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4.02 AVERAGE
4.02 AVERAGE
(3.5) When I was a kid, all I wanted to be when I grew up was a grown up. I'm one who naturally defers to authority and thus I assumed that most grown ups had all the answers to life's problems and they behaved the way that grown ups should.
Of course, as I got older, this myth was shattered into a thousand pieces. And as I became an adult myself, I realized that all of us, even those in positions of great authority, are impostors.
It comes as no surprise to any learned person that the war in Afghanistan was a total failure. There's a reason why many call Afghanistan the "graveyard of empires." What is disappointing, painfully so as it plays out in this book, is that all of the adults know the war is a catastrophic failure and yet for whatever reason, they have to put on a brave face for their bosses and/or the American public to make sure we all feel comfortable in our nation's one "successful" middle east militaristic endeavor.
Michael Hastings is a talented writer and he does a good job covering the sordidness around Gens. McChrystal and Petraeus during their time leading US forces from 2009-2011. This book should have been better, though. Hastings jumps around from story-to-story at will, like he has ADD (which maybe he does). One second, you're in 2010, trying to follow the globetrotting journalist who is trying to follow the globetrotting general. The next, you're back in 2009 as the groundwork is laid for McChrystal's ascent to power. It's exasperating at times to keep up. But still worth the read if you have an interest in the subject and don't care too much about detailed military terms and maneuvers.
Of course, as I got older, this myth was shattered into a thousand pieces. And as I became an adult myself, I realized that all of us, even those in positions of great authority, are impostors.
It comes as no surprise to any learned person that the war in Afghanistan was a total failure. There's a reason why many call Afghanistan the "graveyard of empires." What is disappointing, painfully so as it plays out in this book, is that all of the adults know the war is a catastrophic failure and yet for whatever reason, they have to put on a brave face for their bosses and/or the American public to make sure we all feel comfortable in our nation's one "successful" middle east militaristic endeavor.
Michael Hastings is a talented writer and he does a good job covering the sordidness around Gens. McChrystal and Petraeus during their time leading US forces from 2009-2011. This book should have been better, though. Hastings jumps around from story-to-story at will, like he has ADD (which maybe he does). One second, you're in 2010, trying to follow the globetrotting journalist who is trying to follow the globetrotting general. The next, you're back in 2009 as the groundwork is laid for McChrystal's ascent to power. It's exasperating at times to keep up. But still worth the read if you have an interest in the subject and don't care too much about detailed military terms and maneuvers.
I remembered the original article and so thought I didnt need to read anymore on the subject, but an excerpt about recently-resigned NSA Michael Flynn piqued my interest. And man what a great book. Hastings is incredibly readable and the story is as ridiculous and as infuriating at times as I remember the article being. An excellent read.
As a US Army Veteran that served for 8 years and did two combat tours (one during the first six months of the war with Iraq and one later with an ADA unit), so much of what Hastings describes regarding military culture, the feeling on the ground among people who are actually doing the work and the disconnect that often exists between command officers (and sometimes E-8s) and the rest of the troops is spot on. It was also nice to see a real profile of higher ranking people that portrays them as human beings with victories and failures, rather than as mythologized, perfect representations of the military ethos. The spin that comes from the top down always annoyed me, because it felt like an insult to intelligence to try to present our leaders as perfect men while the rest of us were just scum, trying to scrape our way up a ladder to humanhood. It was nice to see a real face put on real people in a real war, reminding America that something's happening over there and that shit is far from clear. When you finish reading this book, you'll be asking the question that should be asked: Why are we in Afghanistan and what is it we hope to accomplish there, and is that hoped for outcome even feasible?
I had to read this for a class. It is not the kind of nonfiction book I would normally pick up, but I ended up enjoying it more than expected. The writing flowed easily which made it easier to speed read for my assignment. It made some interesting (but now overdiscussed) points about the reality of the War on Terror. However, I can see why this book was a bombshell when it came out.
I was surprised how much I liked it. The General Stanley McChrystal exposé in Rolling Stones sent shockwaves through the Army and I was prepared for Hasting’s biases but he did provide some insightful commentary on a very complex problem. I also found his writing style entertaining, his Elroy like riffs reminded me of American Tabloid. The recent wikileaks revelations have also fueled the conspiracy theories surrounding Michael Hastings death and reinforces the similarities to an Elroy novel.
