Book Description
“Why has all this focus on security made me feel so much more insecure? Nothing is secure. And this is the good news. But only if you are not seeking security as the point of your life.”–Eve Ensler
When her stage play The Vagina Monologues became a runaway hit and an international sensation, Eve Ensler emerged as a powerful voice and champion for women everywhere. Now the brilliant playwright gives us her first major work written exclusively for the printed page. Insecure at Last is a timely and urgent look at our security-obsessed world, the drastic measures taken to keep us safe, and how we can truly experience freedom by letting go of the deceptive notion of vigilant “protection.”
Ensler draws on personal experiences and candid interviews with burka-clad women in Afghanistan; female prisoners in upstate New York; survivors at the Superdome after Katrina; and anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan–sharing unforgettable snapshots that chronicle a post-9/11 existence in which hyped obsession for safety and security has undermined our humanity. The us-versus-them mentality, Ensler explains, has closed our minds and hardened our compassionate hearts.
Provocative, illuminating, inspiring, and boldly envisioned, Insecure at Last challenges us to reconsider what it means to be free, to discover that our strength is not born out of that which protects us. Ensler offers us the opportunity to reevaluate our everyday lives, expose our vulnerability, and, in doing so, experience true freedom and fulfillment.
Customer Reviews:
Powerful book.......2007-07-08
The book is wonderfully well-written and, for me, a page turner. Eve Ensler's journey of self-discovery and forgiveness is the backdrop for her work of helping women, and especially abuse against women. At times I had to put the book down to absorb the power of what was written.[[ASIN: Insecure at Last: Losing It in Our Security-Obsessed World]]
Everyone should read this book!.......2007-02-19
Based on a true story this is a phenomenal book and educates the reader on the injustices of our world. Eve's descriptions of her experiences make one want to go and contribute to those way less fortunate than ourselves. It is definitely a worthwhile read.
Well written.......2007-01-16
I shared this book with 3 others. We all liked the book very much - but we all saw things in the book differently. So - it was a fast read (could not stop ourselves)and provided us with much to discuss.
An absolute must.......2007-01-03
If you saw "The Vagina Monologues" or if you didn't, you will absolutely love this book by Eve Ensler. She tells stories of women across all economic and geographical boundaries with humor, graciousness and compassion. Sit down to it, sister and read, read, read!
Audacious ..... and idiotic.......2006-12-12
This book is a sad and doctrinaire excuse for analysis. Ms E. blithely equates a reasonable concern for security with a paranoid, life-denying obsession without missing a beat, and in doing so sets up a transparent straw man. It is a dishonest argument, even a dangerous one. It is a caricature of a thoughtful exploration of the issue. Ms E speaks often of the value of the ability to think originally and understand all sides of an argument. Aside from giving lip service to these laudable attributes, she shows absolutely no interest or capacity to do so. Her energetic (and of course, undocumented) litany of the crimes of modern America do little to persuade the attentive reader of their correctness or (not that it seems to matter to her), their relevance.
The issue of the security is a complex and vital one on many levels. Ms E's diatribe makes no contribution to the discussion. Actually, more than any book in memory, the cover sums it up perfectly.
Average customer rating:
- DISAPPOINTMENT !!!!!!
- Not that great
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The Police in the Community: Strategies for the 21st Century
Linda S. Miller
Manufacturer: Wadsworth Publishing
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ASIN: 0534539467 |
Book Description
By focusing on the dual themes of community/police collaboration and problem-oriented policing, this text focuses on police involvement and interaction with the communities they serve. It explores the practical strategies of community policing as well as the philosophy behind the community policing movement. The text gives a historical perspective to community policing, examines it as a philosophy, and introduces the skills criminal justice professionals need to implement an effective community policing program.
Customer Reviews:
DISAPPOINTMENT !!!!!!.......2002-04-14
I gave this book one star, however it should be less. I felt it was a poorly written book, because the author continuously referenced other source materials throughout the book. It clearly demonstrated the authors' lack of personal experience and knowledge of police work. It appears they mostly commented on their personal opinion of how they feel community policing should operate instead of facts and experience.
This book would be an excellent source for a high school book report, but a waste of time for law enforcement professionals.
Not that great.......2001-03-11
The book has data but is written as if it was for a school paper with new words and every other line refering you to others work. This is a texbook used by some schools however, it gets a D- in helping people understand the COP programs. Try another book for learning and use this one for your reports
Book Description
THE DETAILED, INSIDE STORY OF A WAR-TORN WHITE HOUSE
Bob Woodward examines how the Bush administration avoided telling the truth about Iraq to the public, to the Congress, and often to themselves in State of Denial. Woodward's third book on President Bush is a sweeping narrative from the first days George W. Bush thought seriously about running for president, through the recruitment of his national security team, the war in Afghanistan, the invasion and occupation of Iraq, and the struggle for political survival in the second term.
State of Denial answers the core questions: What happened after the invasion of Iraq? Why? How does Bush make decisions and manage the war that he chose to define his presidency? And, is there an achievable plan for victory? After more than three decades of reporting on national security decision making, including his two #1 national bestsellers on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, Bush at War and Plan of Attack, Woodward provides the fullest account, and explanation, of the road Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice and the White House staff have walked.
Customer Reviews:
Great Information .......2007-10-07
There is a reason our country is such a mess and this book will give you all the true facts
Fascinating but Painful.......2007-09-20
From a political perspective, reading this book is like watching a horrific car wreck happening at slow motion. The man at the wheel happens to be one George W. Bush. I never believed in him, but those that still do should read this tome with an open mind and come to their own conclusions. Woodward's sources and methods are objective and credible, and the only real criticism I have of the book is that it came out far too late to make any difference.
