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eelsmac's review against another edition
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
tense
medium-paced
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Islamophobia, Torture, and War
bloodyfool0's review against another edition
3.0
I'd rate this book a 3.5*. Doesn't quite make the 4* as Dark Money did.
mkesten's review against another edition
4.0
Want to know about George Bush's extraordinary rendition program? Here it is.
jadencove's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Physical abuse, War, Hate crime, Violence, Genocide, Islamophobia, Torture, Forced institutionalization, Racism, Murder, and Death
shann0n's review against another edition
challenging
dark
informative
slow-paced
5.0
I was pretty well informed about the nonsense the Bush Administration got up to. But, some of the gruesome details of the torture they inflicted on other human bearing is abhorrent. The braggadocios manor with which many Bush officials (mainly looking at Cheney and Addington) claim the torture was in the name of saving lives is pathetic and reviling. The complete and utter lack of respect for human life is revolting.
carmelitasita's review against another edition
5.0
It is interesting to read this book ten years on after two changes of administration. It puts into context the world as we live in under the Trump America. Is it worse than Bush? Is it better to have dirty deeds done in secret or on Twitter? And despite the loud opposition to Guantanamo, how did it manage to last during the eight year Obama government? He had two years of total control in which to correct this injustice. It is remarkable that when I searched Wikipedia for some of the names in this book, many were still in Cuba.
This book was well written, thought provoking, and a great example of investigative journalism.
This book was well written, thought provoking, and a great example of investigative journalism.
greatlibraryofalexandra's review against another edition
3.0
I appreciated this book, though given the subject matter I cannot say outright that I enjoyed it. It’s a useful trove of information that explores the use of torture, it’s futility, and the risks taken when vengeance versus justice decides policy.
I am fully on the side of those who DO NOT condone torture and who think the action of the Bush administration were heinous, so read my review with full understanding of my personal bias. Torture is inhumane, ineffective, and barbaric. It is an act contrary to what most Americans want to believe about themselves. I benefit from having been a child for most of these events, and just beginning High School when Obama was elected. I benefit from the privilege of having most of the facts, twelve years of less emotional debate and more detached books and information, and a different anxious lens. I like to think I’d have been against this tragedy when it was happening, but I don’t know what I’d have thought. Mayer points out that the majority of Americans supported Gitmo and the actions taken there even as late as 2008. I cautiously would argue that many of these every day Americans were not only misled very well by fearmongers, but were thinking from a place of sustained fear. Moving on -
Mayer is an excellent journalist and her account is fair and accurate: in any situation where she cannot draw a complete conclusion, she doesn’t. For example, if it’s unclear if a subject provided accurate information after torture, she acknowledges that, and she also acknowledged where gaps in the information prevent her from excoriating the choices of a cabal of people she certainly (and rightfully) reviles. She resists the moments where weaker reporters might choose to draw conclusions that support their beliefs.
That said, this book was mostly a detailed, grisly account of torture cases juxtaposed with explanations of the legal gymnastics it took to make brutal torture happen - it is not, despite the subtitle of its thesis, a strong academic treatise on the erosion of American “ideals.”
Instead of outlining what ideals we are supposed to have compromised throughout this 8 year period in our history, Mayer relies on implication to assume that we all are in agreement that America has always possessed certain ideals, that we all know what they are, and that we’ve all always seen that they’re adhered to. These ideals are presumed to be (roughly) freedom, equality under the law, integrity - etcetera.
She does not do much philosophical or academic leg work to connect her harrowing account of multiple torture cases to the erosion of these vague ideals - specifically, she doesn’t spend any time addressing how the actions of the Bush Admin drastically differ from actions taken by the US during other periods in our history.
She doesn’t discuss how we treated enemies of the state in past wars, for comparison. She doesn’t discuss how we treated individuals considered domestic threats in the past, either. Her focus is extremely narrowed to the post 9/11 Bush/Cheney presidency, which unfortunately runs the risk of suggesting to readers that she just hates Bush personally, vice that she is providing a critical lens through which to view actions of the US government.
In appearing to hold the initial assumption that America has been historically unblemished by crimes such as those committed by the Bush Admin, Mayer’s book limits itself to a narrative that shies away from addressing even darker truths.
Given the lack of critical examination of which ideals she is arguing were compromised, she opens herself up to the (accurate!) critique that the US has, in fact, always peddled compromised ideals, since it is foundationally based on a codified system of rendition and torture - we just called it “slavery.”
Perhaps a better title to explore would have been “The Dark Side - How the War on Terror Brutally Exposed America’s Hollow Ideals.”
I am fully on the side of those who DO NOT condone torture and who think the action of the Bush administration were heinous, so read my review with full understanding of my personal bias. Torture is inhumane, ineffective, and barbaric. It is an act contrary to what most Americans want to believe about themselves. I benefit from having been a child for most of these events, and just beginning High School when Obama was elected. I benefit from the privilege of having most of the facts, twelve years of less emotional debate and more detached books and information, and a different anxious lens. I like to think I’d have been against this tragedy when it was happening, but I don’t know what I’d have thought. Mayer points out that the majority of Americans supported Gitmo and the actions taken there even as late as 2008. I cautiously would argue that many of these every day Americans were not only misled very well by fearmongers, but were thinking from a place of sustained fear. Moving on -
Mayer is an excellent journalist and her account is fair and accurate: in any situation where she cannot draw a complete conclusion, she doesn’t. For example, if it’s unclear if a subject provided accurate information after torture, she acknowledges that, and she also acknowledged where gaps in the information prevent her from excoriating the choices of a cabal of people she certainly (and rightfully) reviles. She resists the moments where weaker reporters might choose to draw conclusions that support their beliefs.
That said, this book was mostly a detailed, grisly account of torture cases juxtaposed with explanations of the legal gymnastics it took to make brutal torture happen - it is not, despite the subtitle of its thesis, a strong academic treatise on the erosion of American “ideals.”
Instead of outlining what ideals we are supposed to have compromised throughout this 8 year period in our history, Mayer relies on implication to assume that we all are in agreement that America has always possessed certain ideals, that we all know what they are, and that we’ve all always seen that they’re adhered to. These ideals are presumed to be (roughly) freedom, equality under the law, integrity - etcetera.
She does not do much philosophical or academic leg work to connect her harrowing account of multiple torture cases to the erosion of these vague ideals - specifically, she doesn’t spend any time addressing how the actions of the Bush Admin drastically differ from actions taken by the US during other periods in our history.
She doesn’t discuss how we treated enemies of the state in past wars, for comparison. She doesn’t discuss how we treated individuals considered domestic threats in the past, either. Her focus is extremely narrowed to the post 9/11 Bush/Cheney presidency, which unfortunately runs the risk of suggesting to readers that she just hates Bush personally, vice that she is providing a critical lens through which to view actions of the US government.
In appearing to hold the initial assumption that America has been historically unblemished by crimes such as those committed by the Bush Admin, Mayer’s book limits itself to a narrative that shies away from addressing even darker truths.
Given the lack of critical examination of which ideals she is arguing were compromised, she opens herself up to the (accurate!) critique that the US has, in fact, always peddled compromised ideals, since it is foundationally based on a codified system of rendition and torture - we just called it “slavery.”
Perhaps a better title to explore would have been “The Dark Side - How the War on Terror Brutally Exposed America’s Hollow Ideals.”