Drift: The Unmooring of American Military Power

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Drift: The Unmooring of American Military Power

4.07 of 5 stars 4.07 · rating details · 7,206 ratings · 1,188 reviews

The #1 New York Times bestseller that charts America’s dangerous drift into a state of perpetual war.

"One of my favorite ideas is, never to keep an unnecessary soldier," Thomas Jefferson wrote in 1792. Neither Jefferson nor the other Founders could ever have envisioned the modern national security state, with its tens of thousands of "privateers"; its bloated Department...more

288 pages

Published March 27th 2012 by Random House Audio

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Oct 12, 2012 Stephanie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction, politics, favorites, 2012

My dream Democratic presidential ticket for 2016 would include Rachel Maddow. I’m thinking if Joe Biden doesn’t want to do it (and I don’t think he does) then Al Franken, John Stewart or Stephen Colbert should be the other half. That would be an entertaining and smart duo to run the country. Maybe Colbert would be the smartest pick since his satire is so genius it might fool a few on the right to vote for him.

Everyone should read this book. It’s a non partisan commentary, it takes to task the pr...more

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Apr 03, 2012 Sineala rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: e-books, non-fiction

I am sure I will lose all credibility in the eyes of anyone reading this if I admit I originally picked it up due to my giant and long-standing crush on Rachel Maddow. Let's not say that, then, shall we?

Drift is, basically, a book about how come it's so easy for the US to go to war these days, which I have to admit is something that I have occasionally wondered. It's well-written, well-supported, and Maddow's style is extremely fun and makes the book as a whole pleasant to read.

Highlights for me...more

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May 03, 2013 Will Byrnes rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: military-and-intelligence-non-fic, non-fiction, american-history

Suppose they gave a war and no one protested?

That sounds like heaven on earth for some politicos, some military leaders and a whole lot of contractors who have been growing Jabba-the-Hutt chunky on public dollars.

Rachel Maddow, the most charming, and surely one of the brightest political commentators on the scene, has written a thoughtful analysis of how we got from what, in law if not always in practice, was a disinclination towards war, to the current state of affairs in which presidents can p...more

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May 19, 2012 Bill Kerwin rated it 4 of 5 stars

I've been a big Rachel Maddow fan for more than seven years, from back in the Air America “Unfiltered” days when she was partnered with Chuck D. and Lizz Winstead. I began to listen to her faithfully as soon as she was given a 5 A.M. hour news show, and I have been listening and watching ever since, with a proprietary, almost fatherly, interest. Sure, she preaches to the choir, and sometimes she lectures like a schoolmarm, but her intelligence is so penetrating, and she delivers her pessimistic...more
I've been a big Rachel Maddow fan for more than seven years, from back in the Air America “Unfiltered” days when she was partnered with Chuck D. and Lizz Winstead. I began to listen to her faithfully as soon as she was given a 5 A.M. hour news show, and I have been listening and watching ever since, with a proprietary, almost fatherly, interest. Sure, she preaches to the choir, and sometimes she lectures like a schoolmarm, but her intelligence is so penetrating, and she delivers her pessimistic analysis with such positive energy and humor, that I invariably leave her show with more hope and more determination that I had when I arrived.

That being said, I must confess that I wasn't really expecting much out of her book. She has often said that she doesn't enjoy the act of writing—that “it makes her crazy”--and as a general rule the books of TV personalities—no matter how intelligent and perceptive they may be—are seldom weighty or memorable.

I was wrong. “Drift” is a fine book” pithy, economical, stylistically pleasing, and informed by an interesting thesis.

One of the reasons I have always liked Maddow is that she is too broad-minded for polemics and too level-headed for conspiracy theory, and the significance of her title is a clear indication of this. She shows all the ways in which our military establishment has “drifted” further from the moorings of democratic control until it has become bloated, inefficient and unmanageable. Many things have contributed to this trend: presidential usurpation of congressional power, an increase in small undeclared “police actions”, the privatization of support functions, the proliferation of “contractors” (read “mercenaries”), the growing use of the CIA for drone strikes and other covert military missions, the expansion of military functions to include activities formerly allocated to that State Department or the Peace Corps, an increasing reliance on the National Guard as if it were the regular army, and the growing burden of an unnecessarily large and decaying nuclear infrastructure. Maddow argues that none of this is part of some larger design, that no conspiracy is involved. It has happened--and is still happening--because particular presidents (of both parties) desired some international objective and choose the path of least resistance to accomplish it. She bolsters her thesis with scores of interesting anecdotes and arguments, expressed in forthright, often colloquial prose.

The hopeful part? If this is indeed a “drift” and not a conspiracy, it can be reversed by an attentive concerned public. The military may be drifting away from our comprehension and control, but with time—and hope and determination—we Americans can reverse the trend. (less)

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Apr 02, 2012 Chris rated it 5 of 5 stars

I spent six years on active duty in the Air Force and I dealt with some of the material the author talks about towards the end of the book regarding America's nuclear program. I want to commend the author on her research, she is spot-on with the facts and gives IMO an accurate view of what is wrong and how to fix it.