A Great Read!.......2007-09-16
As are all of Woodwards's books this one is well written and informative. I enjoy all his books and I have no problem keeping up with the events and my interest stays peaked. I'm sure you'll enjoy reading this book too. I would have given five stars but I just feel all books are too high priced!
Eye-opening.......2007-09-01
Woodard evokes honestly in all his writings. We can hear the credibilty of his words. Very thought provoking and this should raise many subsequent questions about how one in Washington power uses facts or fails to use people and facts.
getting an inside view of the war on Iraq.......2007-08-12
Bob Woodward's sweeping narrative is an eye opener into the elite world of political and military Washington. He rarely tells information, but lets the players speak for themselves. Reading this book, I often felt like I was in the oval office listening in on a conversation between Bush, Rice and Rumsfeld. The incredible incompetency, inefficiency, and hypocrisy of the adminstration is staggering.
One thing that I wish the book had was a character list. Because there are so many characters coming in and out of each chapter that it's hard to keep track of them. I suggest you keep such a list as you read.
This book really helped me to see why we are in the mess we are in, and I feel like I will be better informed as I read the news these days. (The situation in August 2007, today, seems just as bad if not worse than it was when the book was finished.)
In this book you find out:
The facts about Iraq
- An average of 2500 enemy initiated attacks a month since the war started
- Iraqis were relieved to have Saddam Hussein removed from power, but dismayed and angered by how long it took for basic services such as sewage, electricity, and food supplies to be restored.
- In 2006, at the end of the book, electricity, sewage, and oil pipelines were still mostly disfunctional in Iraq
- President Bush would tally the number of Iraqis killed as a measure of how successful is the war on terror, a number that the Iraqis use to recruit insurgents.
- Sectarian violence increased after the election.
- Death tolls are getting higher and the country becoming more insecure.
About why the administration failed:
- They all believed that it was going to be quick and easy, so there was no plan or funds allocated for an extended exit strategy.
- President Bush was adamant in staying the course, regardly of how the course wasn't working.
- President Bush never asked for alternative opinions or how things were really going, he only wanted to hear and speak of good news.
- Donald Rumsfeld was arrogant and domineering, often blocking the efforts of people around him to fix problems.
- Lots of people saw what was going on and gave advice on how to fix it, but it could never be implemented because of the fighting among the members of the administration, and Bush's policy of not revising their strategy.
- The administration hid the facts about Iraq from the public and often from themselves.
- Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld all held the incredibly callous view that Iraqi casualties are irrelevant, only winning matters
- The administration put into power people who agreed with them and ostracized the ones who were critical. 'If you don't agree with us you are not a team player.'
- The competent people got frustated and some of them gave up trying to fix the problem.
Book Description
It was supposed to be quick and easy. The Bush Administration even promised that it wouldn't cost American taxpayers a thing -- Iraqi oil revenues would pay for it all. But billions and billions of dollars, and thousands of lives, later, the Iraqi reconstruction is an undeniable failure. Iraq pumps out less oil now than it did under Saddam. At best, Iraqi's average all of twelve hours a day of electricity. American soldiers lack body armor and adequate protection for their motor vehicles. Increasingly worse off, Iraqi's turn against us. Increasingly worse off, our troops are killed by a strengthening insurgency. As T. Christian Miller reveals in this searing and timely book, the Bush Administration has fatally undermined the war effort and our soldiers by handing out mountains of cash not to the best companies for the reconstruction effort, but to buddies, cronies, relatives and political hacks -- some of whom have simply taken the money and run with it. Blistering, brilliant and shocking, this will be the breakout title when it comes to Iraq books, and the catalyst for national debate.
Customer Reviews:
Corruption at its best.......2007-08-27
While the matters in this book have long been alluded to in congressional hearing and the media. this is the first book to gather it up in one volume. It shows an inept government unable to do what was done almost 60 years earlier. Admittedly, the culture and the circumstances were different but the resources were greater. The rampant graft and lack of aggressive action by those in charge, including contractors, is chilling. Have we as a nation state sunk so low?
It presents a thoughtful picture of the risk encountered daily by many employees of contractors. This is the first writing that describes the risk imposed on the professional truckers serving in Iraq. No other writer spells it out so vividly.
This book raises more questions than it supplies answers. Of course, that was the purpose of the book.
No blood money.......2007-05-10
This book is a devastating indictment of the US intervention in Iraq. For the author, the clearest signal of the failure of the reconstruction program is the unabated violence.
The second Iraq war created a paradise for cynical war profiteers, while the Iraqi population was left in the cold. The aid packages were in fact remarkable programs of US domestic handouts and corporate welfare, profiting nearly only to retired Republican operatives, US businessmen and dubious Iraqi exiles with a double agenda.
The profiteers organized an orgy of greed on profit guaranteed contracts. Control was inexistent, e.g., $ 9 billion out of the $ 20 billion of the Iraq Development Fund disappeared without a trace (mind-boggling!). Insurance companies sold mouth watering policies for labor protection. Foreign private security firms played a leading role in the daily violence in Iraq. The contractors hired slave laborers in order to maximize their profits.
The newly installed Iraqi government was not a shade better, e.g., its Defense Ministry misspent or `lost' $ 1.3 billion in its first year in office.
The author illustrates poignantly his terribly shocking exposé with concrete examples of personal tragedies, like the suicide of Col. Ted Westhusing, or the murder by his kidnappers of a 19 year old Nepalese, who paid a broker's fee of $ 3000 for a $ 200 per month job in Iraq.
Miller's book shows also the disastrous effect the UN sanctions had on the Iraqis under Saddam (one schoolbook for every six children).
