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Summary
Summary
American veterans who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan offer invaluable firsthand perspectives on what made America's post-9/11 wars so costly and disastrous. Twenty years of America's Global War on Terror produced little tangible success while exacting enormous harm. In Iraq and Afghanistan, the United States sustained tens of thousands of casualties, expended trillions of dollars, and inflicted massive suffering on the very populations that we sought to "liberate." Now the inclination to forget it all and move on is palpable. But there is much to be learned from the immense debacle. And those who served and fought in these wars are best positioned to teach us.Paths of Dissent collects fifteen original essays from American veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan--hailing from a wide range of services, ranks, and walks of life--who have come out in opposition to these conflicts. Selected for their candor and eloquence by fellow veterans Andrew Bacevich and Daniel Sjursen, these soldiers vividly describe both their motivations for serving and the disillusionment that made them speak out against the system. Their testimony is crucial for understanding just how the world's self-proclaimed greatest military power went so badly astray.
Author Notes
Andrew Bacevich Hometown: Normal, ILResidence: Walpole, MADaniel A. SjursenHometown: Staten Island, NYResidence: Lawrence, KS
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Historian Bacevich (After the Apocalypse) and retired army officer Sjursen gather in this grim and often gripping essay collection U.S. soldiers' indictments against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Contributors include Erik Edstrom, who attended West Point out of "a conflated mix of economic necessity and idealistic do-goodery" and eventually came to believe that the "war on terror" was "illegal, immoral, self-perpetuating, and counterproductive." Joy Damiani enlisted at age 19 and spent two years in her division's public affairs offices in Georgia, "making PR look like news and an unwinnable war look like a victory," before being sent to Baghdad, where she was rarely permitted to leave the base for her reporting and never allowed to use the word failure in print. Elsewhere, Dan Berchinski describes losing both his legs to an IED in Afghanistan, and Kevin Tillman details how the Bush administration lied about his brother Pat Tillman's death from friendly fire. Full of potent criticism and anguished admissions of guilt--"We shot at noncombatants. We tortured prisoners. We blew up civilian structures. We ran over, mutilated and took pictures of dead Iraqis. Frankly we did whatever the fuck we wanted"--this is a visceral takedown of America's forever wars. (Aug.)
Kirkus Review
Veterans from far-flung conflicts decry the American way of war. The writers whom Bacevich and Sjursen assemble all take a sharp-eyed view of combat. "My childhood delusions of saving the galaxy like Han Solo, Luke Skywalker, or Lando Calrissian were met with the stark reality of being a mere storm trooper for the US empire." So writes one veteran of Afghanistan in a classic trope of childhood-inspired enthusiasm for war soured by reality. He has particular authority, for the writer is Kevin Tillman, brother of NFL star Pat Tillman, both of whom became Army Rangers after 9/11. Pat died, a victim of friendly fire, worried that their mission was being hijacked by those who would turn the American soldier into "a glorified state-sponsored terrorist." That's just how it played out. As Gil Barndollar writes, when his unit requested the code name Hessian (denied), it was with a knowing nod to history, while most of their time was spent killing "dirt farmers," as a Navy SEAL said bitterly. According to Iraq veteran Roy Scranton, whereas war can unite a nation ("A dead soldier makes the imagined community of the nation real"), it can also divide it, especially if that war is waged for cynical reasons or on the basis of lies. There you have Iraq, a war that the dedicatee of this edited volume, the late Maj. Ian Fishback, helped expose as corrupt. In a powerful introduction, Bacevich writes about his fears for the long-lasting effects of those wars, as the "flagrant malpractice by those at the top [has] inflicted untold damage on the troops we ostensibly esteem, on populations US policymakers vowed to liberate, and ultimately on our own democracy. The adverse effects of war are by no means confined to the immediate arena in which fighting occurs." Anti-war activism from the deepest of patriotic roots, advocated by those who have paid a heavy price in order to speak. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Military policy ultimately affects everyone. The armed forces have immense capacity to harm others, and mistakes can be catastrophic. Veterans and writers Bacevich and Sjursen solicited essays from veterans who have spoken out against military failures out of patriotism, humanitarianism, and the desire to correct mistakes and prevent their repetition. The contributors are excellent writers, erudite and well educated, and they provide solid evidence to support their logically argued criticism of American policies and leadership. Dissent within the military is hazardous; retribution from the brass can be harsh. The contributors note that the military is akin to a civic religion, that voluntary service among military families and the disadvantaged shields the larger public from the effects of costly, misguided actions, and that criticism and protest are viewed as heresy. This is an excellent, timely collection offering analysis of two decades of war and a broad swath of ideas and possible solutions to problems the military is largely incapable of fixing without outside attention. As one contributor put it: "It is good when soldiers complain because it means they still care."
