Fundamental Reference from 1970's When Government Betrayal of the Public Trust Began,
October 11, 2008
Donella Meadows, Jorgen Randers, Denniss Meadows
Although there are those who remain in denial about the foresight and wisdom of this book, today we are left in no doubt: there *are* limits to growth, and those who refuse to accept such realities accelerate the demise of our planet while also ignoring the depradations upon the public of corporations, religions, crime families and networks, and the “states” whose officials they all bribe and subvert.
The good news is that an entire literature has developed from this one little book, and there is a growing public awareness–as well as growing financial and corporate awareness–of the urgency of harmonizing our human behavior with the larger Earth system of which we are a part.
Seminal Work of Lasting Value, Still the Best Overall, October 11, 2008
R. M. Maciver
I am reliving my first graduate degree as I develop a new book, and when the occasion warrants, coming back into Amazon to comment on especially wonderous books. This is one of them.
MacIver has still not, to my knowledge, been equaled. Here is my summary of his book written in 1975, and still valid.
A pleasure to read, MacIver is the most useful focal point for the study of the modern state. An introduction defines the state as an association characterized by a limiting concept of sovereignty and the rule of law.
The first of four books deals with the emergence of the state; its origins, early empire, the emergence of citizenship (including the impact of the cities on associations and on the stratification and organization of society), a nd the formation of the country-state through feudalism and nationality.
Book two discusses the powers and functions of the state; the limits of political control, the residence of authority, might and sovereignty, law and order, and the relations betwseen political government and economic order. An excellent descriptive chart is offered that divides the functions of the state in its internal aspect into order, protection, and conservation & development. Within each category, the role of the state vis-a-vis the physical habits and social structure of the society from which it stems is seen to imply related and elaborative activities.
Book three explores the forms and institutions of the state, the articulation of governmental powers, and the party system.
The fourth and final book, dealing with theories and interpretations of the state, outlines very quickly the evolution of these theories, moving on to focus on two major issues in political thought: the issue of individualism and collectivism, and the attack on sovereignty.
In concluding, MacIver offers a very acceptable and timely reinterpretation of the state as an association among other associations–as an organ of the community and thus an organ whose power must be limited in relation to its functions, which in turn must be constrained by the state's inherent impulse, despite its dependency on its public, to encompass and dominate all that falls within its assigned territory.
MacIver remains utterly brilliant and so very relevant to our condition.
Helpful, Illuminating, and Inspiring, October 12, 2008
Jerry Boykin
I ordered this biography on a whim, as one of a dozen books on irregular warfare that I am using to review the thoughts of others before I publish my own book. When the three boxes from Amazon arrived, this book was buried under others, but was immediately the most attractive for the week-end.
Several important insights are available from this book:
1) Charlie Beckwith, whose book Delta Force: The Army's Elite Counterterrorist Unit I really enjoyed, especially the part where he refused to leave a British field hospital for an American one, learned from the SAS the most important lesson it had to teach, and brought it to DELTA: to be *truly* unconventional, to be *truly* irregular, you must be UNMILITARY. From this page (69) I simply relaxed and enjoyed a great account. I got what I was looking for, sooner than expected.
2) The 12-hour long march from point to point is a time-tested method of screening for individuals who have inherent resolve that cannot be trained for. I quote from page 78: “The Army can train a man to spy, shoot, blow things up, and kill with his bare hands. But it cannot instill in a man the series of two-sided personality coins that cash out as a successful operative: patience and aggression, precision and audacity, the ability to lead or fall in line. Above all, the Army cannot instill resolve beyond physical and mental limits.”
3) In the above context, faith is helpful, and faith cannot be taken for granted. Early on I enjoyed the author's explanation of how he reconciled faith with a profession that wages death (for life), finding that every war is a spiritual battle. The author explicitly identifies America as God's land of faith and tolerance, and I agree with him.
4) On page 130, he concludes that some men are evil and simply need to be killed. I agree with that completely. In the 1990's when I first started advocating the need to shift away from the Soviet Union and toward Third World terrorists and criminals, I used the phrase, “one man, one bullet.” We still cannot do that today, while the Navy and the Air Force continue to buy fewer really big things for more and more money.
I enjoyed every minute with this book. This is not a “shoot 'em book.” This is, as the subtitle communicates, the story of an extraordinary individual, a man born and trained to be the best possible fighter, who found faith and kept faith with God and America. He is “the way it ought to be.”
George Bush Junior betrayed all of us in crucifying and disavowing General Boykin in the face of media lies and exaggerations for which the author was fully exonerated by two Inspector General endeavors.
