Rachel Maddow's Drift

In her first book Drift: The Unmooring of American Military Power [Kindle], Rachel Maddow "traces how U.S. national intelligence agencies have taken over duties that were once assigned to the military, and how this shift has increased the public disconnect from the consequences of war." 

Rachel says she grew up in a household that respected military service -- her father fought in Vietnam -- and she might have joined up herself, were it not for that LGBT ban.

The NPR site:

"Politically, secrecy is a great excuse," Maddow tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross. "If something is being done on a secret basis in national security, that's a great reason for elected officials to not talk about it. And that's a great way to shirk accountability for it with the public."

That lack of accountability, says Maddow, lets America's national defense operate without public oversight or knowledge.

"When things are done in secret in our name, we can be held accountable for them, even if we can't hold accountable our government for directing it," she says. "And that feels very un-American to me."

Using intelligence agencies and private contractors has also increasingly disconnected the American public from the consequences of war, says Maddow.

"I don't think anybody set out to make us so divorced from the wars that we wage," she says. "But all of these little tweaks — all of these little changes that we made — had the effect of letting a president wage war without political restraint and letting us wage war in a way where we didn't necessarily notice or know the names of all of those who were deployed in our name. Because a lot of them were working for companies that didn't have any obligation to report to us when their people were killed. We ended up doing stuff in a way that insulated the American public from what our military was doing to the point where we don't feel much friction when Americans go downrange."

Guess who had an easy time getting blurbs? Everyone from Naomi Klein and Matt Taibbi to Roger Ailes and Tom Brokaw lavishly praise the book. I don't care what Tom or Roger think but Naomi Klein promises the work isn't an overly academic trudge, "With her savage wit, dazzling command of facts, and eye for the absurd, Maddow tells the epic story of how American warfare came to be both never-ending and practically invisible..."

What a great spring for lesbian authors: Ellis Avery, Carol Anshaw, Jeanette WInterson, Sarah Schulman, Rachel Maddow, Lucy Jane Bledsoe, and soon Alison Bechdel.

Comments

[J.P.]

Can't wait to read this! Alison Bechdel has something new coming out? Is it prose or graphic novel?!? :D

[solitasolano]

Ah, thanks. Didn't know Lucy Jane had a new book.

[Arthur Durkee]

"war both never-ending and practically invisible. . . ."

Exactly what we were warned against in Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World" and George Orwell's "1984."

[a.p.]

Información útil. Afortunado mí, personalmente, he descubierto el sitio por accidente, así como Iam sorprendió a la razón por la cual este incidente en particular didnat ocurrido antes!