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The Spoils of War:Power, Profit and the American War Machine
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Why Does America Go to War?
Fully updated from the original edition. As the retreat from Kabul shows, America goes to war not to bring democracy, or glory, but in the pursuit of profit. In The Spoils of War, leading Washington reporter, Andrew Cockburn, reveals the extent of the rot that stretches from the Pentagon and the White House, to Wall St and Silicon Valley.
The American war machine can only be understood in terms of the "private passions" and "interests" of those who control it - principally a passionate interest in money. Thus, as he witheringly reports, Washington expanded NATO to satisfy an arms manufacturer's urgent financial requirements; the U.S. Navy's Pacific fleet deployments were for years dictated by a corrupt contractor who bribed high-ranking officers with cash and prostitutes; senior marine commanders agreed to a troop surge in Afghanistan in 2017 "because it will do us good at budget time."
Based on years of wide-ranging research, Cockburn lays bare the ugly reality of the largest military machine in history: squalid, and at the same time terrifyingly dangerous.
Reviews
Cockburn is ... an assiduous investigator and skillful narrator.
Corruption is the recurring theme that runs through the US journalist Andrew Cockburn’s brilliant journalism collected in The Spoils of War: Power, Profit and the American War Machine.
An accessible yet forensic account of not only why runaway military spending is wrong, but how.
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A devastatingly convincing account of the runaway nature of a powerful grouping of interests – the defence, intelligence and financial sectors in the US.
, openDemocracy -
This is robust, old-fashioned progressive, polemical journalism … Cockburn describes some shocking practices, and provides valuable critiques – for example, of the over-reliance on sanctions as a coercive instrument.
, New Statesman -
He possesses a uniquely detailed knowledge of the arcane, lucrative machinations of this world, as well as a deep historical understanding of the forces that built it. And while the specifics change, the stories he tells all have the same shocking moral. “People say the Pentagon does not have a strategy,” he quotes a former Air Force colonel as saying. “They are wrong. The Pentagon does have a strategy. It is: ‘Don’t interrupt the money flow.’”
, The Intercept -
A withering exposé reveals the insatiable and squalid profit motive that drives the US military apparatus - the largest in modern history
Morning Star -
Informative and entertaining.
, Labour Hub -
Nothing I have read for years has so reoriented, even revolutionized, my thinking about the corporate/political forces that underly our constructing and "modernizing" a doomsday machine, the subject of my own life's work I am urging everyone to read this book.
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Cockburn presents a damning account of America’s military-industrial complex, culled from his best work over a decade on the paradoxical nature of American military power...Spoils of War is a meticulously researched book that presents a critical perspective on the 'American War Machine.'
, Responsible Statecraft