Tom Engelhardt - The American Way of War: How Bush's Wars Became Obama's, 2010 [Lemurized] ACADEMIC

Positive

Tom Engelhardt, creator of the vital website TomDispatch.com, takes a scalpel to the American urge to dominate the globe. Tracing developments from 9/11 to late last night, this is an unforgettable anatomy of a disaster that is yet to end.
Since 2001, Tom Engelhardt has written regular reports for his popular site TomDispatch that have provided badly-needed insight into U.S. militarism and its effects, both at home and abroad. When others were celebrating the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, he warned of the enormous dangers of both occupations.

In The American Way of War, Engelhardt documents Washington’s ongoing commitment to military bases to preserve—and extend—its empire; reveals damning information about the American reliance on airpower, at great cost to civilians in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Pakistan; and shows that the US empire has deep historical roots that precede the Bush administration—and continue today into the presidency of Barack Obama.

Negative
About ten years ago I had a First Sergeant who used to make us promise before we were released for the weekend that we weren't going to be arrested for beating up "dumbass anti war protesters" and I think that the writer of this book is who he had in mind, at least the type.

Seriously, pompous doesn't begin to describe this guy. I didn't make it the whole way through the book because it isn't worth reading. He doesn't back anything up with facts or statistics. He doesn't cite any sources through his writing. He doesn't present well thought out and planned arguments.

What he does present are loads of logical fallacies and inconsistencies, purely opinion based writing with no sources and one sided arguments that turn into attacks on institutions and people as if he has some kind of personal vendetta.

I generally consider myself pretty liberal in my belief structure and I've been told that I'm the most liberal soldier that many other people have met, but this guy is basically fringe far left. He's as bad that extreme as Rush Limbaugh is the other way. Read at your peril.