How Everything Became War and the Military Became Everything

Tales from the Pentagon

By: Rosa Brooks

Narrated by: Gabra Zackman, Rosa Brooks - introduction

The first serious book to examine what happens when the ancient boundary between war and peace is erased.

Once, war was a temporary state of affairs - a violent but brief interlude between times of peace. Today America's wars are everywhere and forever: Our enemies change constantly and rarely wear uniforms, and virtually anything can become a weapon. As war expands, so does the role of the US military. Today military personnel don't just "kill people and break stuff". Instead they analyze computer code, train Afghan judges, build Ebola isolation wards, eavesdrop on electronic communications, develop soap operas, and patrol for pirates. You name it, the military does it.

Rosa Brooks traces this seismic shift in how America wages war from an unconventional perspective - that of a former top Pentagon official who is the daughter of two antiwar protesters and a human rights activist married to an army Green Beret. Her experiences led her to an urgent warning: When the boundaries around war disappear, we risk destroying America's founding values and the laws and institutions we've built - and undermining the international rules and organizations that keep our world from sliding toward chaos. If Russia and China have recently grown bolder in their foreign adventures, it's no accident; US precedents have paved the way for the increasingly unconstrained use of military power by states around the globe. Meanwhile we continue to pile new tasks onto the military, making it increasingly ill prepared for the threats America will face in the years to come.

By turns a memoir; a work of journalism; a scholarly exploration into history, anthropology, and law; and a rallying cry, How Everything Became War and the Military Became Everything transforms the familiar into the alien, showing us that the culture we inhabit is reshaping us in ways we may suspect but don't really understand. It's the kind of book that will leave you moved, astonished, and profoundly disturbed, for the world around us is quietly changing beyond recognition - and time is running out to make things right.

©2016 Rosa Brooks (P)2016 Simon & Schuster

A MUST READ FOR ALL SERVICEMEN AND WOMEN

Rosa has given me hope that people still exist that want to make earth better.

An eye opener

It was very difficult subject to listen to. Fighting evil with evil. At the end, crying women and children.

Asumingly optimistic

Narration is smooth. Full of assumptions about what is best for the United States in respect to foreign relationships but balanced with plenty of fact. Brooks brings up alot of things that are worth more introspection.

Good & Important

Lots of excellent bit a bit professorial

& redundant--I did learn A lot. This conversation long overdue.

Absolutely stunning

an amazing account of the present with a thoughtful account of what the future can, and maybe should, hold. must read! narrator and author are both fantastic

The Armed Services Explained and Considered

How Everything Became War and the Military Became Everything: Tales from the Pentagon, By Rosa Brooks.

This is a brilliant explanation of the State of our Military; and its status as a political tool, its ability to fight conventional war, and its developing ability to engage in insurrection as well as an analysis of how America got to where it is now and what mistakes and maneuvers were made to get us here. The writings provide a non-partisan set of theories to consider when assessing the above teachings, but also contains critique of who we have been and who we may now be. Finally it provides guideposts to whoever may hold the responsibility for the future of our armed services as well as the American future. This is a demonstrative history of the armed services, a political study of its civilian control. If all that were not enough, one gets a history of civil and historical military law as well.

Okay, I let the cat out of the bag, it is written by an attorney, and she bleeds forth in legal think. Nevertheless, it’s an exciting story that is told. Professor Parks conveys her teaching into episodes of occurrences, the Gulf Wars, terrorism, Guantanamo, the Busch Presidency, the Obama Presidency, the Insurgency, drone fighting, cyber war and even WWII, the Korean Conflict and the Viet Nam War. Most of all though once you start reading you do not want to put it down. The tale is told magnificently well. It is a page turner.

The Author has had a career that spanned form an antiwar family, to several tours in NGOs to terms in both the State Department and the Defense Department. She has no axe to grind other than an earnest assessment of the military and to provide its future leaders with ideas on how to keep it strong.

This book is splendid. It should be read by all concerned with the military.

A challenge to raise your conscience

This is very well written and presented. The content demands all concerned thinkers to become activists for the sake of our freedom and humanity.

Should be on Pentagon's Mandatory Reading List

Any additional comments?

As a career Naval Officer, it is the type of book I would like to have read early in my career. As for now, all politicians, military leaders, and political scholars should explore our everything is war policy decisions and abandon them.

ASTOUNDING MUST READ BOOK!!!

Insightful, brilliant and timely, a Nd should be required read for our next President. Highly Recommended

Redefining warfare

Takes a thorough look at the nature and issues of modern warfare which is more like organized crime than traditional battlefield events. Introduces the quagmire of issues this raises (international law, foreign policy, ethics, rule of law, separation of powers, use and provisioning of the military, and accountability) and outlines the beginnings of a solution.