Other tid-bits:
+ 1 of three officers to make cut in creating DELTA. Peter Schoomaker was another.
+ DELTA pool was 118 of whom 25 finished the Long Walk, of whom 19 were selected (in the first class)
+ Boykin's dad was one of five brothers who served in “The Good War,” three in the Army, two in the Navy.
+ He was 6 feet tall and weighed 180 lbs in the eighth grade.
+ Played guitar and wound up playing at World's Fair in 1965 (the thought, “well-rounded” came into my head–not a thug stereotype)
+ Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets
+ Drawn to brotherhood of infantry, inspired by Viet-Nam stories.
+ One of his coaches taught him that faith and reality could go together
+ Once married, his first child drove him to the Dean's List
+ “I really wanted to learn everything the Army had to teach.”
+ Found faith for real in the Army, it filled a void.
+ He LIKED Ham and Lima Beans in C-Rats. That alone makes him strange in an amusing sort of way. I always thought of that C-Ration as one step down from bread and water.
+ He had his failures, in both school and the Army, but they drove him to excel and honors came his way when he bore down.
+ Aide de Camp tour in Korea got him to Viet-Nam for three months, and gave him a strategic understanding of the Army
+ Lost the general's dog, ended up running him down. Very funny.
+ Was one of the originals as paratroopers migrated into air assault.
+ Almost shut out of DELTA by the shrink for “excessive faith in God,” but he connected with Beckwith in the final interview and got in, the clear message being that the faith was not misplaced.
+ Excellent discussion of the time value of instinctive shooting (with the necessary training) over aimed fire–life of a hostage, the first takes one second, the second takes two seconds, time for the hostage to be killed.
+ Beckwith understood the killing nature of bureaucracy
+ I have a note, this book is the anti-thesis to Colin's Powell's biography, My American Journey and a shorter different book-end to Hackworth's About Face: Odyssey of an American Warrior
The author takes us through a number of operations in a manner that does not compromise any tradecraft and is not tedious. I appreciated very much the light once over on Tehran (the students thought they would have to get out in three days, they under-estimated the timidity of the US under President Carter), Sudan, Graneda which was not a surprise and for which CIA had no intelligence of substance for the fighters, Panama, Somalia, and then Bosnia.
Sixteen pages of photos are in the middle of the book, all appropriate and helpful. There is no index.
I thought to end this review with several of the phrases from the Bible that the author quoted in the book. I bought Leadership Lessons of Jesus: A Timeless Model for Today's Leaders because it was on sale in the uniform store at MacDill, and now that I have read this book, believe that our Irregulars of the future will be well-served by being required to understand faith, and to memorize portions of the Bible, the Koran, and other Holy Scriptures (just think of the impact as shown in Lawrence of Arabia, when his completing a reading instantly won over King Faisal and sidelined the conventional colonel).
“I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” John 9.4-5
“He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.” Isaiah 40
“For they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up on wings of eagles, they shall run and not be weary and they shall walk and not faint.” Isaiah 40.31, faxed from around the world as he struggled to survive a 50 caliber bullet shattering a radio into his body.
Amazon won't let me have more than ten links, but this one, by Navy Capt Doug Johnston, is worth a close look: Faith-Based Diplomacy. There is an intersection of UNMILITARY, faith, and Irregular War: Waging Peace that no one in power seems to understand.
I put this book down several times over a week and picked up another, but I finally finished it, and that brings it up from three to four stars.
Here are my notes and some quotes, and I must say, given better organization and editing, this book probably deserve to earn five stars, but not in its current state.
It is important to note that the author, in lamenting the total breakdown of the Democratic Party, did not anticipate the outright purchase of the Party by the Trilateral Commission and the financial industry that fielded both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama (a protege of Zbigniew Brzezinski, who also gave us Jimmy Carter). A very exciting “show” is being run, and regardless of which candidate wins, we all lose as the two criminally-corrupt parties remain under the direct control of the financial elite.
+ Progressive ideas have been defeated by dirty tricks and fraud
+ “mainstream” Dems are dead, the best action is happening on the margins and bottom up
+ New word for me: optiholic
+ Democratic Party not listening to youth or foot-soliders, “give us your money, we'll tell you when we want to hear from you.”
+ Liberals long for the past, progressives certain the future is bright.