The author does a very good job of showing how the military drifted to what it is now where civilians don't feel the burden of war because the President (all recent modern Presidents...more

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Jul 13, 2012 Jay Connor rated it 5 of 5 stars

What ever your position on the FOX – MSNBC political polarity spectrum, I think you would have to agree that Rachel Maddow is the only political talk show host who doesn’t just phone it in and settle back to let the pointy heads yell at each other.

A thorough and intelligent framing of the upcoming subject precedes every one of her interviews or segments. Yes, her slant is liberal and her wit is broad, but at least, she bases her opinions on something of substance approximating reality. I think...more

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Oct 04, 2012 Allison marked it as read-nonfiction · review of another edition

Shelves: read-2012, great

This book is really, really good, like in a read-aloud-and-discuss kind of way. I can't imagine the amount of research that went into writing it. Maddow lays out the history of the US military and how it has gotten to be such a force, an entity unto itself, gobbling up money like a black hole consuming stars. I was particularly intrigued to learn about the Iran-Contra scandal, as I was too young at the time and don't remember much about it from any history classes. Maddow spells out exactly how...more

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May 14, 2012 Thomas rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: politics, military, war

This is a great book, by a liberal from a military family. Throughout, Maddow treats the military with the respect it is due, but calls out numerous politicians and power-players at the top (including many military commanders) who have misused military power and managed it badly -- with the result that American soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines get the short end of the stick, and no appreciable societal benefit of the post-WWII style is provided. A book about a sad and infuriating phenomenon...more This is a great book, by a liberal from a military family. Throughout, Maddow treats the military with the respect it is due, but calls out numerous politicians and power-players at the top (including many military commanders) who have misused military power and managed it badly -- with the result that American soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines get the short end of the stick, and no appreciable societal benefit of the post-WWII style is provided. A book about a sad and infuriating phenomenon engendered by a bureaucracy of cynical political opportunists who don't give a damn about fighting men and women.

I gave it four stars instead of five because I feel she glossed over the GWB years slightly....probably wanting to avoid opening up that can of worms, since she's pretty much known for being their arch enemy.

My guess is that she felt her point had been made about those years and their misuse of military power. But it troubled me to not hit hard on these years, given the grotesque misappropriation of military resources, with great cost in American lives -- and the fact that, as far as I can tell, the underlying motive that caused all the privatization that so doomed the nation-building efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq appears to have been a hatred of the American system on the part of Cheney and Rumsfeld -- that is to say, a Friedman-influenced desire to "drown government in a bathtub." As in, the FEDERAL government. As in, THE AMERICAN GOVERNMENT. In any other country, that sentiment would be regarded as treason -- what other definition for "treason" does one need than the actual destruction of the American system? -- but in this country, its true believers were given free reign to form a government that got to send a bunch of Americans off to die for no earthly reason than to further their profit motives, and with no ultimate long-term geopolitical effect, I suspect, other than to essentially hand over influence in the Levant, Iraq, North Africa and possibly the Gulf to such far-more-enlightened motherfuckers as Shiite Iran and its proxy Hezbollah, radical Sunni fundamentalists, and (in business terms) China. "What's a Sunni? What's a Shiite?" Cheney has been said to have asked, probably sarcastically. Whether that's true or not, I think Maddow missed low-hanging fruit by not pointing out how fantastically ineffective the geopolitics of the GWB administration has been in furthering American dominance.

Whether or not Maddow or I are in favor of American dominance, the Bush administration bungled that move so badly that it achieved just the opposite. I believe that makes the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan the most disastrous American military operations of all time, by a huge margin.

In the interest of full disclosure, I'm an internationalist (though not a globalist) and a Democrat, albeit a far more liberal one than most other Democrats. I'm not a huge fan of unbridled American hegemony. I'm also a policy hawk -- I think an extremely strong American military, used properly, is the best bet the world has to see the influence of democracy, small d, increase over the next 100 years.

Unfortunately, under (to some extent) Clinton and (far more obviously) under Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld, American hegemony was not furthered, but fumbled -- in a way that will result in far more destructive forces taking far more power. This isn't the wretched of the earth taking their rightful power. These are corrupt and dangerous fascists getting free reign to fuck up the developing world far more than the Western powers have managed to fuck it up already -- which is saying something.

By squandering American prestige, influence, and money, by managing the wars so badly that they were inevitably lost in the long run, by telling the rest of the world to go to hell, and showing widespread incompetence, the Bush administration managed to divvy that growing hegemony up between to Russia, China, India, to some extent Europe, and far less stable countries like Pakistan and Iran.

"Unmooring" indeed. Maddow should have addressed those events in this book more than she did.

