Abridged Audiobook
All you need to do is listen to the disclaimers in the first track to understand that this book is based on both fact and hearsay. I'm just glad that I had the abridged version. Do not waste your time on this.
An incredibly detailed account of this administration's actions and the mentality leading up to the invasion of Iraq and shortly thereafter. The details of prison abuse and the unnecessary loss of life by Iraqi civilians and our own military were hard to listen to. Hersh has done a great job of exposing the deceit and downright lies of our top leaders and as well as their bullying of our military leaders. It is clear we will be paying for this abuse of power for generations to come. I did get lost at times trying to follow the names and agencies involved, but the information was too important not to press on to the end.
This book is guaranteed to make its readers depressed. It brings home the sheer hopelessness of ever winning "the war on terror" due to a number of issues - the primary one being the difficulty of communications, turf wars, egos, etc. that are problems in any large organization. Our U.S. government is certainly no exception. Add to that fact that we are not fighting a united enemy....but one composed of individual cells...one wonder how this conflict can ever end.
Wow. You have to hand it to Mr. Hersh. This guy really researches his stuff. His thorough and meticulous documentation of our treatment of prisoners since 9/11, and our actions in both the wars since then, Afganistan and Iraq, is formidable and admirable..and the facts are terribly, terribly depressing. He includes so much detail, however, that while it lends credibility to his story, it is WORK to read/listen all the way to the end.
Maybe some people enjoyed this reading but for me the author spent so much time name and location dropping that I kept losing track of the point he was trying to make. I don't get lost easily but I had such a difficult time following this book that I failed to finish it.
I find it disturbing that the public is so cowed by the current administration. With any other administration, journalism such as what Mr. Hersh submits would have these people tried as criminals. It's books like this that demonstrate how desensitized the public has become - how strong a hold this administration has on the press, to keep the truth from so many. How tragic...
The book was detailed and thorough but I found it so disturbing I was unable to finish it. Thank God there are still people like Hersh who are willing to expose such abuse.
Hersh is smart and focused. He is a rigorous researcher and a dogged reporter. He doesn't try to tell the reader what to think. He shows the reader what he knows.
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