I don’t think I’ve ever watched MSNBC unless it was on in the background of a waiting room or restaurant. It wasn’t until Jimmy Fallon had Rachel Maddow on his show to talk about her new book Drift that I first heard of her. She was entertaining and I thought the topic of her book, “The Unmooring of American Military Power,” sounded interesting. I wasn’t exactly looking to read this book when I did, but it became available at the library so the decision was made.
The book started out interesting and began during World War II and quickly moved to the 1980s and the Reagan presidency. Maddow spent about 30 pages (I’m guessing since I read it on my Kindle) discussing the Iran Contra Affair. This section seemed to take away from her overall point, but rather it expressed just how she felt about Reagan. Let’s just she is not his biggest fan!
I did find this book fascinating overall. I was impressed at the amount of research that went into this book and how well Maddow knew her stuff. I learned a lot while reading this book but didn’t feel like I was sitting through a boring history class.
The three facts that stood out to me the most from this book are:
1. Rachel Maddow said that despite the fact that our country has been continually at war for a decade, only 1% of the population has been personally affected by the war. This floored me. I also wonder how true it is. I don’t know about you but I feel like almost everyone I know has had a friend or loved one deploy to either Iraq, Afghanistan or somewhere in that area in the last 10 years.
2. Currently there are about 20,000 service men and women (including our armed forces, reserves and national guard) deployed and over 65,000 “contractors” deployed as well. Many services and needs that our military needs are now handled through the private sector and out sourced, requiring employees of those companies to be present where our military is.
3. Many covert missions that were once handled by our military are now handled by the CIA because their involvement does not require the okay from Congress.
Hopefully I recapped those points correctly. I have no idea how accurate all of that information is but it has really given me a lot to think about. Have you read Drift | Rachel Maddow? If not go for it, it’s not a very long book so it won’t take you long to get through it. If you have, what did you think?
Reader Interactions