+ League of Independent Voters rising in influence
+ Labor has dropped out [I would say more bluntly, labor leaders have been bought off and completely betrayed the labor rank and file]
+ Democrats close their local offices after the funding dries up, not organized for year-round operations
+ Need new ways to empower new networks (young, new immigrants, color)
+ Democratic Party is NOT the Progressive Coalition–some overlap
+ Red is not Red, Blue is not Blue
+ Cities are fighting federal efforts to retard wages, demanding and imposing living wages
+ Democrats not taking cities seriously
+ People across the Nation are against draconian drug laws and huge prison populations with attendant costs
+ Author believes that conservatives have locked down the national policy process while progressives are finding their voice in cities
+ I am introduced to the term “losing forward”
+ Local democrats are succeeding when they ignore the lack of support from the national party and go local, do what the party won't do
+ LIBERAL FOUNDATIONS SPEND TEN PERCENT OF WHAT CONSERVATIVE FOUNDATIONS SPEND ON ELECTION MESSAGES
+ Democratic Party is losing revenue from contributions to an increasing preference for grass root local organizations
+ Progressive activitists are focusing on “movement” instead of the national party focus on “getting out the vote.” [As I write this ACORN is under multiple investigations while the media has not noticed or chosen not to cover fraud on the right]
+ KEY POINT: DEMOCRATS CAN NO LONGER COUNT ON BLACK CHURCHES AND LABOR UNIONS
+ Will take ten more years to create viable grass roots coalition
+ Too much focus on electing Democrats instead of achieving outcomes
+ PARTY AGENDA IS FIXED, IGNORES SOCIAL NETWORKS AND LOCALIZED GRIEVANCES
+ Democratic Party is still focused on top-down and direct mail instead of bottom up local empowerment.
+ BLISTERING ON “LIP-SYNCH LIBERALISM”
+ Citing Charon Asetoyer, “one size fits all slogans do not work”
+ Democrats losing it on Language, networks, credibility
+ Right has BOTH the dollars AND the captive idological media that carries entire populations from cradle to grave (talk radio, think tanks, national organs) [I have a note, Left just has MSNBC & NYT]
+ Dump Lieberman was a bottom up citizens movement that recognized his betrayal of Democratic interests and took matters into their own hands–this is reported to have freaked out the Democratic leadership
+ Disc jockeys have more political power today than most realize, and they can “deliver” thousands to the streets at any given time and place
+ 62% of the Democratic state committees do not have permanent communications directors (or an annual campaign)
+ NEW ORLEANS ONE YEAR AFTER KATRINA: ONE THIRD STILL WITHOUT ELECTRICITY
Ends with comments on campaign fraud, and I have a final note, crummy sources and crummy endnotes.
A couple of quotes that I felt should be shared here:
“The United States more closely resembles a purplish smorgasbord than a blue-red sandwich.” (p. 35)
“People are craving leadership that is real.” (p. 124)
This book is more of a personal essay, the result of a personal “walk-about” that pays little heed to other books in the democracy and progressive domain, other than the first one in the list below, that is cited several times by the author. See these other books for a left-oriented take on what needs to be done to restore democracy in the USA. I MUST EMPHASIZE MY VIEW: THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY IS REPUBLICAN LITE–THEY ARE BOTH CORRUPT AND BOTH HAVE BETRAYED THE PEOPLE'S TRUST.
I have lost patience for this kind of book. I recommend the other ten books instead (and the last two, which I wrote, are free online, so I am not pushing them for purchase)
1) Our economy went into the gutter when Senator Phil Gramm (R-TX), then Chair for Banking, slipped a 200+ page bill written by lobbyists into a must fund larger bill, with the result that no senators read it (as they did not read the Patriot Act), and it deregulated–completely–the financial marketplace, ending the walls between banking (which lends on tangibles) and investment (which speculates on intangibles).
2) DERIVATIVES is code for fantasy cash. I was not smart enough to see this myself, but Bogle, Soros, Buffet, Perot, Nader, they all saw it, they tried to brief it, and in the case of Nader, got laughed off the Hill. Sub-prime mortgages were the match that lit the fire, not the straw itself.
3) Goldman Sachs is forever, Washington's two criminal parties have been bought and paid for. Rubin did not bail out Mexico. He bailed out Wall Street's bad investments in Mexico. and Bill Clinton for sure understood this, and leveraged the whole thing the whole time with placement of his friends in Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae where they enriched themselves and contributed heavily to Clinton's Library and other endeavors.
The market did not fail. Congress failed. BOTH parties are criminal parties, and I am personally outraged that Americans are not burning tires in the streets demanding that at a minimum three other parties be heard by the public in these debates. Most of America is utterly clueless about the FACT that the League of Women Voters was replaced by a Republican-Democratic Presidential Debate Commission precisely to exclude Independent, Green, Reform, Libertarian, and other candidates.
With all due respect for their accomplishments, the two candidates for President today are relative puppets being managed by *clowns* who are owned by Wall Street carpetbaggers and the crooked parties that have effectively killed democracy in this once-great Republic.