For what it's worth, however, even if they're not extensive enough for my taste, her arguments that the Bush-era military privatization has been a complete disaster are spot-on. The long-term geopolitical strategic situation in the Gulf and Central and Southern Asia is not really what Maddow was addressing, so, hey, it's cool.

On every other level, I found this a great book. Maddow has a particular political bent; I'm not about to pretend she doesn't. It tends to be pretty close to my own political bent, as well. However, the difference between Maddow and conservative writers is that she backs her claims up with specific facts. I feel that she's done that here, quite effectively. And any objective reading of this book should leave anyone who loves America (or people in general) horrified at just how royally the U.S. military has been left at the mercy of business interest and of politicians who are ill-equipped to dictate political or military affairs.(less)

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Jun 10, 2012 Dan rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: library

"Drift" is not what some might expect; this is no kumbya-ish "Peace Good, War Bad" diatribe. This book is far more nuanced than that. Maddow accepts that war is sometimes necessary. But, a variety of trends have eliminated or reduced the historic factors that have made war a difficult choice. We've now been at war for more than a decade and most of society hasn't been impacted at all. The exceptions, of course, are those in the military, guard, and reserves and their families, for whom she maint...more

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Dec 28, 2012 Nick rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: history

Christ, this is a scary book. Completely undermined any vaguely remaining respect I had for Reagan along the way to a very clear description of how we wound up with the largest military and military budget in the world. It lays out exactly how we got into the mess that we're currently in, both in terms of our massive, unwieldy, and unsustainable military as well as our massive, unwieldy, and unsustainable deficit. But my God, how are we going to dig ourselves out? It's all well and good to say t...more

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Mar 14, 2013 Judith rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Rachel brings us a clear, well-documented account of how our military has expanded and changed since WWII. She takes us from the entry into Vietnam, through Johnson's and Reagan's presidencies, and on through to Iraq, Pakistan, and beyond. She shows us how each step was taken that led to where we are now. And where are we?

A president can wage war now without bothering the rest of us. Fewer than 1% of US citizens are in the military, and as a rule we tend not to care about modern-day mercenaries:...more Rachel brings us a clear, well-documented account of how our military has expanded and changed since WWII. She takes us from the entry into Vietnam, through Johnson's and Reagan's presidencies, and on through to Iraq, Pakistan, and beyond. She shows us how each step was taken that led to where we are now. And where are we?

A president can wage war now without bothering the rest of us. Fewer than 1% of US citizens are in the military, and as a rule we tend not to care about modern-day mercenaries: the employees of Brown, Kellogg, & Root, Halliburton, and Blackwater by whatever its current name is. At this time the private companies are putting more boots on the ground than is the US military. Because of sloppy or nonexistent oversight, these companies are costing us far more than just the cost overruns: they have wiped out our image in many companies, where they behave as ungovernable bullies - and in fact they are.

The privatization of war has consequences beyond even this, however. We can spend our way into and out of wars and keep going on about our business. We see no difference in our day to day lives. We don't pay for these wars in sacrifice or any other way. And therefore we have become numb to what they really are.

Years ago I remember reading an economics textbook. I remember little of it, but I remember this point: you can't have a successful economy manufacturing destruction. You have to build, not destroy. It is hard for any of us "regular folks" to comprehend the deficit we've created by waging these wars, and even harder to comprehend that payment will have to be made. In fact, it appears that collection has started. Our economy has been in the tank for a while now. It isn't just because of inflated housing.

I don't read many "political" books. I'm not a political junkie, although like many I hold strong views. This may be why I personally like Rachel so much. She does the work! And she explains it really really well. She rarely gets it wrong because she's passionate about facts. I came away from this book understanding how our constitution got to be irrelevant, how our standing army gradually and then exponentially increased, how we started farming out the work, even how we built up our nuclear arsenal, and even after the end of the cold war how we keep building it.

At the end Rachel offers us a checklist of what we need to do to get back on track. I believe that every member of congress and the president and his advisers all need to read this book and pay attention. I think it's possible that many of them are so caught up in day to day politics that they have lost the thread. It's here, it's clear, and we all need to pay attention.

I can't leave it there. Rachel brings to this tale all of her usual wit, which helps when we try to swallow. (less)

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Jan 05, 2013 Jason rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: history, journalism, politics

Sure, it's probably biased. Making a claim and deductively supporting it involves bias. It's unavoidable. And Maddow's claim, that the US executive branch has essentially subverted the Constitution and the ideas of the founding fathers in its evolution toward a secret, unaccountable military disconnected from the government and the public, is awfully damning. Although Drift is occasionally funny, the feeling it leaves with the reader is outrage.

Maddow slays some sacred cows in this book. You co...more Sure, it's probably biased. Making a claim and deductively supporting it involves bias. It's unavoidable. And Maddow's claim, that the US executive branch has essentially subverted the Constitution and the ideas of the founding fathers in its evolution toward a secret, unaccountable military disconnected from the government and the public, is awfully damning. Although Drift is occasionally funny, the feeling it leaves with the reader is outrage.

