT cheaper than using military personnel, and the fact that these contractors don't answer to U.S. law, military law or the laws of the country they are stationed in is a toxic combination. How toxic? Rape, sex slaves and other crimes are well documented yet the "punishment" does not fit the crimes.

A highly recommended book. Maddow's writing style is conversational and easy to understand, and her analysis of our military policies is insightful and worth reading (and debating).
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LibraryThing member sarah-e
Rachel Maddow does seem to be obsessed with how America goes to war. The book is funny because it's in her voice, but the arguments are focused and serious. I know far too little about politics to attempt a critique of her argument, but I did enjoy the book and would recommend it to anyone because,
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at the very least, it is bound to spark some conversation.
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LibraryThing member Citizenjoyce
Rachel Maddow shows how presidents have long tried to subvert the constitutional mandate that congress must be the governmental body to declare war. Since the power and glory of victory reflects well on the president, he likes to be the one to hold that power. It's difficult to convince congress to
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send citizens to fight and die, and Maddow's point is that the constitution was written in such a way as to guarantee that war is a difficult undertaking. Reagan comes under attack for his love affair with war and all things military. Cheney is seen to have been a big proponent of war for most of his career, but that is shown, I think, to be for economic reasons. Reagan just liked the glory of it all. Presidents since Johnson have tried to circumvent congress in every way possible, usually successfully, except for poor Reagan's desire to overtake Central and South America and keep it out of the hands of the godless communists. Now unending, undeclared war seems to be the American way of life. As Maddow says, the choice isn't between guns and butter, it's between margarine and butter, guns have full backing. Due to Reagan's emphasis on Mutually Assured Destruction we have built an 8 trillion dollar nuclear arsenal, an aging, poorly controlled arsenal that no one seems to know how to maintain and that gets occasionally exploded or lost.

Add to the fact that we have outdated, unnecessary weapons, and servicemen stationed around the world, is the fact that, in order to have the fewest possible number of Americans effected by the war we have overtaxed our reserve force to the point that suicide is a greater killer of servicemen than combat. When we can't get enough manpower by using reservists we use mercenaries. Blackwater isn't the only or even the first privitized force to be brought down by scandals. A mercenary force unregulated by the government engages in murder, sex trafficking and the extortion of huge amounts of government money. Then we have our secret CIA drone program. The big words are secret and expensive. Our tax dollars at work undermining democratic ideals. We have indeed drifted from the intention of the constitution, and Rachel Maddow spells it out well.
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LibraryThing member jphamilton
I picked this up very shortly after it came out—I'm a big fan and follower of Rachel. I remember listening to her on Air America while building bookcases for our bookstores in my woodshop.
While she will certainly make you laugh at times, this is a pretty heavy subject. Yet, it's one that she
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keeps interesting, even while she is giving you an incredible amount of facts, figures and dates. Her writing style is straight forward and honest. She is not out here to play bad conservative / good progressive, she wants to get to the core of how we came to be in the position of perpetual war that our country currently finds itself in. She very clearly shows the many small and large steps that every US administration has taken to move the country into this position ... it was a drift that took place over decades.
At times I found myself amazed and terrified over what has gone on in our past. When she starts covering the history and frightening present of our nuclear weapons arsenal, I became intrigued and angry. What could we have been thinking AND what will we do now? She sites the estimate that we have spent something like $8 trillion on these weapons—weapons which seem almost as dangerous to us and our allies, as to any enemy we might have.
At the very end Rachel does present some commonsense ways out of this, our quagmire of a military policy. Key among them, is to make the entire country involved in any conflict, to feel some of the pain of war, and not to just say, "Our boys want to be professional soldiers AND let's go shopping with our money from the new tax cut." She also brings up something that always frosts me, how Congress can endlessly debate the most minor law, but when it comes to the decision of taking the country to war, it's all about who's the bigger patriot. Jesus, that explains Grenada and so many other stupid involvements.
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LibraryThing member MlleEhreen
I'd heard Rachel Maddow promoting this book here and there, but I think what convinced me to actually buy & listen was when she explained that she hadn't thought, "I want to write a book," then searched about for a subject. She'd had an argument that she wanted to make, and because it was a
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complex, multi-part argument that brought together a lot of history, she needed to make it in a book.

