How Everything Became War and the Military Became Everything: Tales from the Pentagon

by Rosa Brooks

Gabra Zackman (Narrator) and Rosa Brooks (Introduction)

"A dynamic work of reportage" (The New York Times) written "with clarity and...wit" (The New York Times Book Review) about what happens when the ancient boundary between war and peace is erased.

Once, war was a temporary state of affairs. 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. Military personnel now 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.

In this "ambitious and astute" (The Washington Post) work, Rosa Brooks "provides a masterful analysis" (San Francisco Chronicle) of 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 anti-war protesters and married to an Army Green Beret. By turns a memoir, a work of journalism, a scholarly exploration of history, anthropology, and law, How Everything Became War and the Military Became Everything is an "illuminating" (The New York Times), "eloquent" (The Boston Globe), "courageous" (US News & World Report), and "essential" (The Dallas Morning News) examination of the role of the military today. Above all, it is a rallying cry, for Brooks issues an urgent warning: When the boundaries around war disappear, we undermine both America's founding values and the international rules and organizations that keep our world from sliding towards chaos.

• ISBN10: 1508226814
• ISBN13: 9781508226819
• Publish Date: 9 August 2016
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Imprint: Simon & Schuster Audio
• Edition: Unabridged
• Format: Audiobook
• Duration: 13 hours and 5 minutes
• Language: English

Reviews

[dpfaef]

I found Rosa Brooks via David Rothkopf’s Deep State Podcast. As a neophyte to foreign policy, listening to the podcast has been a learning experience. I downloaded the book from Audible as I thought it might be easier to digest it by listening (and it was, at least for me it was).

Rosa Brooks is the daughter of Barbara Ehrenreich, a professor at Georgetown University Law Center and, a columnist for Foreign Policy magazine. From April 2009 to July 2011, Brooks served as counselor to the Under Secretary of Defense for policy, Michele Flournoy. She is the mother of two girls and married to an Army Special Forces officer.

Her book basically talks about how the military has taken over many of the responsibilities (by which I believe she means both government and private institutions) that deal with solving global problems. I first saw this in Afghanistan when the military started building projects and assisting tribal leaders in getting money from the local government for these projects.

Her time in the Pentagon has given her insights that are amazing, she displays a level of honesty that is very compelling making this book a very thought-provoking read.

This review was originally posted on The Pfaeffle Journal