Maddow slays some sacred cows in this book. You could argue that it's an extended hit piece on Reagan, but if Maddow's claims are to be believed he deserved impeachment and possible prosecution for his unconstitutional forays into Nicaragua and the Middle East, essentially The Iran Contra Affair. On the other hand, she paints other conservatives such as Colin Powell and George H.W. Bush in a mostly favorable light and condemns liberals like Lyndon Johnson, Bill Clinton and even Barack Obama for continuing to exert military oversight that is not only not given to them by the Constitution but expressly, intentionally denied from them by the founding fathers. Unsurprisingly, the villain who lurks in the shadows throughout much of the book is former senator/former secretary of defense/former military contractor CEO/former vice president Dick Cheney. She even dedicates the book to him.

In fairness, I searched for decent rebuttals to her claims online. I mostly found ad hominem attacks on Maddow herself: she's a liberal, she's a lesbian, etc. Truthfully, she's also a former Rhodes scholar and holds a doctorate in politics from Oxford--hardly the liberal equivalent of a Beck or Limbaugh. One criticism correctly asserted that she seems to ignore everything that happened between 1776 and 1967, which is true enough but hardly worth discounting her entire claim.

Drift is definitely worth checking out for some perspective on how we ended up in a country that wages long drawn-out wars which drain the budget while simultaneously complaining about spending money on comparatively less expensive social problems and waging secret CIA sponsored wars with remote controlled drones. You may not like the answers though.(less)

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May 04, 2012 Donna rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: all voters

Shelves: nonfiction

I'm pretty much a pacifist, but as a good citizen I believe everyone needs to know something about the US military. Rachel Maddow's book takes you through -- step-by-step, war-by-war -- all of the decisions made since the end of the Vietnam War. The topics include the War Powers Act, the Abrams Doctrine, the volunteer Army and use of the Guard and Reserves, the invasion of Grenada, the Iran-Contra Affair, the Balkans involvement, Iraq War I, the use of private contractors, the Afghan War, Iraq W...more

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Jul 26, 2012 Paul Gleason rated it 5 of 5 stars

Rachel Maddow is a brilliant, insightful, and passionate public intellectual. There's a paucity of people like her in the US today, and Drift should be applauded.

Maddow doesn't really offer anything new here in terms of her political analysis. If you've been thinking critically about US history from the beginning of the Cold War to the present day, you won't find much new information in Drift.

But providing new information isn't Maddow's gist. Her impetus is to analyze well-known historical facts...more Rachel Maddow is a brilliant, insightful, and passionate public intellectual. There's a paucity of people like her in the US today, and Drift should be applauded.

Maddow doesn't really offer anything new here in terms of her political analysis. If you've been thinking critically about US history from the beginning of the Cold War to the present day, you won't find much new information in Drift.

But providing new information isn't Maddow's gist. Her impetus is to analyze well-known historical facts in an attempt to show, in foreign policy at least, the ways in which US history drifts toward the Right, no matter which corporate-sponsored, major-party president currently has his butt in the desk chair of the Oval Office. She carries through her analysis in an engaging, funny, and entertaining way. She's a great teacher.

Maddow's thesis is that the US has drifted toward the Right (she never comes out and uses the word "fascist," but she has every right to) because the Congress has begun to cede power to the President in the declaration and, when it comes to the President's corporate backers, the maintenance of war. In addition, she argues that the Abrams Act of the 1960s and the use of the draft made sure that the US people knew that there was a very real price of human lives (read: US deaths) in the waging of war.

Now, under Presidents Bush and Obama, war has become a state of life for the US people - something that we expect and don't really notice that much anymore. This is because in assuming dictatorial (fascist?) power in declaring and waging war, the President doesn't engage Congress (the people's body in any good old fashioned democracy) in conversation. He just goes ahead and does whatever he wants. And Congress is more than willing to play along, most likely because its members have the same corporate backers as the President.

"Leftist" supporters of President Obama should read this book to learn how, in terms of foreign policy at least, he's on the same page as his predecessor, the man they love to hate. I'm no supporter of either Bush or Obama, and I'm a died-in-the-wool pacifist, so please realize that you're reading the remarks of someone, like Maddow, who is willing to analyze objectively and critically the RECORDS of both men.

One final note. Maddow doesn't just complain about the US's drift to the Right. She actually proposes at the end of Drift solutions to the problem. Drift isn't an ironic book or a book that simply bitches about what's wrong with the way US Federal politicians treat the rest of the world and US citizens. Rather, it's an unabashed cry for reason and, dare I say, peace in our time.

