"Tough-minded, bracing, and intelligent . . . the country is lucky to have a fierce, smart peacemonger like Bacevich."—The New York Tim... read full description
reviews
Jan 26, 2011
Naeem
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The main contribution of this book is the continuity that Bacevich shows in US foreign policy from Eisenhower to Obama, from Vietnam to Afghanistan, from Westmorland to Petraeus. The "Washington Rules" are designed to police the world regardless of which party is in power or which president is in the white house. This is what he wants us to see.
Bacevich is a former colonel turned academic. His interpretations of various generals, various policies, and various wars have t More...
Bacevich is a former colonel turned academic. His interpretations of various generals, various policies, and various wars have t More...
Nov 02, 2011
Joe
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In nineteen-thirty-nine a war broke out that effected the entirety of the human race. America entered this war two years later, in nineteen-forty-one. This war, with it’s world-wide battleground, became known as World War Two. In ‘Washington Rules’ by Andrew Bacevich, America’s global policy is described in a straightforward manner. After WWII, America had just felt a real victory. It had come out as the leading military power of the day, and it sure wanted to stay that way. Bacevich follows th
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May 02, 2011
Jeremy
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A very good aggressive critique of the foreign policy norms of American politics. Bacevich writes extraordinarily well about how America has evolved from a Republic in which a standing army and navy were anathema to most leaders and the public to a nation that casually tolerates lengthy wars and constant interventions abroad, along with a military budget larger than the rest of the world's. There are holes in his logic--he is so busy arguing that America is on the wrong path that he largely fa
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Mar 26, 2011
John
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Both historical and polemical, the book focuses on U.S. national security policy, which, no matter the president, has remained fundamentally unchanged since the end of WWII. The book argues that our policy was and is: 1) a worldwide military presence; 2) armed forces configured not for defense but for global power projection; and 3) a tendency for overt or covert interventionism in the affairs of other countries. (The current incursion into Libya is a good example of the policy in practice.)
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Feb 25, 2011
Bennet
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Heads up. The war in Iraq has officially ended but The Long War has not. Iraq and Afghanistan are but two fronts in an ever-expanding military campaign.
From page 193: "'Our conflicts tend to be timeless,'" Gen. Sir Rupert Smith wrote in his book The Utility of Force, "'even endless.' Sir Rupert thereby put his finger on one key element of the gradually emerging conventional wisdom in the U.S. military: An officer corps that had once resolved to avoid protracted war at More...
From page 193: "'Our conflicts tend to be timeless,'" Gen. Sir Rupert Smith wrote in his book The Utility of Force, "'even endless.' Sir Rupert thereby put his finger on one key element of the gradually emerging conventional wisdom in the U.S. military: An officer corps that had once resolved to avoid protracted war at More...
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Nov 07, 2010
Bruce
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This is rather a companion piece to William Pfaff’s recent book, The Irony of Manifest Destiny, both works providing incisive and devastating critiques of America’s current foreign policy and blindness to more constructive alternatives to our current futile and destructive course. Bacevich’s book is clearer and more lucid but less carefully argued and nuanced in its argument. Both cannot but depress the concerned reader and citizen. Neither leaves one with much cause for optimism or hope for
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Oct 31, 2010
Randy
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Andrew Bacevich has paid his dues to the flag as a West Point graduate, career army officer and father of a son killed in Iraq. He writes books critical of American foreign policy, in this case a set of "Washington Rules" which dictate the creepy way that we behave around the world which has been consistent since the end of WWII and has been supported by all Presidents from Harry Truman to Barrack Obama.
Here are the Washington Rules:
1. The world must be organized (shaped) o More...
Here are the Washington Rules:
1. The world must be organized (shaped) o More...
Sep 24, 2010
Matt
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I just finished reading Bacevich’s latest book, entitled “Washington Rules: American’s Path to Permanent War.” As always, Bacevich delivers a concise read that is informative and inspiring.
This book opens with Bacevich discussing his own “turning point” in his understanding about America and its involvement with the world in the last 50-60 years. He briefly describes a long walk he took with some fellow soldiers in East Germany after the collapse of the Berlin Wall in the early 1990s. More...
This book opens with Bacevich discussing his own “turning point” in his understanding about America and its involvement with the world in the last 50-60 years. He briefly describes a long walk he took with some fellow soldiers in East Germany after the collapse of the Berlin Wall in the early 1990s. More...
Mar 04, 2011
Tiffoknee the 3rd
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In the parallel universe in which I am president, Dr. Bacevich would be in my cabinet as my Secretary of Peace and Common Sense Diplomacy. That's right. Because in my parallel universe there would be no more Department of Defense, and I am confident that with the aid of a learned man like Dr. Bacevich at my side I would find success.