The subject of DRIFT is pretty well described by the title. She talks about strategies the White House has developed that make it possible to wage war without alarming the American public - things like getting rid of the draft, or contracting out military work to third parties - and, at times, without having to alert or seek approval from the Congress.

Her basic point is that it shouldn't be easy to declare war. That the roadblocks preventing the president from declaring war are essential to the health of the country, though they surely have seemed like nuisances to every President who's ever run up against them. And she talks about the cost of letting the military grow and expand unchecked, in financial terms (it's stupidly expensive) and practical ones, too (the chapter on neglected nuclear warheads was pretty horrifying).

I like Rachel Maddow in general & one of the perks of the audiobook is that she reads it. Her speaking voice matches her authorial voice and it was a pleasure to listen to her read. Her argument is compelling & she's not partisan in her discussion - she lambasts Clinton and Obama along with Reagan and the Bushes (though Reagan really gets the worst of it). She highlights political events that I've always been aware of in vague ways (like the Iran-Contra affair, or the invasion of Granada), explains what was going on and knits them into a tight, overarching narrative.

DRIFT is a worthwhile book. Highly recommended.
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LibraryThing member jcbrunner
Rachel Maddow's book, which is a fine recap for people who don't follow the news, suffers from a problem all to common in the commentariat (Krugman, Reich, Lessig, Greenwald, ,,,): In their accounts, it is the Reagan revolution that destroys the magic wonder world of their childhood/early years in
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the 1960s and 1970s. In Maddow's case, she seems to ignore that the term "military-industrial complex" was coined by Eisenhower. American imperialism isn't a recent innovation. It is baked into the founding of the nation. One of the contentious issues of the Colonials was the British restriction of Western development and exploration beyond the original colonies. The Marines were founded to add muscle to American foreign ventures from the shores of Tripoli to the Philippines. Contra to what Maddow says, the US always found ways to mess around abroad: From Commodore Perry in Japan to China to Nicaragua to Hawaii. Historically, at least, it is simply wrong to speak about an "unmooring" of American military power. The US has always been engaged in imperialistic actions.

The use of private contractors and the mix of commercial, corporate and national interests is also not a novel idea. The hired troops led by William Eaton on the Tripoli expedition in 1804 features all the ingredients of later foreign adventures. The checks and balances sought by Maddow perversely only worked when an early entry in WWI and WWII would have hugely benefited the world.

What remains is a readable account of the various foreign adventures (and inevitable scandals) from Reagan to Bush. Some might profit from remedial reading about the criminal activities of Saint Ronald but those will probably be deterred by the author's reputation. The bulleted policy changes of her epilogue are certainly worthy of discussion and might create a better America. It requires, however, a different America and the conclusion fails to develop the necessary levers. "We just need to revive that old idea of America as a deliberately peaceable nation." This is bad history and bad politics. After all, America is also not a Christian nation.
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LibraryThing member simchaboston
Sobering, smart, funny, meticulous, and utterly compelling. Maddow has brilliantly synthesized her own research and other people's in-depth reporting, which she generously and rightly gives full credit to, into a trenchant analysis of American military policy over the past several decades --
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specifically, how it has become much easier for the government to send troops into wars and other conflicts without seeking permission or even holding a public debate. Her arguments I personally find very convincing, and even if you don't buy her thesis, at the very least her book should make you think before automatically supporting military expansions and interventions -- which is her whole point. My only complaint is that I wish it were longer, something I never would've said about a work of military history before "Drift" came along. Sequel, anyone?
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LibraryThing member jimrgill
Maddow does an excellent job of detailing precisely how, over the last fifty years or so, “war culture” (my term, not hers) has transformed our nation. Her analysis of America at war from Vietnam to the present demonstrates that we have veered very far afield from our founding fathers’
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profound belief that going to war should be difficult—it should be unattractive, it should be something we as an entire nation do very unwillingly, it should be the option of last resort—and it should be something that affects every American. Instead, the military has become a highly specialized industry, much of it outsourced to private corporations (most of which line the pockets of Dick Cheney).