Its final conclusion is that the Iraqi people didn't receive `blood money' - the payment of compensation by an attacker to the family members of dead or injured loved ones. Instead, they inherited a living standard below the `Saddam' level (no power, no water, no sewage treatment).
This book with its formidable title is a must read for all those interested in world current affairs.
How the US snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.......2007-04-23
This books deserves a Pulitzer Prize for plugging the huge gap in our knowledge of why the spectacular military triumph was succeeded by the even more spectacular reconstruction fiasco that quickly alienated average Iraqis. The press has focused mostly on the daily casualty counts and on the political maneuvering among Iraqi religious and secular leaders. Left unreported has been the story of why the mainstream Iraqi population that was so hopeful after the US toppled Saddam has turned against us in despair. Miller's investigation and reporting skills are remarkable in detailing so much of what went wrong with virtually every aspect of the occupation. Much of the blame is attributable to the unprecedented reliance on profit-driven private sector firms to carry out public policy of rebuilding Iraq -- which was doomed to failure because normal marke forces don't exist to control behavior of corporations left to run amok. Absolute must reading for anyone trying to understand how any American military success can be rapidly and overwhelmingly squandered by failure to plan for all that must follow.
Conservatives should be the most furious.......2007-03-07
Much about the Iraq "war" has been covered. The mythology, the manifest destiny, the lies, the propoganda. But one dimension that's been touched on by Robert Greenwald in "Iraq for Sale" and this fine, fine volume is the profiteering that's going on in Iraq.
Some others critics have commented that the book doesn't list criminals. On the contrary, many are implicated! Indeed, aside from the corporations and their directors who are making out quite literally like bandits, the text also covers the dubious qualifications of those assigned to high positions in Iraq, e.g., persons who were chosen because of their position on Roe v. Wade.
Those who purport to be conservative should be the most angry at what is going on. When they talk about big government, yet refuse to complain when megacorporations are charging the taxpayers--yes, that's you and me--hundreds--THOUSANDS of times what a service is worth there is something wrong. And this book specifies who's getting away with those acts so far. (In a review, I regret I can't get more specific or my review will be eliminated.)
Get this book for yourself and for ALL who still defend what's going on, especially those, again, who claim to be conservatives. This truly is the most important book I've read on the "war" and I'm well-read on the subject. I talked with an attorney referred to in the text who argues that a main motive for the war is to establish a new ruling class. You'll be able to figure out how such a ruling class may be established by reading and pondering this fine volume.
Crime Without Crimnals.......2007-02-05
This book lists crimes but pulls back from from pointing to the criminals.
The crimes themselves are well known to readers of the Internet. There is nothing new here. If you don't pay attention to the Internet the list of crimes and profiteering in Iraq is sobering.
Probably out of a justified fear of retribution the author fails to draw the obvious conclusions of who did what.
Three stars for generalities and one star for specifics= two stars overall.
Customer Reviews:
Police Psychology textbook.......2007-06-21
This book was a requirement for my police psychology class. It reads more like a novel than a textbook, but it's a good book none the less. This book is very detailed about police psychology for the psychologists and the officers.
Book Description
An honest and unflinching look at the final phase of the American empire, and the sources of our decline.
The Twilight of American Culture appeared in 2000 like a thunderbolt, warning that America's corporate culture and rampant materialism would set of an international counter-response. In his new work, Morris Berman discusses the coming collapse of the American economy, the erosion of democratic ideals, and the emergence of a "seamless propaganda machine" that has destroyed popular discourse to the point that we now dwell in a miasma of propagandistic fog. Berman's central point is that it is the specific details of the way we live—our values and daily behavior—that have brought about this state of affairs, from which there can be no return.
Customer Reviews:
A Uniquely Perceptive and Insightful Study.......2007-09-26
This may have been one of the most important books of 2006.
Certainly, there has been tremendous negative attention, considering the author has decided to understand the American character based on the decisions we have made, as a people, over the previous two centuries. The picture that emerges is not the rosiest, and considering how insistent we are as a people on a narrative that can attribute to us no harm and no evil and no mistakes, this is a tremendously powerful and incisive work.
Anyone who is curious as to the future decline of the United States as a global power, as well as the contradiction between our rhetoric in the Middle East and our increasing inability to a fact politics globally, would be happy to read this book. I myself, a student of history, read of the work twice, from cover to cover, and each time founded more rewarding.
Taking a structural point of view, Dr. Berman informs us that the decisions that allowed America to become powerful involved certain preferences for individualism, expansion and exploitation which in the end have turned us, within no less than 30 years, from a great economic engine of the world into the world's largest debtor. It is certainly powerful stuff. No doubt the typical flag-waving crowd will find it unpalatable, but that does not make it any less true.
Scary!.......2007-09-22
I am a German, who lived in the USA from 1980 to 1990. Mr. Berman's description of US society closely matches my own observations, first as a student at CALTECH, later working in North Carolina.
Contrary to some reviewers, I did not find a socialist "slant" in this book, except for the last few (bad, they are the reason for the one star deduction) pages. I am not a historian, so I cannot judge, if the parallels to the Roman empire are accurate or debatable, but it seems clear from the book, that US society is on the downhill path - this is simply not the America where the rule of law prevailed, and which was admired world over anymore.
I am afraid, that Americans, who have never or rarely reavelled abroad will not be able to understand what the author tries to convey.
I recommend the book to anyone, who wants to get a clear picture of contemporary US society, and US values.
It is sad, that the truth looks like this.