Rachel Maddow should be applauded for her book and for being so gutsy and courageous. I wish that there were more US citizens like her.(less)

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Apr 26, 2012 Dan rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: audio-book, read-in-2012

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 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 in...more

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Apr 11, 2013 Roopa rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: india-2013-april

Loved this book. Love the way Rachel Maddow writes, bringing great clarity, research, and humor to all of her points. Reading this was one of the best things I've done for my (admittedly weak) basis in American history and government, as it relates to war. Each story was colorful and well researched, and the concluding "to-do" list makes a great deal of sense. Additionally, you can read this and believe Maddow has truly worked for this to be an unbiased portrayal of all parties involved.

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Jan 14, 2013 Joel rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book is amazing. Maddow writes with both wit and clarity about the complex and seemingly perpetual state of American in involvement in overseas conflicts. Supportive of the troops, suspicious of the Generals, and antagonistic of politicians of all stripes, this book is a highly recommended read if you have an interest in US defense policy.

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Feb 12, 2013 Nitya Sivasubramanian rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 4star

Reading this helped me realize exactly how much history I don't really understand as well as I should. It also helped me shore up some of the arguments I've been making for years without being able to quote my proof. Added recommendation for this book? My husband actually got so involved that he made a trip to the library to renew it for himself, an act unmatched in all our years together!

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Jul 30, 2012 David rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The basic premise for Drift is that the executive branch and legislative branch have found, over the last 20 years, how to create War without upsetting Americans. Maddow claims that much of the support structure for modern War efforts has been built into the National Guard and private contractors, thereby avoiding the need to annoy the electorate. I don’t know if Maddow is right or wrong about this argument, but I do know that she had a lot of fun picking on every military leader over the last 2...more

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Aug 29, 2012 Diane Dean rated it 5 of 5 stars

Totally Awesome!

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Apr 08, 2013 Dee Sciaraffa rated it 4 of 5 stars

Some time ago I became seriously repulsed by our military involvement in the Military East. It occurred to me that war was omnipresent throughout my lifetime and when I counted them starting with WW II I realized there were 12. Adding the others starting with the Revolutionary War led me to label America as warmonger. I began a search for the reasons (or lack thereof) why our country seemingly has always been at war. Remarkably "Drift" appeared on bookshelves. It arrived just when I needed it an...more

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Mar 25, 2013 Jesse rated it 4 of 5 stars

Isn’t it great when you come away from a painless read and you really feel like you’ve learned something too? That’s exactly the take away feeling I got from Rachel Maddow’s Drift.
Now it’s true that I unreservedly adore Rachel Maddow. I consider her to be “the Muhammad Ali of journalistic debate”. With that confession, with that instance of full disclosure, I write to sing the praises of what I believe is her first and only commercial publication.
Her trademark intellect is present in every l...more

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Mar 16, 2013 John Beck rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: reviewed, top-shelf, non-fiction

http://www.andalittlewine.blogspot.com/2012/08/drift-by-rachel-maddow-book-revie...

I don't write about politics much here, but Rachel Maddow's brilliant Drift demands that I do.

America is in a weird place in regards to its military right now, and Maddow makes a compelling case that our historical moment is unique and the unintended consequence of a series of well intended decisions.

We have an all volunteer force, a political necessity as part of the post-Vietnam reaction to the draft. But part o...more http://www.andalittlewine.blogspot.com/2012/08/drift-by-rachel-maddow-book-revie...

I don't write about politics much here, but Rachel Maddow's brilliant Drift demands that I do.

America is in a weird place in regards to its military right now, and Maddow makes a compelling case that our historical moment is unique and the unintended consequence of a series of well intended decisions.

We have an all volunteer force, a political necessity as part of the post-Vietnam reaction to the draft. But part of the reason that Vietnam War dragged on was because the draft, at that point, had been watered down with exemptions. By allowing so many young men out of military service, we lessened the war's impact at home.

We've continued this trend in the years since: outsourcing security details to mercenaries like Blackwater, issuing stop-loss assignments for members of the National Guard, and acting at home (from a policy perspective) as though we're not at war abroad.

Maddow's historical analysis is cogent and concise, and it is immensely readable. This is not beach reading, but it feels lighter than its roughly 270 pages plus endnotes.

Where things get scary is when she looks to the future and begins to ask, what next? She (relatively) calmly looks at some of the near misses (and quiet misses) our nuclear program has suffered in the last decade. It makes me wonder if we have the moral and political courage to save the world from the military machine we built over the last century.

The thing I wish she had done more of was detailing how to fix the state of American military readiness. Yes, we need to get back to the attitudes and approaches that guided us from the American Revolution to the Korean War. But how?

I'm in favor of a program like this: a two-year, mandatory service that allows the conscripts to choose between active military duty, support roles, and AmeriCorp-style homefront projects. Not only might it help rebuild civic pride while reducing military costs (as anyone who has played a Civ style video game can tell you, mercenaries are expensive), it would put a chunk of the American work force, you know, to work. Novel idea indeed.(less)

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Feb 08, 2013 Ralph Hermansen rated it 5 of 5 stars

I feel like I know the author pretty well although she has no idea who I am. She is almost always a weekday guest in my family room in that I usually watch her one-hour show on MSNBC. Rachel is an extraordinarily competent investigative reporter. I learn things from her show long before the other shows seem to catch on and she always does her homework very thoroughly. She was talking about her upcoming book long before it hit the book stands and she seemed to be pretty proud of it.

