Just watched the daily show online and John Stewart was doing an interview with Rachael Maddow, who wrote the book Drift. It was the March 29 show, so go ahead and watch it. On the Daily Show Website, but here's the link to the book:
http://www.amazon.com/Drift-Unmooring-American-Military-Power/dp/0307460983
I think this sounds like a really great book to have in your reading list. Definitely worth a read, and she makes a great point that the reason we don't have more push back against "wars of choice" is because people don't really feel it.
People are slowly coming around, and the more people besides Ron Paul who start repeating the sorts of things he's saying, the more powerful and compelling our movement will become in eventually influencing some positive change in this area.
Here's the complete description. Before you start hating on Rachel Maddow, take off your hate glasses and TELL ME this doesn't sound like something Ron Paul would write.
-------------------------------------------------
"One of my favorite ideas is, never to keep an unnecessary soldier," Thomas Jefferson wrote in 1792. Neither Jefferson nor the other Found*ers could ever have envisioned the modern national security state, with its tens of thousands of "privateers"; its bloated Department of Homeland Security; its rust*ing nuclear weapons, ill-maintained and difficult to dismantle; and its strange fascination with an unproven counterinsurgency doctrine.
Written with bracing wit and intelligence, Rachel Maddow's Drift argues that we've drifted away from America's original ideals and become a nation weirdly at peace with perpetual war, with all the financial and human costs that entails. To understand how we've arrived at such a dangerous place, Maddow takes us from the Vietnam War to today's war in Afghanistan, along the way exploring the disturbing rise of executive authority, the gradual outsourcing of our war-making capabilities to private companies, the plummeting percentage of American families whose children fight our constant wars for us, and even the changing fortunes of G.I. Joe. She offers up a fresh, unsparing appraisal of Reagan's radical presidency. Ultimately, she shows us just how much we stand to lose by allowing the priorities of the national security state to overpower our political discourse.
Sensible yet provocative, dead serious yet seri*ously funny, Drift will reinvigorate a "loud and jangly" political debate about how, when, and where to apply America's strength and power--and who gets to make those decisions.
-------------
Amazon review from a Democrat who likes Ron Paul:
-------------------------
As a Democrat, while watching the Republican debates I never expected to feel like standing up and cheering about anything they said, but that's how I felt when Ron Paul spoke about foreign policy and wars (his views on economic matters are flawed, but on foreign policy he has some good thoughts). Democrats can agree with Libertarians on the cautions as to war which Rachel expresses in this excellent book. And yes ... even conservatives should like this. TRUE conservatives (not the Neo-Cons). This country HAS drifted from thoughtful discussions before entering into war. We had already headed too far that way before 9/11, but 9/11 gave huge impetus for further drift -- too much fear about being blamed if another attack happened led Presidents to be overly warlike and Congress to be sheep, in going along with War pushes. One gets the feeling that too many members of Congress do not have an educated perspective about the proper, strong role of Congress in War policy. Every politician and voter in America should read this book and get a better perspective, a better sense of history, and work to reassert the proper caution.
http://www.amazon.com/Drift-Unmooring-American-Military-Power/dp/0307460983
I think this sounds like a really great book to have in your reading list. Definitely worth a read, and she makes a great point that the reason we don't have more push back against "wars of choice" is because people don't really feel it.
People are slowly coming around, and the more people besides Ron Paul who start repeating the sorts of things he's saying, the more powerful and compelling our movement will become in eventually influencing some positive change in this area.
Here's the complete description. Before you start hating on Rachel Maddow, take off your hate glasses and TELL ME this doesn't sound like something Ron Paul would write.
-------------------------------------------------
"One of my favorite ideas is, never to keep an unnecessary soldier," Thomas Jefferson wrote in 1792. Neither Jefferson nor the other Found*ers could ever have envisioned the modern national security state, with its tens of thousands of "privateers"; its bloated Department of Homeland Security; its rust*ing nuclear weapons, ill-maintained and difficult to dismantle; and its strange fascination with an unproven counterinsurgency doctrine.
Written with bracing wit and intelligence, Rachel Maddow's Drift argues that we've drifted away from America's original ideals and become a nation weirdly at peace with perpetual war, with all the financial and human costs that entails. To understand how we've arrived at such a dangerous place, Maddow takes us from the Vietnam War to today's war in Afghanistan, along the way exploring the disturbing rise of executive authority, the gradual outsourcing of our war-making capabilities to private companies, the plummeting percentage of American families whose children fight our constant wars for us, and even the changing fortunes of G.I. Joe. She offers up a fresh, unsparing appraisal of Reagan's radical presidency. Ultimately, she shows us just how much we stand to lose by allowing the priorities of the national security state to overpower our political discourse.
Sensible yet provocative, dead serious yet seri*ously funny, Drift will reinvigorate a "loud and jangly" political debate about how, when, and where to apply America's strength and power--and who gets to make those decisions.
-------------
Amazon review from a Democrat who likes Ron Paul:
-------------------------
As a Democrat, while watching the Republican debates I never expected to feel like standing up and cheering about anything they said, but that's how I felt when Ron Paul spoke about foreign policy and wars (his views on economic matters are flawed, but on foreign policy he has some good thoughts). Democrats can agree with Libertarians on the cautions as to war which Rachel expresses in this excellent book. And yes ... even conservatives should like this. TRUE conservatives (not the Neo-Cons). This country HAS drifted from thoughtful discussions before entering into war. We had already headed too far that way before 9/11, but 9/11 gave huge impetus for further drift -- too much fear about being blamed if another attack happened led Presidents to be overly warlike and Congress to be sheep, in going along with War pushes. One gets the feeling that too many members of Congress do not have an educated perspective about the proper, strong role of Congress in War policy. Every politician and voter in America should read this book and get a better perspective, a better sense of history, and work to reassert the proper caution.
Last edited:
