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Drift: The Unmooring of American Military Power

Rachel Maddow

4.07 · Rating details · 18,821 ratings · 2,111 reviews

"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 of Homeland Security; its rusting nuclear weapons, ill-maintained and difficult to dismantle; and its ...more

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288 pages

Published March 27th 2012 by Random House Audio

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Apr 15, 2012 Will Byrnes rated it really liked it

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

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 ...more

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Apr 05, 2012 Bill Kerwin rated it really liked it

I've been a big Rachel Maddow fan for more than twelve 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 often--particularly in the first quarter of her show--she lectures like a schoolmarm, but her intelligence is so p
I've been a big Rachel Maddow fan for more than twelve 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 often--particularly in the first quarter of her show--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. ...more

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Apr 01, 2012 Chris rated it it was amazing

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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Mar 29, 2012 Stephanie *Eff your feelings* rated it it was amazing

Shelves: politics, favorites, non-fiction, 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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Mar 26, 2017 Scott rated it really liked it

Shelves: non-fic

Are you too relaxed? Are you worryingly unworried, and sleeping far too easily? Do you labour under the belief that the checks and balances in the US system of government will prevent dangerous/idiotic presidents from invading countries willy-nilly and drone-striking you in retaliation for your critical facebook comments?

If this sounds like you, then Rachel Maddow's Drift: The Unmooring of American Military Power is the antidote to your serenity! Build a bunker, delete your social media accounts Are you too relaxed? Are you worryingly unworried, and sleeping far too easily? Do you labour under the belief that the checks and balances in the US system of government will prevent dangerous/idiotic presidents from invading countries willy-nilly and drone-striking you in retaliation for your critical facebook comments?

If this sounds like you, then Rachel Maddow's Drift: The Unmooring of American Military Power is the antidote to your serenity! Build a bunker, delete your social media accounts and prepare to lie awake at night - Maddow reveals how a system of government designed to prevent one person declaring war has largely failed, leaving decisions of life, death and international destruction in one (currently tiny) pair of hands.

Seriously though, this is some scary stuff, and Maddow tells her story well.

The founders of the US, and the authors of the Constitution, specifically designed the American system of government to avoid the concentration of war powers in the hands of the president. Congress was given the authority to declare war, forcing the executive branch of government to seek congressional approval before diving into conflicts. People like Thomas Jefferson were concerned that their new republic could get caught up in an unending spiral of war, with Americans dying at the whim of king-like presidents who used conflict as a political ploy to shore up their support. Hell, some of these guys fought against even having a standing army at all, and Jefferson himself cut the army by a third during his presidency.

As you have no doubt guessed this hasn't quite worked out as the founding fathers planned (hello Vietnam, Grenada, El Salvador, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Iraq again). Over many decades the checks and balances between the executive and the legislature have atrophied, and the US president today has near complete power to wage war, to send soldiers overseas and to order drone strikes anywhere in the world. Even worse, El Presidente can do so in near complete secrecy if he/she desires. Naturally, this power has been abused by leaders both Republican and Democratic.

Along the way to Imperial Presidency the military has become massively outsourced, allowing wars to be waged with minimal numbers of actual American soldiers (which makes it easier to sell to the public) and much more secretive. The CIA has also become massively more powerful, able to act in some senses as a secret military force that presidents can use and abuse with almost no oversight, even from Congress. On top of this, military spending, and near continual spending increases, has become near sacred, and it would be a brave government that dared to reverse this trajectory.

Maddow's book is engrossing, important and something that should appeal to die-hard constitutionalists and peaceniks alike, even though it's conclusions are pretty damn grim. Maddow paints a picture of a situation that would seem difficult, if not near impossible to reverse. The military has grown so large, and is so central to US policy, that it is beyond effective oversight. The US defence budget is so stupendously massive, employs so vast a number of people, is linked to so numerous a list of private companies that its complexity is almost impossible to grasp, and it is near impregnable to oversight or trimming. The President’s power has grown so large, and Congress has abdicated so many of its constitutional privileges, that challenging or changing the status quo would require a drawn out political fight that would no doubt damage both institutions.

I hope for the sake of the long suffering US taxpayer, for the sake of the long-suffering US soldier and for the sake of the rest of us here on earth who have to deal with the sometimes catastrophic missteps of the White House that the people of the USA are one day able to bring their president and their mighty military back under the sort of oversight that their founding fathers intended.

Postscript: Maddow also details the terrifying realities of the US’ decaying nuclear arsenal, and the vast costs associated with maintaining it. Her book is a good companion piece for Eric Schlosser's Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety. ...more

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Apr 03, 2012 Sineala rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, e-books

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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Apr 25, 2017 Michael Finocchiaro rated it really liked it

Shelves: non-fiction, history, american-21st-c

I discovered Rachel Maddow a little late because I live in France and I only learned about her on MSNBC with her stories that I follow about Drumpf&Co. Her book Drift about the change in US military policy is well-researched provides a lot of insight into how America modified executive power in declaring war from being necessarily approved by Congress to war by proxy using mercenaries. It does have a political event but as the cover says ultimately the logic underneath her argument is not partis ...more

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Nov 14, 2019 Jean rated it really liked it

Shelves: non-fiction, business, audio-book, military, politics

I was unaware of Rachel Maddow until I saw several interviews of her for her current book “Blowout”. I was impressed to learn that she is a Rhodes Scholar and has a Ph.D. in Politics. I watched a few of her shows and read this book. I am amazed at her analytical abilities. She can reduce complicated data into succinct, epigrammatic, perceptive and easy understandable information.

Maddow documents how the checks and balances of government have broken down. She says Congress has abdicated its respo ...more

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Aug 17, 2015 Tom LA rated it liked it

Given that almost everyone on Goodreads loved this book, I'm genuinely wondering if the author succeeded at "sparking a debate". I haven't seen any. Have you?

So here is my lukewarm opinion. It's not a flat-out negative review, because I found the main points made in this book to be fair and thought-provoking, but Maddow's arrogant tone and her hate for Reagan ruined the book.

Let me start strong in being controversial here by quoting Justin Logan (Cato Institute) : "The chapters are stapled-toge ...more

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Jun 05, 2012 Jay Connor rated it it was amazing

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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Apr 07, 2012 Thomas rated it really liked it

Shelves: politics, military, war, women-authors

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 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. ...more

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May 28, 2012 Dan rated it really liked it

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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Apr 21, 2012 Maxine rated it it was amazing

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 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 ano 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 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. ...more

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Jun 27, 2020 Jim rated it really liked it

This is a rather short book, around 250 pages, dealing with a very weighty subject which is: what it means for us to live in a permanent war state. While author Rachel Maddow is well-known as a liberal commentator, I thought that, in this book, she came across as a conservative in the true sense of the word, as wanting to go back to the intent of the framers of the Constitution. The Constitution gave Congress the power to declare war and one of Maddow's points is that Congress gave up its author ...more

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Nov 14, 2012 Jason rated it really liked it

Shelves: history, politics, nonfiction, war

Sure, it's probably biased. Making a claim and deductively supporting it involves bias. Bias and truth are not mutually exclusive. 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 Sure, it's probably biased. Making a claim and deductively supporting it involves bias. Bias and truth are not mutually exclusive. 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 criminal 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 who holds a doctorate in politics from Oxford--hardly the liberal equivalent of a Beck or Limbaugh. One criticism correctly asserts 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 reading 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. ...more

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Mar 19, 2017 Emily rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: american-history, politics, history

The story of Drift goes something like this: once upon a time, the founders of the United States revolted against the British military presence in America and the tax burden of paying for that military. Those same founders were so worried about the problems that come with a standing army that, in the Constitution, they explicitly included several checks and balances to keep the US a peaceable nation, and the military a band of citizen-soldiers. This went along fine until Vietnam, when the presid The story of Drift goes something like this: once upon a time, the founders of the United States revolted against the British military presence in America and the tax burden of paying for that military. Those same founders were so worried about the problems that come with a standing army that, in the Constitution, they explicitly included several checks and balances to keep the US a peaceable nation, and the military a band of citizen-soldiers. This went along fine until Vietnam, when the president began to experiment with sending troops to fight in a war that hadn’t been officially declared by Congress. Things began to deteriorate even more rapidly when Reagan, a showman who understood that one key way to keep his popularity level up was to identify an Enemy to fight, increased the defense budget by a staggering 20% per year and started several illegal military operations around the world. He pushed both spending on the military and executive power to extremes never before seen, and presidents since then have followed suit. At this point:

By 2011, the total federal R&D budget for alternative energy sources—derided by the right as a huge Obama-era boondoggle—was about $3 billion a year. Meanwhile, the defense R&D budget was $77 billion a year—derided by no one, ever. If you added up what every other country spent on its military in 2001, the US military budget was about half that total; by 2005, those two numbers were equal. In other words, the United States spent as much on national defense as every other country in the world combined. And the Pentagon can now spend those dollars in a way that insulates the decision makers from the political consequences of making life uncomfortable for the voting public.

Americans have never been so far away from the consequences of a war. Because the various pieces of the military machine that aren’t the army itself—the CIA, private contractors—are unregulated and unaccountable, and because the president no longer bothers to ask Congress for approval before military maneuvers, the average citizen doesn’t feel the effects of war as they used to, and that inertia drags us further into endless fighting. We’ve drifted away from the ideals enshrined in the Constitution, and it’s had enormous effect on our country.

Maddow’s overall point is that it doesn’t have to be this way. We’ve drifted so far away from our ideals not through some vast conspiracy, but through a thousand different decisions in the last fifty years. If we want to reverse this trend, it will take a massive effort, politically and socially, to do so. But it will be worth it, because:

Just the nuke budget in the last half of the twentieth century was more than federal spending on Medicare, education, social services, disaster relief, scientific research (of the non-nuclear stripe), environmental protection, food safety inspectors, highway maintenance, cops, prosecutors, judges, and prisons … combined. The only programs that got more taxpayer dollars were Social Security and non-nuclear defense spending.

(And FYI, most of those nukes are 40-50 years old, have wing fungus, and are badly in need of repairs—that no US scientist can perform, because the pieces that need updating are too sophisticated and complex. No joke.)

The military is a self-sustaining machine at this point. We have the most professional and highly armed military in the world, and the only way to make that profitable is to continue fighting wars. As Maddow says, we’ve created a military superstructure at the expense of all else: we can no longer afford to continue down this road. We’ve focused on the military at the expense of the economy, and it will require a radical shift for us to pull back on executive abuse of power and sending our entire budget into defense. What if we could take all that money and divert it towards education, social services, job training? Isn’t that the world that we want to live in? ...more

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Sep 28, 2012 Melanie rated it it was amazing

Having trouble rating this one. Ultimately, I call it amazing because of Maddow's remarkable ability to clear away clutter from the last 40 years to look at one particular thread of history--the consolidation of military control in the hands of POTUS, and what that has done to us as a country.

It took me almost a month to read this (oops, overdue library fines), even though it's under 300 pages, because I had to keep putting it down. It HURT. I'm old enough to remember all of this. When I read ab Having trouble rating this one. Ultimately, I call it amazing because of Maddow's remarkable ability to clear away clutter from the last 40 years to look at one particular thread of history--the consolidation of military control in the hands of POTUS, and what that has done to us as a country.

It took me almost a month to read this (oops, overdue library fines), even though it's under 300 pages, because I had to keep putting it down. It HURT. I'm old enough to remember all of this. When I read about Jimmy Carter saying that the US priority should be cutting its oil consumption, I also remember a Buick commercial that had a guy standing in front of a big house and saying, I worked 25 years of my life for this, and now I'm supposed to buy a small car? I remember the indignation at Carter's suggestion that we somehow deprive ourselves, and I can't help but think we'd be in a better position now if we had done what was evident, yes, 40 years ago, that we should do.

I'm old enough to remember Reagan playing fast and loose with the truth, if he even knew what it was, calling that band of, come on, nun-raping cocaine smugglers, the contras, "Freedom fighters." The Panama Canal was ours; Granada was a Communist threat--and he got elected. Hell, he got RE elected. And Maddow does a great job of showing the actor, the guy who just had to know a few lines, never mind the substance, and his henchmen, Meese, et. al., consolidating the power to use the military at his will. And then we got the Gulf War, the Iraq war, Afghanistan.

The separation of the military and the making of war from every-day American life; the increasing out-sourcing, hence, obscuring, of components of the war machinery that ought to be visible to citizens of a democracy; the undermining of US image and substance through arbitrary use of force and the loosing on unsuspecting civilian populations of massive numbers of DynCorp and KBR "support" personnel who are not subject to military, or US, regulations and scrutiny--Maddow does a great job of tracing how this came to pass, why it's harmful, and how it could, and still can be, reversed. An important book, I'm glad I read it, and I'm filled with admiration. I can't imagine another writer who could use "whoopsie" effectively in the context of a bit of sloppiness in handling nuclear weaponry.