This is a concise criticism of the military-industrial complex. As Mr. Bacevich himself says, and I am grossly paraphrasing and doing an injustice to More...
This is a concise criticism of the military-industrial complex. As Mr. Bacevich himself says, and I am grossly paraphrasing and doing an injustice to More...
Aug 22, 2010
Marcus
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An expose of the Military Complex that President Eisenhower warned America about. This is a serious book that is well documented and written by a form Colonel of the US Army. It should be required for all high school students.
The book is part history, part political and part economic. I particularly enjoyed the historical section where Bacevich discusses the creation of Strategic Air Command and the CIA. He explains how they grew out the end of World War II and during the cold wa More...
The book is part history, part political and part economic. I particularly enjoyed the historical section where Bacevich discusses the creation of Strategic Air Command and the CIA. He explains how they grew out the end of World War II and during the cold wa More...
Sep 14, 2010
Phil
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This is a fine overview, from a knowledgeable ex-Army colonel &
professor, of where the U.S. has chosen to go since 1945 -- 65 years of striving for global power.
And now we are indeed the hegemon -- but broke; & tremendously resistent to the deep turns required for self-correction.
For us liberals, Bacevich presents some of the attitudes we might brush off as "std. conservative take" -- & argues persuasively that they are not partisan (though perh More...
professor, of where the U.S. has chosen to go since 1945 -- 65 years of striving for global power.
And now we are indeed the hegemon -- but broke; & tremendously resistent to the deep turns required for self-correction.
For us liberals, Bacevich presents some of the attitudes we might brush off as "std. conservative take" -- & argues persuasively that they are not partisan (though perh More...
Oct 20, 2010
Ronspross
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The author is one of my favorite conservative thinkers (other people in that list include Mickey Edwards and Andrew Sullivan). He is a retired military man, has several other books on politics and the military. He lost his son a few years ago in Iraq. This book makes the (very compelling) case that America has been overcome by exactly what Dwight Eisenhower warned us against, the military/industrial complex. There are no mainstream Republicans and only a hand full of Democrats who come close
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Aug 31, 2010
Michael
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<Open Your Eyes. What is the basis for the kind of life you have? What is the purpose for the next war, the next violent intervention overseas?> I started an article on salon.com and bought the book. Here's the essence and usable message that I get so far. As the billions that the US has to squander abroad dry up, it's an opportune time to get a concept of how like an empire the United States has operated since - say the presidency of Teddy Roosevelt. If the military industrial complex cea
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Dec 27, 2010
Bob
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The reality of the ruling elite of our country. They care only about making money. We are in a perpetual state of war. Ask yourself, really, what are we going to accomplish in Afghanistan? What did we accomplish in Iraq? No WMDs. But oil. But where are the profits we were supposed to get off that oil? No one speaks of that any more. We paid off the bad guys and they waited for us to leave. Unfortunately, the same won't be true in Afghanistan. Just more death and more profits for the war
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Dec 19, 2010
Richard
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Bacevich covers a second Washington Consensus, this one different from the Washington Consensus generally referred to when discussing economic policy. This book covers the underlying assumptions that have been a part of the National Security consensus since the Cold War and the various ways Washington elites of various stripes, referred to generally as "Washington" in the book, maintain these assumptions and ensure that they never get questioned in any serious way. The author argues th
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Sep 07, 2010
Lev
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A short, powerful book by a former military man arguing that the American establishment is so deeply invested in militarism and empire that it doesn't matter who the President is. That establishment is larger than the military-industrial complex Eisenhower warned against: it includes lobbyists, consultants, think tanks, the media. All of them follow the "Washington Rules" without question. A bracing, revelatory, passionate critique of the drift away from a Republic. Readers of Tim
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Oct 05, 2010
Lauren
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The title of this book is a bit more sensationalist than the book itself, which contains the sort of measured, even-keeled analysis that never fails to win me over (and is difficult to find in politics-related books anymore). This book goes beyond nonpartisan to be almost antipartisan: peaceniks and blood-thirsty hawks need not apply. Dr. Bacevich traces the shift in national security from World War II until the Bush Administration, and he is consistent in his analysis, drawing themes through th
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Sep 08, 2010
Edie
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I had the author sign my copy to the students at St. Albans because I think this is a VERY important book. The author, a West Point grad and retired military strongly states that America cannot be the policeman of the world, that we need to lead by example rather than brute force (as he says, we've been in Afghanistan for 9 years and are they better off now than they were before?). He talks about the importance of cultivating our garden at home and the arrogance that has grown from an all volu
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Jan 26, 2011
Terri
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Challenging to me. I struggle to understand the military's understanding of peace and how the nuclear arsenal could be part of that. When I read of our plans to obliterate the people of the previous USSR I can't help but wonder how we've become so lost as a people. What's even more disturbing is the disconnect of somehow believing that killing millions could ever bring peace - violence will always breed violence. History is clear on this. It's time to move toward nonviolence, it's time for
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Jun 26, 2011
R.
