Gingrich employed a scorched-earth strategy to upend the permanent Republican minority in the House, making him speaker. Hersh established himself at the forefront of investigative journalism 35 years ago when he broke the news of the massacre in My Lai, Vietnam, for which he won a Pulitzer Prize. Ever since, he's challenged America's power elite by publishing the stories that others can't or won't tell. In Chain of Command , Hersh takes an unflinching look behind the public story of President Bush's "war on terror" and into the lies and obsessions that led America into Iraq.
With an introduction by The New Yorker 's editor, David Remnick, Chain of Command is a devastating portrait of an administration blinded by ideology and of a President whose decisions have made the world a more dangerous place for America. This book reminds us why tough, skeptical journalism matters so much: Hersh's work is necessary reading for anyone remotely interested in what went wrong and continues to go wrong in Iraq, and how the Bush administration came to take America to war there in the first place.
You owe it your country and our troops to become better informed about the status of our war in Iraq and the war on terrorism. Clearly, given the shifting stories from both sides of the political aisle and weak reporting on tv, you owe it to yourself to find other sources than politicians, spin artists and most broadcast news outlets. This is one source that provides explanations that fit the current situation and fill in the missing pieces of the puzzle. I was interested in this book based on the author's prior writing on Abu Graib and Mei Lai, two events that were hard to even believe because they so contradicted our image of ourselves and the values of our country.
But both were true and in many years of writing, Mr. Hirsch has been more right than wrong when he broke a story. Although the picture of the current administration is very disturbing, when I had the opportunity to read his sources, I found he had not mistated things. Since a lot of his sources are unnamed, you often have to trust the author but I think there is reason to do so.
A friend of mine in the Special Forces told me shortly after Bush declared "Mission Accomplished" that his comrades in Iraq expected an increasingly capable insurgency to mount a serious challenge to our occupation and he was right, not just because he was connected but because insurgencies often follow a predictable pattern. What is most interesting about this book is insight into how the current administration functions in spite of evidence and experience that contradicts their beliefs.
At first I didn't feel that Iraq bore any relationship to Vietnam but as time goes on, I've come to believe that Iraq will be another war that cannot be won but one that costs us much more dearly. It comes as no surprise that Seymor Hersh has written another well written and well researched book, and it comes as no surprise that it's as entertaining to read as it is informative.
Unlike so many of the "election time" books Unfit For Command on the right, The Family on the left This book is more than just unfounded libel, innuendo or poorly sourced junk. This is a book written by a veteran journalist and his skill shines through in the way he sources his work, and explains the nuances of the subject matter. As a bonus, the narration is excellent, but then, we've come to expect that from any product on Audible. Hersh is a quality journalist who is documenting the travails of a sitting President who could very possibly go down in history as the most corrupt Presidency in history.
A Presdent that is more concerned with showing his macho then with showing leadership. A single President that is doing more harm to political stability of the world then any President before him. Hersh documents everything but that is my problem wth the book, it is basically telling the story of Afganistan and Iraq by rehashing what he has already published, and adds very little analysis that gives us new insight into the problems that he talks about.
Still all in all a quality listen. This book brings you information in a factual, specific manner.
It would appeal to readers with a good undertanding of and interest in current events. It will supplement your understanding of our world and the politics that shape it but a reader who has not followed current events or relies on "Fox News" would be lost. However, the Fox news junkie is absolutely the person who should read this.
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You will develop a profound respect for a real news journalist. Interesting historical and editorial material. Reader needs to learn to properly pronounce names. I did my best to find some truth in this audiobook, but in the end, the book was a pattern of corruption and yes, yellow journalism explained clearly; which made it all the more frightening and stomach churning.
What passes for journalism is designed only to push a particular world view that is opposed to that of the President's views. It is not intended to bring truth and light but only another viewpoint of the opposition to the President's re-election. If you believe this hooey, you might as well order you socialist membership card now.
I am an avid reader of political science and history - especially on current issues. However, some pieces should be kept on the Fiction shelf from which they were spawned. Talk about making assumptions, this book takes the cake.
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Save yourself the hours of drool logic, and get it all in about 30 minutes of NBC. I am sure that this book was written by Katie Couric under an adopted pen name. The author has only shown that anyone can take a plotical position, twist it and turn it until it doesn't evenly remotely represent what really happened.