I am, to be utterly candid, sick and tired of Soros telling us how smart he is when he actually does not care at all about the public interest. This is the last book written by Soros that I will waste my time on.
I am ANGRY. Soros is part of the problem, not part of the solution. Simiarly, Buffet means well, but he is working this for himself, not us. It was idiocy to approve the bail-out. That should have been a freeze, a moratorium on all foreclosures (10,000 a day) as well as all evictions, a capping of interest at 10%, an emergency fund focusing on INDIVIDUALS, and a mandated public forum post-election with ALL relevant documents posted online for scrutiny (“put enough eyeballs on it, no bug is invisible”).
This election is so fraught with fraud on so many levels, that the financial crisis, in my judgement is the third and least of our problems. Electoral fraud and the criminal misbehavior of BOTH Republicans and Democrats is problem #1. The two dozen plus secessionist movements being led by Kirkpatrick Sale are problem #2 because they have LEGITIMATE GRIEVANCES. I was reflecting on this today, and realized that an honest man today has three choices:
1. Refuse to support our dysfunctional government and support secession.
2. Join a crime family and drop out of the fraudulent “legal” economy.
3. Be a gerbil, a farm animal, and let Wall Street–including the author of this book–enjoy life on our backs for a few more years.
I did not read this book, nor buy it. I do not do this often, but this seems as good a place to denounce Soros, the horse that brought him (Wall Street), and the morons in Congress that let these thieves run wild.
I expect plenty of reflexive negative votes but for those of you with an open mind, take the time to read the varied reviews of the ten books I recommend instead of this one, and trust your own judgment.
Mark Lewis had it right: these folks think nothing of “exploding the client.” That's us. This author was right up there with them, step by step, and did nothing for We the People–his best shot was to support the “least evil” (in his mind) party and to be silent as Bush-Cheney destroyed our military, our economy, and most grieviously, our global moral standing.
It's time we drop kick Wall Street into the ocean, introduce Open Money, and invest only in local tangible hard-money options. Ron Paul has it right–everyone else is a traitor to the Constitution and to the Republic–Paulson means well but he and all of these folks live in a “closed society” that is completely out of touch with OUR reality.
WOW! A Jewel Pops Out of Amazon's Recommendation System, October 14, 2008
Will Durant
EDIT of 30 May 2009 to add flyleaf notes.
I was utterly THRILLED to see this book by Will Durant, published in 2005, pop up out of Amazon's recommendation system. Now I'm hooked.
The book opens with suicide statistics to point out the ultimate sacrifice or loss when hope is not to be found. One million in the world, 81,000 in the USA, 84.5 per day, 1 every 17.1 minutes. I have had 18 professional and one personal suicide in my life, What an important opening.
Finished, it surprises and delights with the common sense selections.
Key insights, remembering that this book is an edited collection of many people responding in one page to the QUESTION from Durant, who sent out 100 letters. First published in 1932, all the answers are grounded in the real world.
1) Uncertainty fosters greed.
2) Corruption of a society does not preclude the emergence of great minds that can catalyze further progress.
3) 1000 citivilizations have died in the course of history.
4) Citing Aristotle, all things have been discovered and forgotten manytimes over. Man–imperfect man–is the constant.
5) Utopia would be birth control, enfranchisement of all, emancipation of all–all of this is undone by crime, corruption, and war, none of which are necessary
Four quotes I feel should be here to encourage purchase of the book:
a) “We are driven to conclude that the greatest mistake in human history was the discovery of ‘truth.' It has not made us free, except from delusions that comforted us and restraints that preserved us.” Page 14
b) “Where such a faith [that gives hope], after supporting men for centuries, begins to weaken, like narrows down from a spiritual drama to a biological episode, it sacrifices the dignity conferred by a destiny endless in time, and shrinks to a strange interlude between a ridiculous birth and an annihilating death.” Page 17
c. “We discovered birth control, and now it sterlizes the intelligent, multiplies the ignorant, debases love with promuscuity, frustrates the educator, empowers the demagogue, and deteriorates the race.” Page 29
d. “The greatest questions of our time is not communism vs. the West, it is whether men can bear to live without God.” Page 34
All of the above are Durant's words. Then the book goes forward with two pages for each of those responding, one a graphic etching, the other their text.
Over-Hyped by Marketing, Excellent for Students of SOF, October 15, 2008
This book has been very heavily over-sold by the publisher and will disappoint those who are expecting something other than a professional account of a professional mission with all its warts.