Here it comes..........2007-09-21
"As we progress through the centuries, the parallels between contemporary America and late-empire Rome, and the subsequent slide into the Dark Ages, become increasingly suggestive. The third century AD was characterized by near continuous warfare, combined with a collapse of the currency and the rise of a military monarchy" [page 305]. Given what we've witnessed of escalating US military adventures since 1945, the recent weakening of the US dollar to parity with the Canadian dollar, and the rise of the power elite (Eisenhower's "military industrial complex"), Berman's analysis seems accurate.
Berman characterizes a Dark Age as possessing four characteristics: 1) the triumph of religion over reason, 2) the atrophy of education and critical thinking, 3) the integration of religion, the state, and the apparatus of torture, and 4) political and economic marginalization. His ignoring the unconstitutionality of the Federal Reserve Act of 1913, and the actual nature of 911 (adopting a Chomsky-esque "blowback" interpretation) weaken Berman's otherwise insightful analysis. Hopefully, Berman will include such material in subsequent editions of this otherwise well-written, insightful study.
This book - taken together with the online BBC film The Power of Nightmares: The Rise of the Politics of Fear, MJ Mikael's online film The Corporation, CW Mills' The Power Elite, Thomas E Ricks' Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq, Chris Hedges' War Is a Force that Gives Us Meaning, Eustace Mullins' The Secrets of the Federal Reserve - The London Connection, Greg Palast's Armed Madhouse: From Baghdad to New Orleans--Sordid Secrets and Strange Tales of a White House Gone Wild, and Professor David Ray Griffin's Debunking 9/11 Debunking: An Answer to Popular Mechanics and Other Defenders of the Official Conspiracy Theory - provides a good glimpse of just how dark things really have become.
"Individualism" is Not the Problem--It's the Solution.......2007-09-15
While I agree with Mr. Berman's argument that American culture is a vast wasteland, and getting vaster and ever more wasted, I wish he and others wouldn't say that "individualism" is one of the reasons. I'm so tired of hearing this word used as a negative.
Now think: if the great majority of Americans are living a lifestyle of overconsumption and filling themselves with mindless entertainment, if they haven't had an original thought in God-knows-when, if they're dumb and getting dumber, fat and getting fatter, robotic and getting more robotic--how can you possibly call them "individuals?"
What they actually are--and you're not going to like this--is a community. The fact that they don't commune with each other (except through shared references to things outside their own inner experience) doesn't mean they're not a community. Their community's ground rule is that they NOT commune with each other, at least not in any meaningful way. But because they share the same way of life and have the same demands (e.g., "I want my MTV!"), they're a community.
Individualism is our only hope. Only an indvidual can turn off the TV, reconnect to his/her own spirit, and resolve to keep living that way no matter what. And from that position, s/he may create something really ALIVE and model for our American community what it means to BE alive.
When a few not-quite-comatose Americans notice this, they might be tempted to try living the same way. And from what THEY create, a few more might join them, and then a few more until we reach that overused phrase, "the tipping point." And that's how our culture turns back to Life, if it ever will at all.
But don't ever expect that to happen through "more community." These days, that's just another station to tune in and out of, depending on how good its production values are.
The case for America in decline (4.5 *s).......2007-09-11
According to the author, Americans are so steeped in the ideology of Americanism, which consists of bits of individualism, self-centeredness, consumption as primary activity, and above all a belief in the superiority of the American people, that we do not notice the decay of our culture, let alone the pernicious impact of the ongoing efforts of American political and economic elites to impose American values and institutions on the rest of the world. We are unable to see, just like other dominant cultures of the past, that our way of life and our interactions with the rest of the world are unsustainable. The author contends that we, as a nation and as a society, are actually in decline.
The 9/11 attacks were a prime motivation for this book. They were another wakeup call for America: despite their horrific nature, a chance to understand how we are viewed by others. But Americans, encouraged by a particularly non-reflective president, have chosen to understand 9/11 as an attack of Evil upon Good. In that line of thinking, however America chooses to interact with the rest of the world must, by definition, be based on goodness, purity, and light. That is a decidedly arrogant, non-historical attitude. The in-depth analysis that the author undertakes of our foreign policies over just the last fifty years, especially in the Middle East, is precisely what is missing from the American understanding of 9/11. We are constantly changing our positions in our relations with foreign entities, often quite hypocritically. Though we claim to stand for self-determination and democracy, we have suppressed numerous indigenous political movements throughout the world, such as those in Guatemala, Chile, and Iran, while supporting brutal dictatorships in those places and elsewhere. The American people consistently and continually accept the deceptions and justifications for our foreign maneuvers that create tremendous resentment around the world.
The author strongly suggests that it is not surprising that dysfunctional foreign machinations would arise from our culture. He finds our culture to be mindless, isolating, and indifferent to others. We hardly have a sense of community, let alone actual communities. A community in America is a gated enclave in which the residents never interact, or a pseudo town square in a shopping mall in which only shopping activities are permitted. We allow the market place, or more correctly powerful economic entities, to have widespread social effects. For example, job losses are seen to be the result of the workings of a benign marketplace, even empowering in some views, and not as being devastating to families and communities. We as a society have decided to provide virtually no social safety net to counter the harshness of laissez-faire capitalism. Americans are woefully ignorant about community sustaining information such as history, current affairs, the workings of government, etc. Instead American life consists mostly of shopping and being passively entertained - television, spectacles, spectaculars, constant travel, etc. We simply do not have the social inclinations and knowledge to direct a coherent and friendly political approach towards ourselves and other nations and people.
