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A review by mubeenirfan
Dirty Wars: The World is a Battlefield by Jeremy Scahill
5.0
Jeremy Scahill is an investigative journalist and had previously written a book about Blackwater and their mercenary army. That was the only bio I had with me when I came across this giant book on the top shelf of a Lahore bookstore while casually looking for books I could squeeze in my hand carry for my flight back to Karachi. I am glad though that I did not pay much attention to the size of bag and bought it instead.
Title of this book is self-explanatory. It is about that neo-conservative group of people who waited for their chance to bomb the hell out of muslim countries as part of their shock & awe campaign and finally found their opportunity in the limelight of 9/11. There has been no turning back since then. The capture (read kill) missions which were at times boots on the ground and on other times through eye in the sky equipped with hell fires, this book narrates countless such operations and policy behind doing what the US government has been doing since. There is not just Iraq here. It is mostly around Yemen, Afghanistan & Somalia and how these Special Ops fuelled the insurgencies in those countries and led them towards the islamists when goal was the exact opposite. Personally, I was not aware of the circumstances behind the rise of Al-Shabab in Somalia and how Somalia could have been a different country (not prosperous but atleast not this volatile), had US not intervened collaborating with local militas.
Significant part of this book is on President Obama and the drone legacy he will leave behind (this was published in 2013) with his all out approach to kill anyone of military age in these muslim countries. It's the same Obama who is a recipeint of Nobel Peace Prize giving the most pro-war speech unexpected of anyone receiving such a noble award. And not just that, he carried it through with his killing of US citizens accused (not convicted) of terrorism. Scahill rightly argues that Obama's credentials (liberal, democrat & constitutional law professor) makes it very hard for people to look beyond his personality and form judgement on his continued (read enhanced) policy of dirty wars.
This book is an eye-opener and a must read.
Title of this book is self-explanatory. It is about that neo-conservative group of people who waited for their chance to bomb the hell out of muslim countries as part of their shock & awe campaign and finally found their opportunity in the limelight of 9/11. There has been no turning back since then. The capture (read kill) missions which were at times boots on the ground and on other times through eye in the sky equipped with hell fires, this book narrates countless such operations and policy behind doing what the US government has been doing since. There is not just Iraq here. It is mostly around Yemen, Afghanistan & Somalia and how these Special Ops fuelled the insurgencies in those countries and led them towards the islamists when goal was the exact opposite. Personally, I was not aware of the circumstances behind the rise of Al-Shabab in Somalia and how Somalia could have been a different country (not prosperous but atleast not this volatile), had US not intervened collaborating with local militas.
Significant part of this book is on President Obama and the drone legacy he will leave behind (this was published in 2013) with his all out approach to kill anyone of military age in these muslim countries. It's the same Obama who is a recipeint of Nobel Peace Prize giving the most pro-war speech unexpected of anyone receiving such a noble award. And not just that, he carried it through with his killing of US citizens accused (not convicted) of terrorism. Scahill rightly argues that Obama's credentials (liberal, democrat & constitutional law professor) makes it very hard for people to look beyond his personality and form judgement on his continued (read enhanced) policy of dirty wars.
This book is an eye-opener and a must read.