If you are int...more I feel like I know the author pretty well although she has no idea who I am. She is almost always a weekday guest in my family room in that I usually watch her one-hour show on MSNBC. Rachel is an extraordinarily competent investigative reporter. I learn things from her show long before the other shows seem to catch on and she always does her homework very thoroughly. She was talking about her upcoming book long before it hit the book stands and she seemed to be pretty proud of it.

If you are interested in American history and like to follow politics, I am pretty sure that you will enjoy this book. Her theme is that the choice of going to war or not has shifted from an option for Congress into what is now mostly a presidential prerogative. Moreover, wars are no longer an activity which involves the sacrifice of the entire nation but have now become nearly invisible to the average citizen and require no sacrifice on his part. She works her way chronologically through the presidents and presents detailed evidence support her thesis.

I have a personal memory of the periods that she discusses and in many cases, she has information that I was never aware of. I remember when Saddam Hussein rolled his troops into Kuwait and declared it to be part of the Iraq. George Bush I was determined to expel the Iraqi invaders against a reluctant Armed Forces and a reluctant Congress. Rachel tells what was going on behind the scenes and how this was the beginning of a presidential takeover of U.S. war declaring power. I also remember the Reagan years, his bold strike at Libya, the farcical landing at Granada, and the Iran-Contra scandal. Quite beautifully, Rachel makes the story come to life and she reveals events I had no idea were going on. It is funny that the Republican Party has promoted Ronald Reagan's reign to a sacred period in their party's history. It is as if Ronald Reagan has been made into a Saint. Republicans reading Rachel's version of the Reagan era are either going to be very disenchanted or very angry with her.

She also covers Bill Clinton's efforts in the segmented Yugoslavia and the ethnic cleansing era. Most of us know the story of George Bush II's adventures in Iraq and the neoconservative policies vocally championed by Dick Cheney. Rachael covers this era very skillfully and continues her analysis of these wars into the Obama presidency. Her personal point of view is one of shock and dismay at the nation's drift to where one person can decide to take this nation to war and the former Congressional application of the brakes no longer seem to work. Finally, she lists actions that the country can take to correct this disastrous course.

I have to admit that she educated me on a historical topic that I thought I really knew well. Moreover, I can see that her argumentative points support her thesis and that in the future, we may regret that a future president has so much power. On the other hand, she has not convinced me to march around the White House with a picket sign. I think the president of the United States has a responsibility as a good world citizen as well as head of the most powerful country in the world. I can see the problem that she exposes, but I am not convinced that I would change the system along the lines that she advocates.

Toward the end of her book, Rachel exposes carelessness and incompetence in the maintenance and protection of our nuclear weapons. I had personally worked in this industry during the 1960s and had the feeling at that time, that we did everything imaginable to make sure nothing could go wrong with these very dangerous weapons. The screw ups, that Rachel mentions in her book, made me feel ill at ease.

Many people see the role of the United States in the world differently than I do. Therefore, each of you should read Rachel's book and see where you come out on the question that she so skillfully raises. These days we have to be informed on a range of topics, in order to be responsible citizens.

Ralph Hermansen, May 2, 2012 (less)

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Feb 04, 2013 Alph rated it 5 of 5 stars

If you can establish the calibre of a person by the inanity, pettiness and stupidity of their critics then Rachel Maddow is top shelf, high gauge and first rate. And I have to confess it was the venom, vitriol and bile that accompanied comments regarding Drift: The Unmooring of American Military Power that prompted me to read it. I wasn’t disappointed.

It’s no secret that Maddow leans left but this book is a fair an equitable treatment. No one escapes scrutiny here....she doesn't shirk from expo...more If you can establish the calibre of a person by the inanity, pettiness and stupidity of their critics then Rachel Maddow is top shelf, high gauge and first rate. And I have to confess it was the venom, vitriol and bile that accompanied comments regarding Drift: The Unmooring of American Military Power that prompted me to read it. I wasn’t disappointed.

It’s no secret that Maddow leans left but this book is a fair an equitable treatment. No one escapes scrutiny here....she doesn't shirk from exposing Johnson, Clinton and Obama right along with Nixon, Ford, Reagan, Bush 1, Bush 2 and Cheney.

Drift is astute, intelligent and meticulously researched. This is an important book about how apathy and ignorance of the clandestine machinations of US wars is shrinking our democracy and our freedoms, undermining our Constitution and pretty much making us an Evil Empire on par with the Death Star and the helmeted storm troopers from the Dark Side in Star Wars. It is written by someone who has not only read the Constitution but has studied it and who has not only studied it but understands it. This is as good as investigative writing gets. It's not an hysterical rant from some paranoid ideologue or a mudslinging diatribe from a partisan hack. Maddow delves into issues crucial to our nation and exposes some very scary stuff.