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Bacevich's book is an attempt to synthesis a broad, clear picture of US foreign policy, and to answer a persistent but largely ignored question: why, in spite of all that has changed in the last 30 years, has nothing changed in Washington? Where is the "peace" we have been repeatedly promised by candidate after candidate and president after president? His thoughtful analysis comes from serious depth - he is both a scholar and a soldier - and should be read by anybody who cares about wh
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Oct 20, 2010
Wanda
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This book should be read by every U.S. citizen. In this short extended historical essay cum reflection, Andrew Bacevich traces and assesses America's overreliance on military power from the administration of Woodrow Wilson to the present. He analyzes the folly of national and foreign policies that have led us into the business of confrontation, power projection, and war, time and time again. And he asks the devastating question: Why are we squandering U.S. wealth and future on armed misadventur
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Dec 04, 2011
Rob
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I'm in danger of becoming a serious Bacevich acolyte. There are few books I feel everyone needs to read. If you are Christian, sure probably a good idea to read the Holy Bible: King James Version. If you are Mormon, I'd imagine there should exist a certain amount of social pressure to read The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ. If you are an atheist, you need to at least be familiar with Dawkins, Hitchens, etc. If you give a crap about our country, this little book, along wi
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Jun 20, 2011
Lee
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My lengthy review just got axed by the server...
in short: 5 stars for the first and last chapter, which make for fantastic and essential reading for concerned Americans worried that Pres Eisenhower's prophecy has come all too true. In these chapters, Bacevich (retired Army colonel and now prof of international relations) outlines the origins of US foreign policy since WW2, how this policy has been destructive to American values, economies, and international prestige, and what citizen More...
in short: 5 stars for the first and last chapter, which make for fantastic and essential reading for concerned Americans worried that Pres Eisenhower's prophecy has come all too true. In these chapters, Bacevich (retired Army colonel and now prof of international relations) outlines the origins of US foreign policy since WW2, how this policy has been destructive to American values, economies, and international prestige, and what citizen More...
Nov 21, 2010
Gordon
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This is one of the most devastatingly effective critiques of the United States foreign policy and defense strategy that I have ever read. More remarkably still, it's written by a career Army officer, who retired in the early 1990's as a full colonel. Andrew Bacevich is clearly a man with many regrets about the system he worked for much of his career to support.
His doubts began in the early 1990’s when he toured East Germany shortly after the Wall came down. It quickly became clear th More...
His doubts began in the early 1990’s when he toured East Germany shortly after the Wall came down. It quickly became clear th More...
Nov 07, 2010
James
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Bacevich says he grew up only in middle age. At that time in his life, as an Army officer, he began to see that the conventional wisdom about America's military projection might not be entirely true. Apparently this revelation came about by being exposed to the reality of Soviet military preparedness. By seeing how weak they were relative to the U. S. and NATO, he began to think our strength and expenditures toward military development as unnecessary. His argument is that the feverish compet
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Nov 18, 2010
Kate
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An authoritative analysis and critique of the unquestioned assumptions that led us to war in Iraq and Afgahnistan. Is the United States uniquely equipped to lead the rest of the world to democracy? As a country, do we want to assume this role? Can we afford it, either financially or morally? Bacevich is a very well informed skeptic, at a time when skepticism is absolutely necessary.
Aug 18, 2010
a must read for any one interested in challenging the current political consensus. Bacevich lays out the history of the US national security policy: global military presence configured for power projection and the habit of interventionism. The author confirmed for me that our efforts to 'save' the world do nothing but keep the same folks in power and leave the rest of us scared witless.
Mar 22, 2011
Steve
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We ignore the lessons of history at our peril. I'm a Vietnam veteran and tried to learn all I could post the experience. Bacevich is right on the mark. Voices continue to press for war in Iran, deeper entanglement in Afghanistan or more engagement in Libya. We have been a permanent state of war for some time and apparently as far as the eye can see.
Oct 12, 2010
Linda
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Welcome to the new regime: same as the old regime. Following the trajectory of permanent warfare beginning with the end of Eisenhower's presidency, through the emergence of the semiwarrior, and the fusing of ideology to massive weapons acquisition, to today's standing professional army permanently boots-on-ground elsewhere, Bacevich marks the trail in a way even I can understand. It's depressing as hell to have this clarity. That Bacevich delivered the news well is a bonus and relief. That he of
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Jan 12, 2011
Jack
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Had this been the first of Col/Prof Bacevich's books I had read, I probably would have given it five stars. As the third of his that I have read, enough of it is included in the two previous works that I, personally, was not as impressed by this one. But that's me, not him.