An alarming trend observed by the author is a turn to fundamentalist religion in the US. Perhaps it is a reaction to the emptiness of the standard American life, but it is not a solution. There is a large element of groupthink that goes along with fundamentalism, as well as a rejection of an outlook that questions everything and tries to supply rationality. Fundamentalism produces the simplistic Good vs. Evil outlook that precludes a serious examination of ourselves and our actions. President Bush is perhaps the epitome of that view. Whether it is a cynical stance or not, the President and his handlers have convinced the American people that a permanent War on Terror is necessary to combat pervasive evil. Of course, terror is merely a continuation of the previous incarnation of evil, communism, which permitted all manner of interventions in the world that brought untold misery and damaged our reputation irrevocably.
The book really offers no solutions to the current state of American society and our foreign relations. There may be none. The author regards the American people as the "greatest obstacle to progressive change in the US." He notes that the concept "American people" is almost sacred with any criticisms being especially damaging to the speaker. To place quite so much emphasis on the American people is a bit disingenuous. The fact is that corporations dominate our society: workplaces, schools, information flow, leisure, the material basis of life, definitely the political process - most everything. It is most difficult for individuals, or even large groups, to counter that vast influence. The author notes in particular that the key aspect of our foreign policy is to ensure the free flow of goods produced by American corporations.
History is strewn with countless organizations and even entire societies that have been unable to pull back from debilitating practices and have essentially disappeared. The author does not suggest the pending disappearance of American society, although with America as the hegemon of the world, the environmental effects of global, free-running capitalism could well be devastating to the entire planet, not just the US.
This book is a follow-up to the author's previous work, The Twilight of Capitalism. He is not happy with American culture and this diatribe - not too strong of a word - continues the assault. Yet the malaise and general dysfunctional condition of American society, as noted by Jimmy Carter some thirty years ago, can hardly be dismissed. Most of what the author says cannot be ignored without endangering our own domestic tranquility and our relationships in the world.
Book Description
This book comprehensively covers the debatable issues regarding the post-September 11th wave of terrorism, the multiple roots of this deadly new form of international violence, and the leading ideas being considered as means for the “war on global terrorism” to be won. Informed and informative interpretations, written by the world's most authoritative scholars especially for this book, present a balanced and accessible set of essays and chapters describing the new international terrain that has emerged in the wake of 9-11. A three-part organization breaks the subject of global terrorism into three categories of analysis, and demonstrates to readers that how terrorism is defined will shape the conclusions that are reached about its causes and remedies. For analyzing present and future acts of terrorism, creating awareness of the obstacles to accurately understanding it, and consideration of the strategies for containing the destructiveness of this deadly phenomena.
Customer Reviews:
Best Terrorism Book.......2006-09-15
I rarely give five stars to anything, but this is quite possibly the best terrorism book ever, at least in terms of the sample of readings. Twenty-one chapters in all, the contributors all being well-known scholars in the political science field mainly. The textbook is very scholarly, divided into three parts, corresponding to the purposes of science: description, explanation, and prescription. Each part is excellent, and the book is well-balanced. Part I (description/characteristics)is a little heavy on the theoretical side, especially where there is some repetitive use of the phrase "post-modern" and exploration of historical side roads, but doesn't devolve into a bunch of navel-gazing over definitions and typologies like so many other books do. One could actually "use" the stuff in Part I, either for further theory development or other grounded purposes. Part II (explanation/causes) is probably what most readers would turn to first. It's nothing more than a collection of writings by all the luminaries in the field: Crenshaw, Wilkinson, Rubenstein, Laqueur, Howell, Juergensmeyer, Lewis, and Gurr. One couldn't ask for a better lineup, and although some of the articles have been previously published, a lot of them look like they were updated and revised for this book. Selection bias is always a possibility with books of this kind, and to be sure, the book is overall critical of mindless understanding approaches to counterterrorism, but not overly concessionistic. Military solutions are discussed, and lesser-known authors like Howell write about darwinistic solutions like letting failed states collapse on their own. However, Part III has counterweighting articles like Falk and Johnson's excellent discussions of why the war on terrorism is a moral war against "evil" (in the non-metaphysical sense). The third part of the book isn't about strategy or grand strategy, as one might expect, but is about tactics and counter-tactics, representing, in short, as good of a primer as any, on the political science approaches to counterterrorism option selection. I highly recommend this little book be read by anyone who wants to quickly become an erudite scholar of terrorism. It's highly educative.
Average customer rating:
- An Enlightening Perspective
- Good example of a bad example.
- Christopher Cooper and Robert Block, Disaster: Hurricane Katrina and the Failure of Homeland Security, Reviewed by David B. East
- It's the LEVEES, stupid!
- On operational paralysis
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Disaster: Hurricane Katrina and the Failure of Homeland Security
Christopher Cooper , and
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Release Date: 2006-08-08 |
Book Description
When Hurricane Katrina roared ashore on the morning of August 29, 2005, federal and state officials were not prepared for the devastation it would bring -- despite all the drills, exercises, and warnings. In this troubling expos of what went wrong, Christopher Cooper and Robert Block of The Wall Street Journal show that the flaws go much deeper than out-of-touch federal bureaucrats or overwhelmed local politicians. Drawing on exclusive interviews with federal, state, and local officials, Cooper and Block take readers inside the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Department of Homeland Security to reveal the inexcusable mismanagement during Hurricane Katrina -- the bad decisions that were made, the facts that were ignored, the individuals who saw that the system was broken but were unable to fix it. Americas top emergency response officials had long known that a calamitous hurricane was likely to hit New Orleans, but that seems to have had little effect on planning or execution. Disaster demonstrates that the incompetent response to Hurricane Katrina is a wake-up call to all Americans, wherever they live, about how distressingly vulnerable we remain. Washington is ill equipped to handle large-scale emergencies, be they floods or fires, natural events or terrorist attacks, and Cooper and Block make a strong case for overhauling of the nations emergency response system. This is a book that no American can afford to ignore.