The article that this grew out of, published in Rolling Stone, resulted in General Stanley McChrystal's ousting. Only, the article itself was pretty innocuous, as far as things went. In fact, much of the media furore took place BEFORE the article was available to the general public. (Which, at the time, irked me no end...)
Now, if this book had been published first... That would have been an entirely different matter. The Operators is FILLED to bursting with examples of Administration incompetence, super-sized egos without the intelligence or knowledge to back up their arrogance, and any number of other examples that could have given more legitimate grounds to fire a general. In this book, we see plenty of examples of indelicate and unpolitic utterances from the General and his hero-worshiping staff members. And yet, to my eyes and mind, most of what was said to Hastings (R.I.P.) was... well, entirely expected.
I'll write more on this on Politics Reader over the weekend, and post the link to the piece on here when it's ready.
Now, if this book had been published first... That would have been an entirely different matter. The Operators is FILLED to bursting with examples of Administration incompetence, super-sized egos without the intelligence or knowledge to back up their arrogance, and any number of other examples that could have given more legitimate grounds to fire a general. In this book, we see plenty of examples of indelicate and unpolitic utterances from the General and his hero-worshiping staff members. And yet, to my eyes and mind, most of what was said to Hastings (R.I.P.) was... well, entirely expected.
I'll write more on this on Politics Reader over the weekend, and post the link to the piece on here when it's ready.
There's a somewhat meta moment early in The Operators when author Michael Hastings references Cameron Crowe's 'Almost Famous' and its fabled story of a Rolling Stone reporter swept along on a whirlwind tour with a band that quickly forgets that as a reporter he is "the enemy."
The Operators is very much that story, but instead of the Allman Brothers/Led Zeppelin stand-in of Stillwater, we get the very real 4-star General Stanley McChrystal and his team of strategists and PR people. The book is all but unbelievable save for the fact that you're well aware that it's all true. It's an unblinking look at a war that is not so much spinning out of control as it is just as out of control as it has always been. It's a profile of a man, General McChrystal who is not only selling America spiked Kool-Aid in the form of the highly touted Counterinsergency Doctrine, but is also drinking far too much of that Kool-Aid himself.
The book is an extremely brisk read (it took me less than a week), and its structure of alternating between Hastings' time with McCrystal and a wider look at the American war in Afghanistan keeps you paying attention and helps you pick out all the myriad ways in which this conflict has gone wrong.
I often rate books on goodreads too highly, probably because if a book is bad I usually do not bother to finish it or rate it, but I assure you that The Operators is worth every last one of the five stars I gave it.
Check it out.
The Operators is very much that story, but instead of the Allman Brothers/Led Zeppelin stand-in of Stillwater, we get the very real 4-star General Stanley McChrystal and his team of strategists and PR people. The book is all but unbelievable save for the fact that you're well aware that it's all true. It's an unblinking look at a war that is not so much spinning out of control as it is just as out of control as it has always been. It's a profile of a man, General McChrystal who is not only selling America spiked Kool-Aid in the form of the highly touted Counterinsergency Doctrine, but is also drinking far too much of that Kool-Aid himself.
The book is an extremely brisk read (it took me less than a week), and its structure of alternating between Hastings' time with McCrystal and a wider look at the American war in Afghanistan keeps you paying attention and helps you pick out all the myriad ways in which this conflict has gone wrong.
I often rate books on goodreads too highly, probably because if a book is bad I usually do not bother to finish it or rate it, but I assure you that The Operators is worth every last one of the five stars I gave it.
Check it out.
This book was facinating and frusterating in equal measure. This is the story of the writing of "The Runaway General," the Rolling Stone article that got general McCrystal fired, and it's aftermath as told by the war correspondent who wrote the article. This story was a very facinating look into the politics of conducting the war in Afghanistan, the personalities involved and the situation on the ground in Afghanistan. The frustration came from the amount of political bull that goes into the prosecution of a war, the indifference of Obama to the soldiers fighting the war, Hamid Karzai and Joe Biden. Written in a casual style that jumps back and forth in time, telling several different stories: the gathering of information for writing of the Rolling Stone article; the biographies of the Generals (McCrystal and Petraeus); and a glimpse of the lives of the soldiers on the front line. This was a very eye opening read that reflected the conflict of the author and the nation with the war in Afghanistan.