If you're under, say, forty, it's an excellent recent history text; if you're old enough to remember the last 30 years, well, owee--it'll confirm your worst--well, almost--suspicions of where some of our former presidents were taking us. ...more

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Aug 25, 2012 Louise rated it it was amazing

Shelves: us-politics, military-hist-policy, us-policy

Five nights a week, Rachel Maddow presents a well-researched show. The content is always good, but Maddow's depth, commitment and passion make it. Her forte is policy. In this book, she discusses how the US military has become "unmoored" from its Constitutional role.

She begins with the Constitution's framers and how they were in unanimous agreement, all of them, from Jefferson to Hamilton, that the power to make war cannot be made by one man. This kind of commitment needs discussion and agreemen Five nights a week, Rachel Maddow presents a well-researched show. The content is always good, but Maddow's depth, commitment and passion make it. Her forte is policy. In this book, she discusses how the US military has become "unmoored" from its Constitutional role.

She begins with the Constitution's framers and how they were in unanimous agreement, all of them, from Jefferson to Hamilton, that the power to make war cannot be made by one man. This kind of commitment needs discussion and agreement. Next, Maddow discusses the volunteer army and how it is a necessary component in the evolution of our current situation.

Then, she discusses the unconstitutional military actions of the Reagan administration, Grenada, Lebanon and Nicaragua and how they went, essentially, unpunished. From there, Maddow sees the Abrams Doctrine that requires call up of the National Guard a as a check on this power, since the manpower of the National Guard was a necessary component for mobilization. To get the resources of the "citizen soldiers" for Desert Storm, Pres. GWH Bush, needed and accordingly sought Congressional approval.

Since that time, presidents have seized initiatives and Congress gave them a pass. Internal policies of both the Pentagon and the CIA, policies that the public has had no input into or say about, have laid the foundations for greater executive branch control with little or no oversight. Private contractors, whose work is easily hidden can be used in lieu of armies. The CIA, whose official role is to gather information, now launches drones and sets kill targets. While a there has been a widely heralded withdrawal of "troops" from Iraq, thousands of contractors remain.

Through this discussion, Maddow shows how during the Cold War, the arms race was sold to the public through fear of Russia. Today's military buildup needs so such marketing effort. There are stories of nuclear accidents, an admitted 11 lost nuclear bombs all "back when" there was more oversight. Maddow concludes with a list of policies that can if not curtail, can hold back this evolution.

It's a short book, so not everything can be addressed. I would have liked a discussion on the re-purposing NATO after the cold war and 1950's/60's CIA operations (Bay of Pigs, removal of Allende in Chile, Mosaddegh in Iran, etc.) designed for regime change. ...more

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May 04, 2012 Donna rated it it was amazing · 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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Apr 07, 2012 Paul Gleason rated it it was amazing

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 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. ...more

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Apr 21, 2012 Tony Heyl rated it it was ok

I did something bad. I judged the book by its cover.

Well, really, I judged it by its title. When I first heard about Drift, I thought it was a great idea. Rachel Maddow is one of the very few political talkers that I can listen to because of her calm, well reasoned arguments. The premise of the book, at least as far as I understood it, was to talk about how America became ok with a constant state of war and how war could go on with little opposition. It is an important topic worthy of discussio I did something bad. I judged the book by its cover.

Well, really, I judged it by its title. When I first heard about Drift, I thought it was a great idea. Rachel Maddow is one of the very few political talkers that I can listen to because of her calm, well reasoned arguments. The premise of the book, at least as far as I understood it, was to talk about how America became ok with a constant state of war and how war could go on with little opposition. It is an important topic worthy of discussion and debate and hopefully action.

However, while the writing is fine, the book leaves much to be desired. Maddow focuses almost entirely on how Presidents from LBJ on made the military less accountable to Congress and to the general public. These are important issues, but it ends up being more of a history lesson than an analysis. Yes, Vietnam was conducted poorly by Johnson and Nixon. Yes, Reagan had many problems, most notably Grenada and Iran/Contra. And Yes, the use of contractors under Presidents Clinton, Bush, and Obama make our war efforts far less accountable to the public. These are important things to discuss, but Maddow just leaves it there, putting the onus for this drift towards permanent war solely on the political process.

