Drift: An Unbiased Exploration of American Military Power

Kai Lee: This was the first book by Rachel Maddow, published in 2012, when the U.S. had fought in Afghanistan for about 11 years. I had read it shortly after it was published. Now, in the month of September, 2021, just after the U.S. officially ended it longest war on August 30, 2021, I thought it worthwhile to read the book again, to refresh my memory of what Rachel told us in her book about the “unmooring of American Military Power.”

Rachel Maddow has hosted her show on MSNBC since 2008. Her show has, from time to time, been rated the most watched show on cable news, the most recent being the month of January 2021. Her opening monologue can be 20 minutes long, without commercial interruption, which is rare in cable news programs. She often opened with some historical event which had bearing on the news of the day. For example, in one of her recent broadcast, she told of the origin of the debt ceiling statue, which was enacted in 1917, near the end of World War I, for the purpose of exerting congressional control on the debt incurred by the US Federal Government. We are still living with the drama of waiting to see whether Congress will raise the debt ceiling every...

United States on Sep 27, 2021

Roz Westwood: I love Rachel Maddow reviews. So factual an in time consequence.

Canada on Mar 05, 2021

Amazon Customer: Old news with new info. Well written, Ms Maddow your way of telling the story is factual as usual, which is your way of informing us all.

Canada on May 02, 2019

Frank: Many events pass by without much attention in the media. This is a major one. You see separate instances unfolding but you are not sufficiently focused to connect the dots.
Well, this book does that. The writer has a clear left wing bias. Regardless the facts she presents are undeniable. The book exposes the coming true of the worst fears of the founding fathers. I.e. an imperial power of the president to wage wars as if he were a king.

United Kingdom on Nov 24, 2012

Gordon Bruce Smith: Drift describes the process by which, since Johnson's administration during the Vietnam War, war-making powers have moved more and more into the hands of the President, acting alone. This isn't what the authors of the U.S. Constitution intended, nor is it what that document explicitly states: only Congress has the power to declare war, and only Congress has the power to approve the funding to make war. Somehow, we've gotten away from that. We've only declared war a handful of times in our history, and the last time we did so was in 1941. Yet we have gone to war innumerable times since our founding -- by one count, 200 times, in wars large and small. How did this happen?

Maddow starts her story in 1964. During Johnson's administration, the president was reluctant to call up the National Guard or the reserves in order to prosecute his escalating war in Vietnam. He didn't think it would last long, he thought he could win it just by using the regular armed forces, and most of all he didn't want to get Congress involved. A cornerstone of Maddow's argument is that Congress was much more willing to go along with Johnson as long as the National Guard and Reserves weren't mobilized....

United States on Jun 23, 2012

lilAngi77: She does a really great job of taking an ocean of events and decisions, and putting them into their historical context, and, in showing their connections, explains an abstract idea in a very easily digestible way. Also her writing style is engaging with judiciously applied wit, and she makes every effort to differentiate between respecting the men and women who serve their country, and disagreeing with the missions they are tasked with. Look, its a heck of a book, and makes a pretty compelling argument. Freaking read it.

Germany on Jun 18, 2012

J. Gomes: This is a must read in today's America. To understand that the populace has been had, the war machine is breaking the countries back financially and that President Eisenhower's words about the rise and danger to our Democracy by the Military-Industrial Complex ring clear with an exclamation point!
Starting with LBJ;increased manifold by Reagan and taken to new heights and dangers under George W. Bush and Dick Cheney as well as continued under Obama.
The book is well thought out and researched and leaves the reader with the very important statement to not trust her words alone but to do your own research based on what she found. (She even tells you where you can look!)
All in all a great read and not at all boring or heavy.
Several points are given at the end showing how the people can regain control over the Military policy of the country by involving ourselves in the system and it's workings and begin to turn back the changes wrought in the past forty years. There is still hope if we get involved and begin now to educate ourselves in the workings of our government.
Rachel Maddow has done a great job.
A good follow up to this would be Andrew Feinstein's " The...

Germany on May 16, 2012