Customer Reviews:
An Enlightening Perspective.......2007-08-24
Other books do better than this one in describing the human impact of Katrina. But this is far and away the best book that I've seen about the series of mistakes that led to the botched response. There were lots of individual failures, but the authors also make it clear that there were massive organizational issues -- issues, I might add, that still have not been fully addressed by Congress or the administration.
Good example of a bad example........2006-11-17
This is a well written tale of how government can get out of touch with reality.
I was completely flabbergasted by the obsession for irrelevant detail Mathew Broderick demanded in the Homeland Security Operations Center. I thought the Marines worked from the idea of the 70% Solution. On the battlefield or in a Disaster you are never going to have the full picture. You just have to go to war with the 70% you do know. This is well covered in "Corps Business: The 30 Management Principles of the U.S. Marines" by David H. Freedman.
The hero of the book for me was Craig Fugate the man who rose from being a firefighter and paramedic to become Florida's Emergency Manager. It is a tragedy for you Americans that he did not take the post of head of FEMA.
At the end of the day the message you get from this book is you are on your own. You might want to dust off your copies of Mel Tappan "On Survival" after you read this.
Christopher Cooper and Robert Block, Disaster: Hurricane Katrina and the Failure of Homeland Security, Reviewed by David B. East.......2006-09-08
Many books have been written and many more will be written about the causes, effects, and responses to Hurricane Katrina. I have even outlined one myself, though I doubt it will come to fruition. Among such a large company, Cooper and Block have done an outstanding job of cataloging and analyzing the failures of the Federal response. They sound clearly the warning bell that the Federal government is ill-prepared to support disaster operations, particularly in the less-prepared states.
They have put together a wonderful timeline of events before, during, and after Katrina. They noted such contextual factors as the local response to Hurricane Dennis, which has been overwhelmingly ignored by the national media. As an early Katrina evacuee, I found it very interesting how much debate was going on in Washington, even as my family was on the evacuation trail.
No book could comprehensively cover a disaster the scale of Katrina. The authors made only passing attempts to chronicle the activities of local and state officials, and those only when the activities impacted the Federal decisions or efforts. They also kept the focus largely on New Orleans, while noting the similarities to the response in other areas. Their narrowness of focus is both a strength and a weakness. The book did not address the fundamental philosophical issues of the role of government in storm response.
The authors have done a wonderful job of providing insight into the personalities and organizations that shaped the national response effort. The chapter on people who worked around the system was an extremely good read as evidence that good people can make a difference when they do the right thing. Overall, the book is worth the read just for the insight into the Katrina timeline from a Federal perspective.
It's the LEVEES, stupid!.......2006-09-04
Every American with a conscience and even those without one should read this book. Many people still think that it was hurricane that flooded New Orleans. It wasn't. Now, I'm thick headed and share some the stupidity currently in fashion in this great country of ours, but I'm not that stupid. This book tells the true tale of the greatest and most shameful Man-Made disaster in the history of this country. So goes New Orleans, so goes the rest of the mythic melting pot. Read this now. You'll know a lot more about what really happened and continues to happen.
On operational paralysis.......2006-09-04
If you're not angry when you finish reading "Disaster: Hurricane Katrina and the Failure of Homeland Security," then you didn't read it carefully enough. Written by two Wall Street Journal reporters -- Christopher Cooper and Robert Block -- this book offers context for the federal government's failed response to Hurricane Katrina last year.
Anyone who's ever worked for the federal government won't be surprised to learn that operational results are often less than the sum of their bureaucratic and even well-meaning parts.
But finger-pointers take note: Highlighting the federal government's miserable performance is not tantamount to forgiving an ineffective state and local response. Identifying federal failures merely confirms that, in the end, there's more than enough blame to go around.
"Disaster" is about much more than the anguished wait of those at the Superdome or the Convention Center for days after last August's storm. It's about the bureaucratic bungling that eventually led to FEMA being utterly unprepared to handle the crisis it faced last summer.
"Disaster" is more than a history of failure of the levees and floodgates around New Orleans. It's a detailed recounting of how different arms of the federal government failed to protect an urban population for which it had primary responsibility and how, once disaster struck, that same federal government demonstrated itself to be equally incapable of offering aid.
Aside from a slow-motion retelling of the mistakes that led to the crisis that was post-Katrina New Orleans, "Disaster" is also a disturbing articulation of how national emphasis on homeland security (read: protection against terror attacks) seems to have come at the expense of preparing for the more likely scenarios of hurricanes, floods, fires and earthquakes.
Given the volume of resources hurled at the Department of Homeland Security since its formation after September 11, it may be reasonable to expect that department to handle disasters of both types, but the book's most damning message comes from its conclusion:
"When disaster strikes, we are all on our own."
Amazon.com
George Orwell envisioned Big Brother as an outgrowth of a looming totalitarian state, but in this timely survey Robert O'Harrow Jr. portrays a surveillance society that's less centralized and more a joint public/private venture. Indeed, the most frightening aspect of the Washington Post reporter's thoroughly researched and naggingly disquieting chronicle lies in the matter-of-fact nature of information hunters and gatherers and the insatiable systems they've concocted. Here is a world where data is gathered by relatively unheralded organizations that smooth the way for commercial entities to find the good customers and avoid dicey ones. Government of course too has an interest in the data that's been mined. Information is power, especially when trying to find the bad guys. The mutually compatible skills and needs shared by private and public snoopers were fusing prior to the attacks of 9/11, but the process has since gone into hyperdrive. O'Harrow weaves together vignettes to record the development of the "security-industrial complex," taking pains to personalize his chronicle of a movement that's remained (perhaps purposefully) faceless. Recognizing the appeal of state-of-the-art systems that can track down a murderer/rapist with heretofore unimaginable speed, the author recognizes, too, that the same devices can mistakenly destroy reputations and cast a pall over a free society. In a post-9/11 world where homeland security often trumps personal liberty, this work is an eye-opener for those who take their privacy for granted. --Steven Stolder
Book Description
In No Place to Hide, award-winning Washington Post reporter Robert O'Harrow, Jr., pulls back the curtain on an unsettling trend: the emergence of a data-driven surveillance society intent on giving us the conveniences and services we crave, like cell phones, discount cards, and electronic toll passes, while watching us more closely than ever before. He shows that since the September 11, 2001, terror attacks, the information industry giants have been enlisted as private intelligence services for homeland security. And at a time when companies routinely collect billions of details about nearly every American adult, No Place to Hide shines a bright light on the sorry state of information security, revealing how people can lose control of their privacy and identities at any moment.