Maddow spends almost the entire first half of the book explaining how the Reagan administration was largely responsible for this transformation. Before reading this book, I had very little respect for Reagan as a president, and I now believe that he was a criminal megalomaniac who probably should have been impeached for his role in the Iran-contra affair.

The information here can be somewhat overwhelming at times, and though she does her best to demystify military lingo, it sometimes becomes challenging to comprehend every point she’s making. Overall, however, her argument is powerful.
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LibraryThing member addunn3
Excellent review of how our defense/military control has shifted from the legislative to the executive with the result that war is continuous and expenses are boundless.
LibraryThing member rivkat
Maddow argues that, through political innovation and privatization that ensures that most Americans don’t even notice that we’re at war, war has become far too easy for America, draining our resources and making it impossible to achieve other national objectives. She’s biting on the
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privatization/executive overreach/Congressional spinelessness/careful organization of the military to make its human costs less noticeable to groups that are more likely to vote, but I was more shocked by the part about how our nuclear arsenal is falling apart despite all the money we’ve spent on it: “Overall, the United States admits to having lost track of eleven nuclear bombs over the years. I don’t know about other countries, but that’s what we admit to. And we’re regarded as top-drawer, safety-wise.” “[A] few months later, we discovered that we had erroneously shipped to Taiwan four nose-cone fuzes designed to trigger nuclear explosions in lieu of the helicopter battery packs Taiwan had requested, and that it had taken a year and a half to discover the accidental switcheroo.” And that’s not even getting into the mold on the nukes. Her prescriptions are simple but sadly hard to imagine: Congress should assert itself; military budgets shouldn’t be untouchable; war should, in a democracy, be very hard to start.
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LibraryThing member JeremyPreacher
A clear, enlightening account of the transition America's military has gone through since World War II. Maddow is (as always) great at laying out facts and highlighting links between them. There's some unsettling, even scary, stuff here, and it's well worth a read.

This is not an overtly partisan
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book, incidentally. Maddow is just as hard on Clinton and Obama's policies as she is on either Bush (although Reagan takes a well-deserved beating.) And it is not at all an anti-military book. The book's thesis and ultimate recommendations are driven by small-c conservative fiscal ideas and a return to Consitutional principles of accountability and civilian control of the military.
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LibraryThing member KarenM61
This isn't a happy, fun-filled read - and I'm a Rachel Maddow fan. But it's an important, well-written one. It tells the story of how our country got from the Constitutional brakes purposely inserted to make war a difficult and last-resort choice for settling conflict to the endless War on Terror.
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I think the most enlightening part for me was Maddow writing about the first Regan term of office. Specifically, how we got into (and massively screwed up) the war with Grenada. Which marked the beginning of the end of the whole advise and consent of Congress before entering into armed conflict thing.
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LibraryThing member KarenM61
This isn't a happy, fun-filled read - and I'm a Rachel Maddow fan. But it's an important, well-written one. It tells the story of how our country got from the Constitutional brakes purposely inserted to make war a difficult and last-resort choice for settling conflict to the endless War on Terror.
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I think the most enlightening part for me was Maddow writing about the first Regan term of office. Specifically, how we got into (and massively screwed up) the war with Grenada. Which marked the beginning of the end of the whole advise and consent of Congress before entering into armed conflict thing.
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LibraryThing member dtn620
So this is a book about how we've let military spending run amok and ushered in a new way of thinking, or more accurately, not thinking about our constant state of war. The last chapter, which feels like a bonus chapter as it seems somewhat tacked on, discusses our nuclear weapon stockpiles and is
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pretty terrifying. If the rest of the book was horrible, and it isn't, this chapter would make up for it.

