Empire, Sorrows, Hubris, Blowback – Page 26

Important contribution, not the whole picture, June 14, 2009

Paul Driessen

I shifted from four to five stars despite the gaps in this book's coverage because on second reading, it does what it set out to do very very well. I will review the other book I bought with this one, The Real Environmental Crisis: Why Poverty, Not Affluence, Is the Environment's Number One Enemy tonight or tomorrow.

What I find especially compelling about this book is that it blows the lid off “non-profits” that are in fact a form of unregulated racketeering, extortion and propaganda (lies). It is completely different from The Skeptical Environmentalist: Measuring the Real State of the World which has its own data quality and analytic integrity issues.

I admire the author's early observation that corporations and non-profits have taken on too many similar characteristics, “to strethc the truth….reinvent relality…substitute hype, spin and clever advertising for honest….and play fast and loose with ethics, the law and the numbers.”

WOW.

The author does a good job of calling into question the applicability and reasonableness of how and when the four pillars of environmentalism are applied:

01) Stakeholder participation (when those representing the poor are not themselves poor and have never talked to a poor person)

02) Sustainable development (as opposed to sustained develop)

03) Preacautionary principle (see my review of Protecting Public Health and the Environment: Implementing The Precautionary Principle

04) Socially Responsible Investing

I am totally impressed by his skewering of specific non-profits (names are named, numbers are provided) that are nothing more than extortion schemes, lacking all academic and scientific credence and relying instead on hit and run lies, orchestrated publicity, etc.

The author impresses with the number of examples and well-cited sources, and two stand out: Greenpeace's lies regarding the Shell oil platform, lies they ultimately apologies for; and Zimbabwe's refusing 26 tons of corn from the USA for the starving poor of Zambia because their dictator was persuaded that the corn was in some manner toxic, genetically modified, and in violation of European trade policies.

I learn the concept of “dead capital” (what our Native Americans would have called a “commonwealth” that could not be deeded), and I see very good discussion of fair trade versus free trade and why wage equivalency may not be the best thing for all concerned.

The author has a fine chapter on the myths of renewable resources but ignored geothermal–the book also ignores nuclear, which may be a non-negotiable intermediate solution for Africa and Central Asia.

The entire discussion of DDT being banned and its consequences in terms of 20 million dead per year from malaria is very worthwhile–I may not buy in to the entire argument, but I certainly respect the author and would want him in the room as a counter-weight to others.

I absolutely love the concluding chapter on investor fraud and the cozy relationships among the non-profit racketeers and the corporations and their CEOs that end up buying into lies for profit and a “bye.”

The bibliography and notes and index are all worth perusing.

I am loading an image of the standard information patholigies that I address (up under the cover of the book being reviewed) and will end with an appreciative note for the importance of truth and morality that the author represents, demanding it from ALL sides. In that he is endorsed by Patrick Moore, a Greenpeace co-founder, who appears mortified at some of the lies and malpractices that Greenpeace today has promulgated or adopted.

Other books I recommend that the author is not really focused on:
The Next Catastrophe: Reducing Our Vulnerabilities to Natural, Industrial, and Terrorist Disasters
Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution
The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid: Eradicating Poverty Through Profits (Wharton School Publishing Paperbacks)
The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom
A More Secure World: Our Shared Responsibility–Report of the Secretary-General's High-level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change
Ecological Economics: Principles And Applications
Collective Intelligence: Creating a Prosperous World at Peace

IO disagree with the author on one point: helping the poor as the expense of the environment is not a given. We spend 2.2 trillion a year on war and violence, when one third of that amount could give every one of the five billion a free cell phone (education one call at a time as advocated by Earth Intelligence Network), shelter, clean water, and a basic diet. (see calculations by Medard Gabel, EO Wilson, and Lester Brown).

This is a fine book, it may be a subsidized book (Heritage Foundation is in the mix) but it passes my smell test. Absolutely a voice to be heard.

2008/08/112009/10/30

Review: War and Decision–Inside the Pentagon at the Dawn of the War on Terrorism

4 Star, Decision-Making & Decision-Support, Empire, Sorrows, Hubris, Blowback, Intelligence (Government/Secret), Iraq, Politics, Power (Pathologies & Utilization), War & Face of Battle

Articulate Vindictive Oblivious but Ultimately Necessary Reading, April 11, 2008

Douglas J. Feith

This book is essential reading for historians and those concerned with national security reform. It is not recommended for normal people, including those that have strong political views one way or the other. You will get much better value simply by reading reviews of a 100 related books starting with the ten below, and buying the book Fixing Failed States and checking out the reviews of the books I recommend there.

I read the Index after the Table of Contents and before I actually read the book. It became immediately evident to me that:

1) The index stinks in not including place names like Jalabad, Tora Bora, Kandahar, etcetera.