Maddow doesn't talk about the role of the media. She doesn't talk about how movies, television and video games glamorize war. She doesn't talk about the military industrial complex and how politicians protect military spending to advance their own political interests. She doesn't talk about money in politics and the lobbying of defense contractors. She doesn't talk about how the language of war has changed. And she doesn't talk about how the global geo-political picture has altered the public's perception of what war should be and when aggression is needed.

This could have been a great book with lots of interesting discussion. Instead it was an ok account of how recent Presidents have altered the role of the Commander in Chief. That wasn't enough for me to be happy with it. ...more

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Jul 21, 2018 Cody rated it really liked it · review of another edition

"The Constitution supposes, what the History of all Governments demonstrates, that the Executive is the branch of power most interested in war, and most prone to it. It has accordingly with studied care vest the question of the war in the Legislature." -James Madison (124)

"We all have an interest in America having an outstanding military, but that aim is not helped by exempting the military from the competition for resources. With no check on its growth and no rival for its political influence, "The Constitution supposes, what the History of all Governments demonstrates, that the Executive is the branch of power most interested in war, and most prone to it. It has accordingly with studied care vest the question of the war in the Legislature." -James Madison (124)

"We all have an interest in America having an outstanding military, but that aim is not helped by exempting the military from the competition for resources. With no check on its growth and no rival for its political influence, the super funded, super empowered national security state has become a leviathan....Overall, we're weaker for it, and at enormous cost. As the national security state has metastasized, decisions to use force have become painless and slick, almost automatic. The disincentives to war deliberately built into our American system of government- particularly the citizen soldier, and leaving the power to declare war with Congress instead of the President - we've worked around them. We ought to see that constitutional inheritance as a national treasure, yet we've divest ourselves of it without much of a debate." (248)

In Drift: The Unmooring of American Military Power, author Rachel Maddow presents a very informative summary of just how complicatedly unconstitutional the dynamic surrounding how the USA looks at war and its armed forces have become since its inception. The vital questions Maddow asks here should be asked of every American, and just what cost the country is willing to make regarding those very uncomfortable inquiries. There's much to unpack with this book.

The environment of a post World War II landscape allowed the United States to gain status as the world's leading superpower, and with it, the difficulties and hubris that quite frequently become attributed to having such power. Maddow's argument encompasses that over the last half century and all of the 21st century so far, the United States military function has become marred by an ever-engorging Executive branch bent on greater power with regards to declaring war and conflict, misappropriation of armed forces to solve various world problems, privatization of war that demoralises American citizens understanding of conflicts, an ageing and dangerous nuclear arsenal, and the reeducation of what war exactly means to a society that has mostly grown numb and sadly bored by the recent wars in the Middle East.

While all that may seem too broad a topic for a short book like this, Maddow examples are well told, and largely alarming. President Reagan's ego and poor management of Grenada and Iran-Contra, or the privatisation by companies such as DynaCorp and their gross human rights abuses, for example, are well written and completely unsettling that the United States was tied to such events. Putting aside her well known politically liberal persona, Drift is the kind of book any American from any political affiliation should read, analyse and expand into their own understanding of America's relation to its military force. It isn't so much "anti-war" as it is "anti-mismanagement." Something that threatens the U.S. from within. A top contemporary political book to read. ...more

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Mar 09, 2013 Judith rated it it was amazing · 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: 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. ...more

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Jun 22, 2012 David rated it really liked it

Shelves: politics

The main idea of this book, is that in recent decades it has become too easy for America to go to war. America's recent presidents have been gradually setting precedents for taking the country to war. Congress has been far too slack in checking this power in the hands of one person. Too often, Congress has not had a healthy debate on the wisdom of going to war. Sometimes presidents have simply acted covertly; Reagan comes to mind with the Iran/Contra affair and the attack on Grenada. At other ti The main idea of this book, is that in recent decades it has become too easy for America to go to war. America's recent presidents have been gradually setting precedents for taking the country to war. Congress has been far too slack in checking this power in the hands of one person. Too often, Congress has not had a healthy debate on the wisdom of going to war. Sometimes presidents have simply acted covertly; Reagan comes to mind with the Iran/Contra affair and the attack on Grenada. At other times, Congress simply shirked their duty to debate the issues, and allowed a president to trample over their duty. After all, the U.S. Constitution states that the power to declare war lies with Congress. The framers of the Constitution knew full well that Congress is a slow, deliberative body that has plenty of opinions on any issue.