Drift conjures up the old bayou folk analogy of how to cook a frog. You put it cold water and gradually turn up the heat until it’s blissfully unaware of the fact that it’s being boiled alive. And so it is with America’s involvement in war. I suppose it doesn’t even occur to us now that a war going on as long as ten years is unusual...until we stop and have a look at the wars before Vietnam.

World War 2 lasted barely four years and we fought it on two fronts. But we were all involved then. Women worked in the factories, and many who missed the draft, joined up. People willingly sacrificed and went without for the war effort. Gas and other commodities were rationed and few complained. Imagine that happening now days? We have fallen from grace since the Greatest Generation, the nobel war to squash Fascism and the establishment of the Marshall Plan. We’ve been in free fall since Vietnam and unless we do something about it we will hit bottom and splatter in the rotting ooze of our own mess.

An image from the book haunts me as a metaphor for the rampant greed, selfishness and immorality of the private sectors role in our wars....

See this helicopter mechanic provided by the Corporate Private Sector when our troops were in Bosnia. He weighs over 400 pounds and the pocket of his overalls is stuffed with a cheeseburger. He is so incompetent that at he falls asleep regularly while on the job. On one such occasion he falls asleep with a blow torch in his hand and burns a hole through the shell of a helicopter. While in Serbia he purchases a sex slave from the Serbian mafia. She’s a fourteen year old child. He loves to brag about his possession to any that will listen. If the child doesn’t behave, do what he wants her to, why hell, he’ll just trade her in on another. Fat Boy wasn’t alone. The Serbian mafia had a lucrative market with American civilians employed by the private sector.

Welcome to a whole new level of Ugly American.

This is our image. This is what we’ve become. This is the growing stench we carry as Americans.

Drift is a stone thrown in the still waters of a pond. Once read the ripples keep on coming. Let’s hope this book gets the readership it deserves and let’s hope those readers are as moved and as angry as I am. And that we are moved to do something about senseless wars we wage at the expense of our education system, our health system and our society and to the benefit of those private contractors who have become the only winners regardless whether America wins or loses.

The Evil Empire has emerged and it is us.

(less)

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Jan 08, 2013 Lydia Lee rated it 5 of 5 stars

Drift: The Unmooring of American Military Power is a disturbing review of America's shifting position from personable wartime sentiment to 'What(?) War? So what's new?' Witty and incredulous, Rachel Maddow paints a picture of American politicians and civilians in complete war-disconnect. What was once a heavily debated, nationwide decision to go to battle, is now a boring sideline in a sea of, well.. other things.

Maddow chronicles war efforts from Vietnam to the War on Terrorism, revealing each...more Drift: The Unmooring of American Military Power is a disturbing review of America's shifting position from personable wartime sentiment to 'What(?) War? So what's new?' Witty and incredulous, Rachel Maddow paints a picture of American politicians and civilians in complete war-disconnect. What was once a heavily debated, nationwide decision to go to battle, is now a boring sideline in a sea of, well.. other things.

Maddow chronicles war efforts from Vietnam to the War on Terrorism, revealing each president's strengths and weaknesses, and showing slowly how the Constitution has been irreverently disregarded along the way.

With chapter titles like Stupid Regulations and Doing More with Less (Hassle), Maddow pulls no punches; getting right to the ridiculous heart of the warmongering matter. She walks us through highly secretive politics generated by paranoid and unqualified 'Yes Men' during the Cold War. She quotes the founding fathers about the danger of one man being able to declare war, and notes Congress' efforts to take that sole power from the president's hands. By the time she talks about the horrifying business of privatization and outsourcing, our constant military presence all over the world, and the number of nuclear weapon "Whoopsie's!" since the 1960s--not to mention the number of nuclear warheads no one knows how to dismantle or maintain properly--you are left with a very complete, unsettling picture of just how in-the-dark and lazy our collective conscience has become.

"Civilian life has rolled on virtually uninterrupted. If you're not in a military family, you've barely even felt it. The country has perfected the art of frictionless war. America's war thrums away like Muzak in the background here in the United States, kind of annoying when you tune in, but easy enough to tune out. Three years? Five? Ten? What's the difference? And where are we fighting, anyway? We're shooting missiles into Pakistan all the time. Does that count? Are we allowed to know?"

Pulling from presidential and military autobiographies, interviews, historical documents, years of personal experience and her own conversations as a political commentator, Maddow unveils a history of unchecked power, a void of unaccountability, unconstitutional and highly illegal presidential behavior, and our sad indifference to political affairs.(less)

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Dec 08, 2012 Unwisely rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012, non-fiction, kept-me-up-too-late

I consider myself a patriotic American, which doesn't mean I subscribe to the jingoistic BS lately touted as the only way to be patriotic. I am kind of a hippie peacenik, but I have military in my family, dated military, and have worked on bases off and on throughout my career. I care deeply about the course the military takes - for personal reasons, because I'm a taxpayer, and because I'm an American. I have observed a lot of worrisome trends even in the time I've been paying attention - my per...more

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Dec 05, 2012 Mandy rated it 3 of 5 stars

"It's not something you 'have to read.' Why do you want to read it?" I was asked. "It's by a talk show host."