2) The author has written a personal account that opens with a concise (even impressive) summary of the high points of “alleged” criticisms and conspiracy claims, but with the exception of Bob Woodward, I could not find a single other reputable author in the index (see my list of ten books below, a token of the 100+ books that generally refute most of what this author has to say at the external level). I have no doubt this author is honest and credible on the details he knows, but as with the Viet-Nam rejoinder, “so what”, I really question whether the author–good man that he is–is at all in touch with reality. Baer, Bamford, Clarke, Ritter, etc. do NOT appear in this book's index or footnotes that I could find.

Getting into the book, I am immediately impressed by the existence of a supporting website (waranddecision.com just add the www) and I am generally very impressed with the level of detail, the sequencing of information, the able reference to those he talked with by name. There is no question in my mind about the authenticity of this book. The author speaks from his mind and his heart, he is not dumb, just self-centered.

As the book progresses, I am astonished by several factors:

1) Dick Cheney appears only 28 times in this book, and not before page 53. The Cheney-Rumsfeld relationship is one that was evidently not shared by the author. He consequently is oblivious to the reality that Dick Cheney orchestrated 935 distinct documented lies in the rush to war; and committed 25 distinct impeachable offenses, not least of which was leveraging the nine advance warnings of the plans to attack the World Trade Center to allow a Pearl Harbor.

2) I had to go forward to read Chapter 6 (“Why Iraq”) because of the prominence of the author's claim of the many “proven” instances in which Iraq trained, supported, or financed terrorism, but I quickly note that the author makes no reference at all the many proven open sources, including the former President of Czechoslovakia, who totally trashed this assertion.

3) The author is actively deceptive on more than one occasion. He cites the New York Times as “evidence” while casually neglecting to mention that he is citing the notorious Judith Miller, a fellow traveler at least, if not an active agent of influence for Israel.

4) The author is critical of the CIA throughout the book, including Milt Bearden whom I happen to respect greatly, and while I myself think CIA needs to be burned to the ground, I do not respect the manner in which the author manages to completely disrespect by omission of three major facts:

+ CIA got it right on WMD. Between the son in law that defected and the 30+ legal travelers that Charlie Allen orchestrated, CIA established without a shadow of a doubt that they kept the cookbooks, poured the stocks into the river (something that will have downstream impacts for decades), and were bluffing for regional sake. Since Rumsfeld and Cheney delivered the original WMD supplies and the joke is they kept the receipts, what I see here is an elegant concealment of the reality that the Pentagon was not about to listen to the CIA no matter what. The fact is that the professional CIA got it right, George Tenet sacrificed his integrity, and the White House was able to ignore secret intelligence because both the CIA professionals and the Pentagon's flag officers drank the koolaid and confused loyalty with integrity to their Constitutional oaths of office. ALL of our checks and balances failed us.

+ The author infuriates me with the manner in which he blatantly misleads the reader about how he and Rumsfeld triumphed in pushing for both early precision targetting inside Afghanistan, and the push to Kabul prior to the winter. He is maliciously evil in failing to credit the CIA teams that are described in “First In” and “Jawbreaker” and he can be excused for not being told that Putin told Bush he could take Kabul before the winter. Obviously the author does not read widely, and one can understand how immersed he might be in the reality of his own creation.

+ He misleads the reader in parroting Ahmed Chalabi's accusations against the CIA, while failing to point out that CIA fired Chalabi for stealing and lying; that Chalabi was convicted in Jordan for embezzlement; and that Chalabi is almost certainly a very well paid agent of influence for Iran, one reason most in Iraq's leadership circles want nothing to do with him.

In passing, there is no mention in this book of our love fest with 42 of 44 dictators; there is active (virulent) hatred for Colin Powell and Rich Armitage (I would follow either over any hill), nor is there any mention, as the book draws to a close, that ignorant treasonous rendition and torture aside, the score for nailing terrorists right now is CIA 40+, DoD zero (I may not know of one or two).

I bought and labored through this book because James Schlesinger recommended it and because it may be the only book among the 100 or so I have read circling the sordid regime from 2000-2008, that comes from one of the avowed “insiders.” I give the author high marks for his homework, his documentation, and his writing.

Doug Feith is what you get when you agree to elect one man who picks a few cronies that pick other cronies who in turn orchestrate their kind of crony in Afghanistan and Iraq and elsewhere. In Singapore, I am told, one must have a Master of Business Administration before being qualified to run for Parliament. We don't need to go that far. I believe that in the General Election, we must demand that Presidential candidates appoint a Cabinet in advance of election, at least three of whom must participate in the debate process (State, Defense, Attorney General), *and* they must produce a balanced budget proposal for public scrutiny at least 90 days before Election Day. It's time to put Citizen Wisdom back into the Republic.