War has been easier for America to wage in recent years, because it has not been a burden on the populace. War is costly, but recent presidents have waged wars while reducing taxes. This puts the burden of the increased national debt on future generations. Also, the increase in private corporations doing many of the jobs that soldiers used to do has removed the necessity of a draft. Technology improvements, like drones, have further removed warfighting from our line of sight.

In the last chapter, Maddow lists a set of common-sense recommendations that should reduce the possibility of waging unwise, unpopular wars. Among the recommendations are: 1) Make war painful for the entire country, 2) Remove the secret military, 3) Quit asking the military to make political judgments, 4) allow the National Guard and Reserves to mostly be reserves at home, 5) end the privatization of war.

I thoroughly appreciated the arguments that Maddow makes throughout the book. My only complaint is with her writing style; it's full of slang, half-sentences, and glib; she writes exactly like she would speak in an informal conversation, and comes out in a condescending tone. I believe that Maddow could make her excellent points in a better way. ...more

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Jul 23, 2012 Socraticgadfly rated it liked it

I'm going to be a bit contrarian and down-rate this book. (Ideally, I'd put it at 3.5 stars, maybe 3.75.)

It's good, good indeed for what it covers. But, it operates under the presumption this is all new.

And, it's not.

Some US presidents tolerated quasi-official filibustering in Central America back in the 1850s.

Of course, that wasn't much.

But, since the Spanish-American War, but long before Vietnam, we had plenty of other undeclared wars, without act of Congress.

The 1899-1902 war in the Philippin ...more

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Jun 30, 2012 David Thompson rated it really liked it

Maddow's "Drift" was discussed briefly during an international relations lesson here at the US Army School of Advanced Military Studies at Fort Leavenworth. I felt the need to pick it up and see what she had to say.

Bottom line: she makes--and attempts to defend--an argument that America has drifted into a costly habit of perennial war. To back this up, the book's nine chapters analyze the nation's military commitments over the past 80 years and ties it back to the orignal intent expressed by t ...more

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Apr 04, 2012 Christopher Gerrib rated it it was amazing

I recently finished reading this book. The author is famous as a TV-talker, but she is a Rhodes Scholar and has a PhD in politics, so she's no airhead. Despite her academic credentials, the book is written in a casual, conversational tone. It's a great read, and I highly recommend it.

The book's basic argument is that it has become entirely too easy for the United States to go to war. This is due to a couple of factors. First, the US military is large, at least by historical levels, and considere ...more

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Apr 11, 2017 Lynn rated it it was amazing

Published 5 years ago but relevant as all hell to today. My favorite quote (among many) from it:

"America's structural disinclination toward war [by its Constitution requiring the President to obtain the approval of Congress before declaring war] is not a sign that something's wrong. It's not a bug in the system. It is the system. It's the way the founders set us up--to ensure our continuing national health. Every Congress is meddlesome, disinclined toward war, and obstructive of a President's de ...more

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Feb 04, 2013 Kathleen rated it it was amazing

Any book that points out that Jeff Sessions is an idiot and manages to use the word chickenshittery multiple times is off to a good start, but Drift goes the extra mile and provides an interesting and well-researched study of military bloat and the U.S.'s relative comfort with a near-perpetual state of war.

After a quick examination of the country's initial view of the importance of making the population feel the costs of war across the board, Maddow launches into a really fascinating (if chilli ...more

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May 17, 2013 Debbie "DJ" rated it it was amazing

Shelves: non-fiction, political

This book is an extremely important look at America and our war policy. While such a topic may seem dry, Maddow's book took me on a journey that was captivating. Have you ever wondered why we seem so disconnected from our current wars, why our economy is broke, or what has become of our over 5000 nuclear warheads? Our founding fathers created what is known as the "Addams Doctrine", which places the power to go to war in the hands of congress. This was done to insure no one person could decide ...more

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About Rachel Maddow

Rachel Maddow

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Rachel Maddow is host of the Emmy Award–winning Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC, as well as the author of Drift: The Unmooring of American Military Power, a #1 New York Times bestseller. Maddow received a bachelor’s degree in public policy from Stanford University and earned her doctorate in political science at Oxford University. She lives in New York City and Massachusetts with her partner, artist S ...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.” — 20 likes

“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.” — 12 likes

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