Free with day trial Membership details Membership details A day trial plus your first audiobook, free. Keep your audiobooks, even if you cancel. Get access to the Member Daily Deal. Give as a gift. People who bought this also bought Reporter A Memoir By: The Farewell Tour By: Chris Hedges Narrated by: Greg Miller Narrated by: Greg Miller, Charles Constant Length: Craig Unger Narrated by: Time to End the War in Afghanistan By: Scott Horton Narrated by: Fear Trump in the White House By: Bob Woodward Narrated by: Adam Tooze Narrated by: How did they overcome the bureaucracy, intimidate the press, misled the Congress, and dominate the military?
Chain of Command: The Road from 9/11 to Abu Ghraib by Seymour M. Hersh
Is our democracy that fragile? It was not an easy read but nonetheless a very important one. I think I am privileged enough to take books out of the library in order to attempt to learn more and not just believe in what our television shows us. A very scary thought! Aug 06, The American Conservative added it Shelves: The Pentagon press office, in a pre-emptive strike designed to neutralize a blow they knew was coming, had this to say: Based on media inquiries, it appears that Mr. The reality is that it was a lone military policeman, Specialist Joseph M.
Darby, who exposed the horrors of Abu Ghraib and without whom it would still be a giant sore festering in the darkness. It was Hersh who broke this story and first exposed the details—and origins—of what the government claims was an isolated incident. As Hersh shows, what happened at Abu Ghraib was part and parcel of a larger plan, the work of a secret army of assassins and torturers designed to break the back of the Iraqi insurgency.
Mar 21, Christine rated it liked it. This book consists of revised magazine articles most pertaining to the aggressive foreign policy of the Bush administration, about which author Hersh has a very low opinion. Loosely connected, the articles all reflect the kind of serious investigative journalism for which Hersh is so well known. Apr 01, Carol Storm rated it really liked it. Classic reporting, but needs more on the troops on the ground! May 22, Jerome rated it it was ok. Reading it in , most of the contents are essentially old hat.
He rarely supports his claims with facts, and his arguments are clearly not-logical. He begins his book by claiming that the Interrogations at Guantanamo have had no results, that the intelligence wasn't satisfying the needs of the Pentagon. This obviously isn't taking the case of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed into account. He pushes forth the id It was OK. He pushes forth the idea that the "Failing to Gain Intelligence" from Guantanamo, Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld decided to solve the problem by spreading the practice of abuse to Iraq.
By simply doing your own resarch you will find that this, and many other claims made by Hersh in this novel are exaggerated, falsified, misquoted, misinterpreted, etc. This book is libel against the soldiers who have fought or are fighting in the War on Terror.
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Anyone who ever took a prisoner is touched by this calumny. The vast bulk of Chain of Command was distilled from around 20 articles Mr. Hersh wrote for the New Yorker, though editors updated a few subjects and juggled the order a bit, most obviously to emphasize new reporting regarding Abu Ghraib. I would have argued in favor of printing the original articles as they were published, in chronological order and with dates on them -- something that would have elegantly presented the material without begging the question of what was known when.
The updated information could have easily been presented in a short epilogue to each chapter or to the whole book. But he never crosses the line in a way that has damned many similar books, thanks in a large part to his solid reputation launched when he broke the story about the My Lai massacre in Vietnam 35 years ago. The largest difficulty is in terms of consistency. Hersh is a muckraker, and that means he rakes all the muck he can find, regardless of its content.
This leads to some rather silly things, if you read the pieces that he wrote, back to back. In one piece on Afghanistan, an unnamed Air Force officer the book is full of unnamed sources tells Hersh that Rumsfeld and the Pentagon don't understand air power, and should have let the Air Force flatten the Taliban and Al Quaeda. A few pages later, in the next piece, an unnamed Marine officer says essentially the exact opposite--the Pentagon was stupid, and allowed the Air Force to spray ordnance around Afghanistan with no regard for the collateral damage or effectiveness.
Hersh's perspective is to include everyone who's critical of the Administration, regardless of what it is that they say. So he's essentially deaf to the interservice and historical aspects of these quotes: Marines have despised the Air Force and their habit of trying to bomb everyone into oblivion at least as far back as Viet Nam, and the Air Force has been protesting that no one understands how important they are ever since Billy Mitchell was court martialled for saying essentially that back in the 20s.
There are other inconsistencies. The war in Afghanistan is dismissed as a complete failure that's been hidden from the American public by an elaborate coverup, but the planners of the war were made overconfident by their success there I thought they failed? It goes on like this for almost pages. But I finished the book troubled by Hersh's refusal to discuss the other side of the debate. He seems to me to acting as a well-briefed tabloid journalist, building up the strongest story he can and ignoring mitigating factors.