This is a very fine first person account with ample detail that I for one found very rewarding and worthy of both my time and money (the book is very reasonably priced). The reader will benefit from first reading the reviews of the books I list at the end–one would never know from this account that Rumsfeld gave the Pakistani's an air corridor to evacuate 3000 Taliban overnight from Tora Bora, that the Navy was certain they killed Bin Laden, or that General Franks refused to put a battalion of Rangers on the back door (the author does tell us of his understanding that President Bush personally ruled that the back door belonged to the “trusted” Pakistanis).
The author tries hard to be nice to intelligence, but his true bottom line is captured in his description of what they had for him:
1) It's winter in Afghanistan
2) Bin Laden can ride a horse
We all know they had more than that–even with a US Senator blowing the fact that we were listening to Bin Laden's cell phones and satellite phones–but the reality is that CIA could meet with the warlords but did not have actual people within the tribes and on the ground as the Pakistani ISI did.
The author also makes clear that it was just as hard to figure out the friendly situation as it was the enemy situation. From where I sit, “total battlefield awareness” is a pipe dream–a fraud–and it's time we started refocusing on humans that can live up to the Gunny Poole “Tiger's Way.”
Here I my notes, ending with my conclusions and ten books I recommend in partnership with this one.
Early on the role of snipers, and the possible uses of snipers if we could get bureaucrats and politicians out of the way, impress me.
Small teams with a forward air controller that can go deep and stay for days impress me, very much. Unfortunately, we don't field them often enough (I only have read of use in Colombia, not generally, but SOF operates in over 150 countries so who knows).
Author reinforces the concept of Irregular Warfare as bottom-up thinking in which every person has a say, but takes pains to distinguish this from leadership, with the self-effacing comment that the leaders will decide after the enlisted personnel tell the leaders what they need to know.
Early on he laments to misplacing of the Special Operations “truths,” the first one being “Humans are more important than hardware.” Today privates are being selected for special operations right out of boot camp, and between private military contractors being allowed to loot the public treasury of both money and skilled manpower, and the complete dismissal of all standards, one can sense the author's thoughts between the lines: DELTA is the last vestige of “true” special forces (although I would include SEALs and some special air).
Air Force air strikes were not great–1 out of 3 hit the target, and the so-called super bomb, the BLU-82, did not explode as advertised.
Bin Laden's “order of battle” was surmised to be an inner circle of Saudis, Yemenis, and Egyptians, with an outer circle of Afghans, Algerians, Jordanians, Chechnyans, and Pakistanis.
Taliban liked to wear black on black…I could not help being reminded of the Viet-Cong.
Terrain blocked our radios. General Clark and others have made it clear that we are not trained, EQUIPPED, or organized for mountain operations, and between this point, and the personal knowledge I have of how few special Chinooks we have that can operate above 12,000 feet–and only because their CWO pilots have learned to fart into the fuel–it's clear the US is not serious about mountain or jungle warfare, and marginally competent as urban warfare.
After seven days they were out of batteries and water.
There was a “surrender” gambit when they got close, the primary purpose being to keep an Afghan warlord between Bin Laden and the Americans.
We still have total disconnect between ground troop use of grids on a map, and Air Force demand for latitude and longitude. The $150 GPS conversion is great, Navy and Air Force still not joint.
Lovely account of how they did a field hire of a seeming gift from heaven, a second translator who spoke English, only to learn later he also spoke Arabic and had been sent as a penetration. Sidebar on Pakistani penetration of the Afghan group they were with.
No mules. Very very tough to resupply in the mountains in winter. Even without loads, four kilometers on one occasion took five hours.
Bin Laden evidently wrote his will on the 14th of December, coincident with his rather desperate sounding call over the radio to all to arm their women and children.
We dropped 1100 “precision” bombs and $550 “dumb” bombs on Tora Bora, plus tens of thousands of rounds of other artillery and ammunition. I am so reminded of Viet-Nam, where what we paid for artillery shells being fired could have bought every Vietnamese a two-story cinderblock house with electricity and running water.
Author concludes that the CIA model of buying warlords DOES NOT WORK for specific objectives.
I learn for the first time that a visit was made to Tora Bora after the fact, a forensic visit. [He know from Bin Laden's later emergence that he did get out.]
The author is scathingly critical of the Army Center for Army Lessons Learned, which has exactly one hit on Tora Bora against thousands of documents visible via the web.
What I learned from this:
DELTA is over-trained and under-utilized.
Conventional Army leaders have no idea how to use special forces in advance of operations or deep behind enemy lines–they simply do not have the mind-set.
CIA paramilitary and some clandestine needs to be transferred into a new Active Measures Command that is the dark and dirty side of Irregular Warfare.
