DRIFT by Rachel Maddow

If you don’t watch Rachel Maddow’s show on MSNBC, if you think she is “just another Commie Pinko Liberal,” then you probably don’t know much about her.  For example, you have no idea how much time and energy she has devoted to the cause of how our military veterans and their families are treated.  You don’t know how smart and relentless she is on this and other topics.  You probably also don’t know, though it may surprise you, that Roger Ailes, the chairman and CEO of Fox News, actually RECOMMENDS her book, DRIFT: The Unmooring of American Military Power.

For the record, here is what Ailes says: “Drift never makes the case that war might be necessary.  America would be weakened dramatically if we had under-reacted to 9/11.  However, Rachel Maddow makes valid arguments that our country has been drifting toward questionable wars, draining our resources, without sufficient input and time.  People who like Rachel will love the book.   People who don’t will get angry, but aggressive debate is good for America.  Drift is a book worth reading.”

I freely admit I am a Rachel Maddow fan, but that is not why I love this book.  It is by turns fascinating, horrifying, witty, enlightening, and—quite frankly—astonishing.  Although I consider myself fairly well-informed on politics and current events, this book sheds light down the rabbit hole of military covert operations and illuminates how there has been, in fact, a dramatic shift in how our branches of government regard and deal with questions of war.

DRIFT has implications for all of us, no matter which TV news channel we may prefer to watch.