Intrygująca książka tak samo jak i postać autora. Czyta się niezwykle szybko. Hastings nie sprawia wrażenia bufona pewnego swojej wyjątkowości i sypiącego z rękawa toksycznymi żartami. Wydaje się inteligentny i szczerze samokrytyczny, widać jego zagubienie w postrzeganiu wojny w Afganistanie, której jest korespondentem. Zdarza mu się, jednak niekiedy nazwać siebie ,,wojennym ćpunem” (człowiekiem uzależnionym od adrenaliny wyzwalanej poprzez uczestnictwo/obecność w miejscu ogarniętym konfliktem zbrojnym), a za parę rozdziałów już wspomina o tym, że niewiele mu do tego miana brakuje. Natomiast, nie jest to w tonie fałszywym, czy wywyższającym jaki wielokrotnie spotkałem w takich publikacjach i to zdecydowany plus. Lektura wzbogaciła bardzo moją wiedzę w temacie, przybliżyła zdecydowanie sylwetki znanych generałów, o których istnieniu w wielu przypadkach nie miałam pojęcia. Hastings mimo tego, iż jawi się po lekturze jako człowiek nieodpowiedzialny i nieodpowiednio oceniający ryzyko to nie sposób odmówić mu odwagi i wytrwałości, które w jego zawodzie mogą przynieść sukces, ale też jak widać kosztować życie. O polskiej wersji: Wydawnictwo odpowiedzialne za wydanie polskiego tłumaczenia popełniło spore faux pas umieszczając na okładce zdanie informujące o tym, iż traktuje o elitach z otoczenia Donalda Trumpa. Oryginalnie powstała w 2012 roku, nie ma tu ani słowa o Trumpie, skupia się bardziej na Obamie, Bushu i Clinton. Słabe i desperackie, wprowadzające w błąd działanie marketingowe. Wydawnictwo Znak wydaje się rzetelne, a to, co tutaj zrobiło jest bardzo nieprofesjonalne. Jeszcze, żeby ekipa pozostała na stanowiskach w czasie prezydentury Trumpa. Większość postaci nie jest już członkami administracji. Samo tłumaczenie tekstu czytało się dobrze, więc tutaj nie ma do czego się przyczepić.
"The Operators" is a longer version of Hastings' famous Rolling Stone feature, "The Runaway General," that ended in the firing of the Afghanistan commander, Gen Stanley McChrystal. It's a well-written, engaging book that shows the behind-the-scenes version of the war in Afghanistan, much different from the boring press release propaganda we receive from mainstream sources.
Hastings accurately communicates the drama, excitement, fear, addiction, and complexity of being a young war correspondent embedded in a high level military command in an unpopular, directionless war. Irresistible forces pull at you from every direction: loyalty to my military hosts/friends and conformity to the "media-military-industrial complex" or loyalty to the story and journalistic ethos? The constant danger of the war zone or the safety and boredom of home? To portray the comforting images of success or the absurdly complex and unflattering realities of an unwinnable conflict? Hastings pulls us inside his brain to see why he made the choices he did and makes us ask whether we would do the same. It's an eye-opener, even for people like myself who consider themselves well-informed on politics and current events. Best of all, it's very readable rather than being bogged down in condescending amounts of jargon to show off how "in-the-know" the writer is. This is a book written for its audience.
Hastings accurately communicates the drama, excitement, fear, addiction, and complexity of being a young war correspondent embedded in a high level military command in an unpopular, directionless war. Irresistible forces pull at you from every direction: loyalty to my military hosts/friends and conformity to the "media-military-industrial complex" or loyalty to the story and journalistic ethos? The constant danger of the war zone or the safety and boredom of home? To portray the comforting images of success or the absurdly complex and unflattering realities of an unwinnable conflict? Hastings pulls us inside his brain to see why he made the choices he did and makes us ask whether we would do the same. It's an eye-opener, even for people like myself who consider themselves well-informed on politics and current events. Best of all, it's very readable rather than being bogged down in condescending amounts of jargon to show off how "in-the-know" the writer is. This is a book written for its audience.