One of my favorite things about this book is that it is written by a talk show host, someone involved in the 24-hour news cycle and isn't a book of partisan bullshit. Has any other "personality" done so? There are some injections of Maddow's humor which may annoy those of the conservative bent. These instances are minor and should easily be swept aside by all but the most juvenile conservatives.

so read this book, get an understanding of how we got here, and maybe we can work to change things.
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LibraryThing member nmele
As I read this book, I was reminded of two related books by very different authors, William Greider's "Fortress America" and Andrew Bacevich's "The New American Militarism". Maddow cites the latter in her end notes but her book adds a historical, Constitutional dimension to Greider's account of the
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military-industrial complex and Bacevich's social, oor sociological, history. As I read, I became increasingly moved to step up my engagement with efforts to reduce our military budget and pare back the power of the Presidency. A book that moves one to act, what more need be said?
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LibraryThing member foof2you
A must read for Conservative or Liberal, if the powers that be in Washington really want to cut the budget this book will start. A well laid out description of various conflicts America has been in throughout the world, and how Congress has been bypassed in the decision making process. How private
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contractors make it esay to go to ear in the pass.
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LibraryThing member St.CroixSue
Maddow brings our attention to what has been going on behind the scenes in our government with respect to when, where, why, and how we wage war. This is something that we as citizens should all have knowledge. A very informative book written in a journalistic style.
LibraryThing member karieh
I want to be Rachel Maddow when I grow up. Probably not going to happen, for several reasons beyond the fact that I am three years older than she is. But someday, I would love to be as confident, witty, well-mannered and HALF as wicked smart as she is. Her book “Drift” was a great mix of her
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humor, her wide eyed amazement at what people do and say in the crazy world that is the political arena…and accurate, well researched and clearly presented facts.

Ronald Reagan was my defining president. I came of age during his eight years in office, I took high school civics during his presidency, visited D.C. and the Capitol during the Iran-Contra hearings and started to tune into politics while he was our leader. Which might explain a lot about why I am as liberal as I am. It also might explain why I had to take breaks from “Drift” and read bits of one of David Sedaris’s book – to clear my head and try and keep it from exploding.

In “Drift” Maddow tackles decades of politics and war – and explains incredibly complex concepts and seemingly unconnected in events in such a way that it is easy to understand. She leads the reader from the mid 20th Century to today using an easy to follow route and pointing out events along the way that the reader may have not known about or may have forgotten, but that are vital steps along the road to our present day situation.

She spends a good deal of time talking about Reagan, the man who competes for the role of ultimate deity in modern-day conservative hearts. As she does in her TV show, she does so with clarity, with facts, with the utmost fairness…and with a bit of humor.
“The Army physical didn’t do much for Reagan’s self-esteem, as he described it in one of his autobiographies: “One of the doctors who was administering the test told me after checking my eyes that if they sent me overseas, I’d shoot a general. The other doctor said, “Yes, and you’d miss him.”

As fair as Maddow is, she never lets anyone fudge the facts. Facts that today seem nearly impossible…especially given the right wing spin that has been put on their idol. “…Reagan’s initial defense appropriation request, which clocked in at a nearly 20 percent increase. In something as huge as the Pentagon budget, a 5 percent increase would have been enough to rattle desks all over Washington; 10 percent was almost unimaginable; getting up toward 20 percent was fantasy talk. That kind of enormous one-year jump was unprecedented – at least it was without our troops actively fighting on a battlefield somewhere. And that play-money request from Reagan cam with a promise of more: the administration’s announced strategy was to double the defense budget in five years. By the time that first massive defense appropriation passed, coupled with the largest tax cuts in American history…”

“…as the yearly budget shortfalls grew from $50 billion to $100 billion to $150 billion to $220 billion, the Reagan administration waved them off like so many anti-nuke protestors. The self-proclaimed fiscal conservatives just kept asking for and getting more dollars for more weapons. Reagan’s continual appeals to American strength and pride, his vivid emotional doomsaying, all his overhyped talk about the Commies enslaving the world…it worked. He conjured for us an enemy worthy of our cause, something big to push back against. And he convinced us to reach deep, deep, deep into our pockets to fund that push.”