But on the left, Rachel Maddow is one of the few prominent people talking about our security and political decisions to go to war that don't fall asleep humming "Don't stop dreaming about tomorrow." She provides a highly readable, modern take on how seemingly small political decisions in Congress about the nature and structure of military forces create significant impacts for politicians...more

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Nov 30, 2012 David Rush rated it 3 of 5 stars

A book about America drifting toward continual military engagement.

A good book but in telling the tale it meanders around in a somewhat anecdotal fashion.

First there was the founding father's intention to make war something difficult to pursue, especially by the president. But as time marches on the country grows accustomed to war to the point that the state of war becomes a habit.

Except it was actually pulled back after the Vietnam war with the War Powers acts restricting presidential use of fo...more

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Nov 03, 2012 Sean Watson rated it 5 of 5 stars

The insanity of the modern U.S. military apparatus - Frightening and impressively researched book. It is non partisan, and you’ll even find Maddow embracing conservative ideals. Want to cut the deficit? Hate big government? She rails into both parties for how they NEVER eliminate anything from the military budget even if it’s no longer needed. I was shocked when she pointed out that Obama INCREASED spending on nuclear weapons after agreeing with Russia to reduce our combined nuclear arsenals. Th...more The insanity of the modern U.S. military apparatus - Frightening and impressively researched book. It is non partisan, and you’ll even find Maddow embracing conservative ideals. Want to cut the deficit? Hate big government? She rails into both parties for how they NEVER eliminate anything from the military budget even if it’s no longer needed. I was shocked when she pointed out that Obama INCREASED spending on nuclear weapons after agreeing with Russia to reduce our combined nuclear arsenals. The first part of the book is history where she outlines how difficult the framers of the Constitution made it for the U.S. to go to war. The President was handcuffed and couldn’t do it without authorization from Congress. Reagan was the first president who took the amazing view that he didn’t need permission from Congress. His own party denied him permission to engage in several Central American conflicts, so he tried to do it secretly and got caught, but paid no price. On the contrary, he’s celebrated as a Republican hero today. Unfortunately, he started us on a 'drift' to where this has become commonplace. NONE of the presidents since Reagan, Republican or Democrat, have sought Congressional authorization, not even if deploying our entire military, Obama bombing Libya being just the latest example. Worse, foreign war is now the norm in America, and it takes place without public knowledge, inconvenience, debate, or concern. Private armies employ child sex slaves, completely without accountability or fear of punishment, and operate with complete military incompetence. Soldiers die, and their deaths remain hidden, unacknowledged by the public. Congress appears almost happy to have given up the responsibility of having to authorize war. Maddow unearths terrifying research that describes how America’s nuclear arsenal is rusting away, covered with mold, and we don’t have anyone leftover from the Cold War familiar with them. She reveals that we’ve lost numerous nukes, some on our own soil, some around the globe. One is in a swamp in North Carolina; another sank through Antarctic ice and to the bottom of the sea. Both remain there today! We’ve had pilots unknowingly mistake nuclear missiles, pick them up, and fly them over population centers before leaving them unguarded on an airport tarmac. Sheer madness and nobody is doing anything about it. One accidentally dropped on American soil had five of its six safety fuses fail or we’d have very different history books today. The book ends with her laying out solutions for each of the problems she has unearthed. Unfortunately, like modern warfare in America today, all these problems remain out of sight and out of mind to both our government and the populace it’s supposed to be protecting.(less)

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About Rachel Maddow

Rachel Anne Maddow is an American radio personality, television host, and political commentator. Her syndicated talk radio program, The Rachel Maddow Show, aired on Air America Radio. Maddow hosts a nightly television show, The Rachel Maddow Show, on MSNBC. She was a guest host of Countdown with Keith Olbermann and Race for the White House. Maddow is the first openly gay anchor to be hired to host...more

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“The reason the founders chafed at the idea of an American standing army and vested the power of war making in the cumbersome legislature was not to disadvantage us against future enemies, but to disincline us toward war as a general matter... 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. But after a generation or two of shedding the deliberate political encumbrances to war that they left us... war making has become almost an autonomous function of the American state. It never stops.” — 6 people liked it

“The artificial primacy of defense among our national priorities is a constant unearned windfall for some, but it's privation for the rest of America; it steals from what we could be and can do. In Econ 101, they teach that the big-picture fight over national priorities is guns versus butter. Now it's butter versus margarine—guns get a pass.

Overall, we're weaker for it, and at enormous cost.” — 5 people liked it

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