Now with a new afterword that details the latest security breaches and the government's failing efforts to stop them, O'Harrow shows us that, in this new world of high-tech domestic intelligence, there is literally no place to hide.
As O'Harrow writes, "This book is all about you and your personal information -- and the story isn't pretty."
Download Description
"In No Place to Hide, award-winning Washington Post reporter Robert O'Harrow, Jr., lays out in unnerving detail the post-9/11 marriage of private data and technology companies and government anti-terror initiatives to create something entirely new: a security-industrial complex. Drawing on his years of investigation, O'Harrow shows how the government now depends on burgeoning private reservoirs of information about almost every aspect of our lives to promote homeland security and fight the war on terror. Consider the following: When you use your cell phone, the phone company knows where you are and when. If you use a discount card, your grocery and prescription purchases are recorded, profiled, and analyzed. Many new cars have built-in devices that enable companies to track from afar details about your movements. Software and information companies can even generate graphical link-analysis charts illustrating exactly how each person in a room is related to every other -- through jobs, roommates, family, and the like. Almost anyone can buy a dossier on you, including almost everything it takes to commit identity theft, for less than fifty dollars. It may sound like science fiction, but it's the routine activity of the nation's fast-growing information industry and, more and more, its new partner the U.S. government. With unrivaled access, O'Harrow tells the inside stories of key players in this new world, from software inventors to counterintelligence officials. He reveals how the government is creating a national intelligence infrastructure with the help of private companies. And he examines the impact of this new security system on our traditional notions of civil liberties, autonomy, and privacy, and the ways it threatens to undermine some of our society's most cherished values, even while offering us a sense of security. This eye-opening examination takes readers behind the walls of secrecy and shows how we are rushing toward a surveillance society with few rules to guide and protect us. In this new world of high-tech domestic intelligence, there is literally no place to hide. "
Customer Reviews:
Very thorough.......2007-05-11
This book is the result of a very thorough and detailed investigation. Some of the chapters are more exciting than you'd expect from a book like this. For some other chapters you need a little interest in politics.
Gives you an overview of the current situation.......2007-03-27
Robert O'Harrow writes about what data can be collected on individuals, who collects it and who uses it. In a nutshell, data is collected by the various parts of the government (CIA, NSA, etc) and private businesses. Some of the private businesses sell the collected data further, and some of this is also used by law enforcement (including PIs and 'bounty hunters'). This latter issue can be of concern if you think you might one day have to deal with an disgruntled ex-spouse, ex-employee (or a current employees ex-) or have a relative who might be searched by bounty hunters.
If you have an understanding of the technical aspects of what can be done with information technology, the book probably would not surprise you much at all. However, you might still find it interesting (I know I did) for providing a clearer picture of the extent of data gathering. The only drawback with the book is that, overall, it can be a bit tedious to read.
In any case this book is a good 'companion' to a book of privacy called "How to be invisible" by J.J. Luna. Together with the information in Luna's book, it helps provide an answer to the question "why should I need to be invisible?"
While Robert O'Harrow does not write about what you can do to minimize the data gathered about you, he helps provide a motivation for you to take necessary steps so that that data can not be used to connect your actual name with your actual residence. How to do this (legally) is discussed in J.J. Luna's book.
How to Be Invisible: The Essential Guide to Protecting Your Personal Privacy, Your Assets, and Your Life (Revised Edition)
[Later addition: I happened to find a website that sells a DVD titled "Privacy is dead", containing a presentation by Steven Rambam (a P.I.). Steven's presentation is about the amount of information available on each person in the U.S. and how easily this can be retrieved. I have not viewed the DVD so I do not know how 'good' it is, but if you are interested, you can find it with a search engine. Recommendation: check the Wikipedia article on the speaker before buying the DVD.]
Must read.......2007-01-06
This is a must read for anyone with any concern for personal privacy
Begin to consider .......2006-09-06
The title says it all: you cannot remain anonymous or hidden any more, anyone with the will or intent can find out a wealth of information about you, and resistance is futile. O'Harrow goes through a laundry list of means that are utilized to capture and share information about you, all without your knowledge or consent. There are companies that exist solely for the purpose of gathering and selling personal information. That's capitalism at work for you (or is it against you?). A fact of life in the information age is that things that make life much easier and simpler for us are also the primary sources for diminishing our privacy. This double-edged sword really does cut both ways, since it is a price we pay for ease, convenience and protection. The irony is that we have struggled and fought for our freedom, yet are not able to survive today without the protections afforded by these measures. It is frightening to think that we can be tracked by satellite when we use GPS in our cars or when we use a credit card at a store. Our grocers know our buying habits because we use their store's discount cards in order to save ourselves money. Phone records indicate whom we called and at what time. Just try to live today without credit cards or a phone! It is difficult to ascertain O'Harrow's purpose for writing this book because he leaves many conclusions to us. Does he take some perverse pleasure in making us feel powerless? Or perhaps he is alerting us to information collecting methods so that we take precautionary measures? We can take precautions, yet if our identity is stolen, laws are designed to protect credit card companies, not us. Only as a majority would we be able to reverse this trend and return to anonymity, though what would be the repercussions of this? Whatever the purpose for the book, it is reasonably informative and at the very least should spur us to contemplate this topical and pervasive issue.