Reading the sections about Reagan felt like stumbling on a primer labeled “Where George W. Bush Got The Idea/Money/Cronies and Political Precedent to Lie the U.S. Into War in Iraq.” It’s all there. The step-by-step process from Vietnam to where we are now. How our leaders shirked their responsibilities, how some in power changed the rules (or ignored the rules) in ways that made it easier for those who came after them to deny the rules ever applied to them.

How the U.S. got to the point where being smart was bad and the only thing that mattered was force. How our president would deal with anyone, no matter their history or character or motives, if that person would help make the case of the military actions he wanted to take.

(Iran Contra) “As the deal unfolded – badly- assessments of Ghorbanifar within Reagan’s White House national security team included “corrupt,” “devious,” “duplicitous,” “Not to be trusted,” and “one of the world’s leading sleazebags,”. National Security Advisor Bud McFarlane even called him a “borderline moron.” There was pretty good evidence that Ghorbanifar’s main goal was money. And still, Reagan decided it would be good policy to pursue the Ghorbanifar plan.” That doesn’t sound familiar at all in these post-Iraq days, now does it?

And how war and the privatization of it (insert head banging noise here) has so far removed it from the daily life of U.S. citizens. Which is handy for those who want to wage it, because the fewer people paying attention or even noticing that we are at war, the better. Going back again to those who think that all government is bad and that everything done by the private sector is magical and shiny and good:

(Iraq) “One of the big drivers in the cost overrun was their “Management and Administration” line item, which came in at $69 million over budget, an impressive 80 percent overrun. It apparently took a lot of layers of Brown & Root management and administration to turn a $14 sheet of plywood into an $86 sheet of plywood.”

Maddow so clearly and forcefully makes the point that war matters. That trying to avoid war, that trying every option before going to war, that PLANNING and attention to detail matter in times of war…and that wars should actually end.

“With citizen-soldiers, with the certainty of a vigorous political debate over the use of a military subject to politicians’ control, the idea was for us to feel it – uncomfortably – every second we were at war.”

“Drift” is the perfect title for this book. Gradually, steadily, increasingly – our country has drifted to this point. And people need to realize the inherent dangers that face us because of this. Dangers on so many levels. One of the most pressing of which is our aging nuclear program.

“For the more serious nuclear maintenance issues, we had by then started shoveling money into something called the Stockpile Life Extension Program, which – even if you avoid the temptation to call it SchLEP – is still essentially a program of artificial hips, pacemakers, and penile implants for aging nukes. How’d you like to be responsible for operating on a half-century old nuclear bomb?”

In “Drift”, Rachel Maddow gives the reader so much. A history lesson that is both informative and interesting, a clear roadmap of presidential politics, and the well-reasoned support of her conclusions. She does so with the intelligence, humor and passion that make her the person I want to be when I grow up.
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LibraryThing member knownever
The book loses steam around chapter 9, but it's useful for topping up your liberal factoid tank. Stuff like we first used military contractors in Bosnia (and they were involved in after-hours human trafficking), as of 2005 the US spent more on defense annually than every other country combined (we
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spent merely half the total number in 2001...and why exactly do we HAVE to cut social security?), and oh, right, Cheney was Secretary of Defense under H.W.

When journalists write books you can really see how easy it is to churn out bestsellers because it's a category that doesn't demand footnotes or depth of analysis in favor of timely factoid delivery. However, it's worth a read if only to be reminded what a cluster fuck Grenada was.
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LibraryThing member bblum
Rachel knows how to tell a story and when you listen to this on audio you can hear her sly voice and laughter at the idiocy of it all. Oh, our politicians have lots to answer to and we need to clean up our image by genuine concern for democracy.
LibraryThing member peggygillman
Oh, my, this was a scary little book about how this country loves its wars and how easy it is for the president to take us into them. I loved that she was the narrator since she did a good job with it. Man, I hate Republicans.

ISBN

0307461009 / 9780307461001

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