author: Michael Hastings
name: Elaine
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at: 2013/06/24
date added: 2013/06/24
shelves: autobiography, biography, history, non-fiction, politics
review:
Just finished reading and am still somewhat overwhelmed by a sense of despair. Which is to say that this was a really good book. The author did what I think is a very admirable thing: he took the access that he was given, and instead of using it to get more access, he actually shared what he saw. And put it into the context of things outside of those bubbles. Setting the ideology of the “COINdinistas” up against the reality of both on the ground and surveys like those done by RAND. (Look up “How Terrorist Groups End”, for example.) I haven’t been especially happy about the war in general, but this was…vivid and immediate.
(Minus one star for overly “Rolling Stone” style, which I suppose I ought to have been expecting.)