Balanced But . . ........2006-04-13
If I could write as well as:
It Can Happen Here, and It Already Is Happening, February 13, 2005
Reviewer: Steve Koss (New York, NY United States)
I would write the same review.
I just want to add the author does not really spell out how this new information age can be misused, especially for those who do not see the value of civil liberties in more classical setting (road blocks for drunks, moranda (sp?) rights etc.
He also describes the power and potential, at the same time limits of these new technologies to find terrorists who live on very modest spending - leaving it to the reader to try to figure out which it is - but as this technology evolves this may change anyway.
I wonder when the FBI could not act on information from their own Minneapolis office was giving them and with porous ports, and with terrorist simply sent back to Canada to try to enter again just how effective this will be.
Customer Reviews:
understanding the chilling trend of "Children at War".......2007-03-05
Back in the mid-1990s I spent many months reporting on child soldiers in places including Sierra Leone, Liberia and the Democratic Republic of Congo. I wrote from the immediacy of a journalist's perspective, but was unable to examine the cause-and-effect realities of this disturbing phenomenon. In "Children at War" P. W. Singer has produced a truly important study of the socio-cultural, economic and historic causes behind the militarization of children in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Singer's work is an incredibly valuable contribution to further the study and understanding of armed conflict in the post Cold War-era. This book is a must read for anyone interested in the welfare of children and the state of our world in often-neglected locations such as sub-Saharan Africa. It is also an insightful look at how "warlordism" and the greed driving so-called commodity wars is changing the face of modern armed conflict.
Cheaper wars mean more wars.......2007-02-15
As far as I know, Singer is the first to point out that child warriors are making possible a new kind of war, a war without ideology or purpose other than taking something someone else has. Adults fight better with a cause and a purpose--children are more easily drugged, brainwashed, and cut off from other support. They can also be far crueler in battle and harder to rehabilitate. Singer points to responses to lessen the problem, but she is far from optimistic.
Infomative, Disturbing, and Thought-Provoking.......2006-11-19
No one should consider themselves well-informed about contemporary international conflict unless they are aware of the child soldier problem. Singer should be commended as Children at War covers all of the necessary material in a practical way. The book is not marred by opinion or bias; it simply presents the facts on topics that range from recruitment to strategies that should be utilized when standard (specifically Western) armies must engage armies or militias that incorporate child soldiers.
First, I should say that despite my three star rating, I wholeheartedly recommend this book to anyone who is looking for an informed and well-rounded look at child warfare. Singer's writing style is easy to read in that it uses simple language and is clearly meant to be accessible; however, (and this is the reason for the three stars) he can be quite repetitive. Although one could argue that the information in this book needs to be drilled into everyone's head, reading the same sentence many times over, only with slightly different wording, can get old quickly.
As a warning, the descriptions and quotes in Children at War can be terribly disturbing. Assuming you are a human being, you will find that this book will leave you at times speechless, at times depressed, and at times unable to read on.
Superb Introduction to this disturbing aspect of modern international affairs.......2006-08-15
Being an International Relations student about to embark on a years study on this subject I was looking for a solid grounding on which to begin my study and this provided a perfect answer. Singer uses simple dialogue and logical progression in his publication to provide information on the recruting of child soldiers, what they are subjected to in the field, the difficulty of soldiers facing children, the worst culprits, reintegration of soldiers and proposed methods of ending this aspect of modern warfare.
An important aspect of this book that isn't mentioned so much is its discussions on how military forces should approach fighting child soldiers. As a potential officer of the future I felt this was particularly important, Singer mentions that the US Army supplied early drafts of this book to its officers as guidelines for potential situations so clearly they believe his suggestions hold merit also.
It should be noted that any reader should of course expect some horrific details from this book, I had expected these but was sickened by some of the stories. There are particularly brutal aspects that you could not imagine, just a word of warning as one of the accounts has left me particularly troubled by hummanity.
In conclusion I believe this book to be a perfect introductory reading to anyone studying, or simply interested, in the subject. I would also state that those more advanced in the topic should look at this book as, if the information and proposals are not new to you, the research is excellent and so the references can provide you with more resources that you may potentially have not yet accessed.
Altogether a superb book, ideal for anyone wishing to gain further knowledge in the subject area.
Chilling, Sad, Provocative, Scholarly.......2006-07-28
The Author writes about a chilling new chapter in post-modern warfare. It is a very objective and scholarly work that covers in comprehensive detail the underlying causes, recruitment, implications and response to "Child Soldiers". The author calls this a "new Doctrine" and not only covers the problems, techniques, tactics and procedures; but, also offers lessons learned and suggestions for countering this new dimension of warfare.
As a doctrine developer and trainer to the new Afghan National Army, I found this book extremely valuable. Despite the fact that you may get either emotional or angry at the author for how he conveys his message in select chapters, I strongly recommend that you purchase this book. If you are preparing to deploy to OIF or OEF, Buy this book and struggle through the entire book. In some cases you may feel like skipping chapters or even throwing it away, Dont do either. Read for Understanding
Terry Tucker,Adjunct Prof Military Studies/History
Trainer and Doctrine Developer to the Afghan National Army
Combined Security Transition Command-Afghanistan
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