One example is where he rips into Donald Rumsfeld for repeatedly pushing the Pentagon to reduce the number of soldiers to be used on the Iraqi invasion. The Defense Secretary "insisted on micromanaging the war's operational details", Hersh writes. Rumsfeld's faith in precision bombing and his insistence on streamlined military operations has had profound consequences for the ability of the Armed Forces to fight effectively overseas. I do not see a debate over troop levels as micromanaging. I see it as Rumsfeld doing his job.
Hersh has a different view and that's his right, but why not consider the possibility Rumsfeld's behavior was reasonable? Rumsfeld proved to be right and wrong. Fewer troops were successful at toppling Saddam Hussein's regime than were used in the first Gulf War. But he underestimated the number needed for the occupation. Hersh fails to make this important point. I finished this book unconvinced he is a balanced reporter. Also, Hersh claims that Lieutenant General William Boykin, Steve Cambone's military assistant and deputy undersecretary of defense for intelligence, was involved in setting the "policies" that "led" to the Abu Ghraib incident.
This is categorically false. In sworn congressional testimony, Major General Geoffrey Miller, head of Camp X-Ray, stated that he neither spoke to Boykin before he went to Iraq nor after he returned. In fact, the decision to send Miller to Iraq occurreed before Boykin ever even arrived at the Pentagon. I'd also like to say one more thing about the scale of the abuses: There were 66 allegations out of that were substantiated.
These substantiated allegations have been or are in the process of being investigated and prosecuted. Those numbers represent such a small fraction of the people who have fought and are fighting this war, it is tempting to say it is negligible. It's a redundant proof that our soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines, and Coast Guardsmen are not war criminals.
With very few exceptions these young people are true to American values even in the worst and most dangerous circumstances. Jun 16, Onkar rated it liked it. Chain of Command is a collection of Seymour Hersh's The New Yorker articles that showcases his talent in investigative journalism. The book starts with the explosive prisoner abuse story in Abu Gharib that shook the world at that time. Mostly though, the book covers intelligence failure under the Bush administration in Iraq and Afghanistan. It's surprising that Rumsfeld was given a free reign to come up with his own intelligence system.
Sadly, his people were specialized in gathering the intelli Chain of Command is a collection of Seymour Hersh's The New Yorker articles that showcases his talent in investigative journalism. Sadly, his people were specialized in gathering the intelligence the bosses wanted to hear instead of the uncomfortable truth on ground. It becomes quite clear that Hersh had high regards for the troops in general but a very low opinion on the US's foreign policy at that time.
The book is kind of dated now but it does provide some great insights into the events at that time. It's a hard book to read and seems a bit disconnected given the nature of the articles. Perhaps I would have enjoyed reading his columns more. Jun 19, Alicia rated it it was amazing Shelves: I admire Hersh as a journalist. His writing is prolific and compelling. This was no different. It's been well over a decade since publication but Hersch remains the gold standard for reporting on he machinations that led to US involvement in Iraq. Apr 01, Jean rated it really liked it Shelves: Seemed to be a well researched, non biased book.
Mar 19, Brad Lucht rated it it was amazing. Listed below is a very small representative sample of what you will learn from this book that you didn't learn from your local newspaper or television station. The Syrians had compiled hundreds of files on Al Qaeda, including dossiers on the men who participated -- and others who wanted to participate -- in the September 11th attacks. Syria also penetrated Listed below is a very small representative sample of what you will learn from this book that you didn't learn from your local newspaper or television station.
And the Pentagon, preoccupied with he Iraq war and ideologically hostile to Syria, vehemently opposed a back channel. The Syrians were a lot more willing to help us, but they" -- Rumsfeld and his colleagues -- "want to to in there Syria next. We could give you information on organizations that we don't think should exist. If we help you on Al Qaeda, we are helping ourselves. But when you publicly try to humiliate a country it'll become stubborn. This was, he said, "a signal to us, and we're throwing it away.
The Syrians are trying to communicate, and were not listening. Some of the most important questions are not even being asked. How did eight or nine neo-conservatives who believed that a war in Iraq was the anser to international terrorism get their way? How did they redirect the government and rearrange long-standing American priorities and policies with so much ease? How did they overcome the bureaucracy, intidmidate the press, mislead the Congress, and dominate the military?
You don't have to be a genius, or even up on current news, to know that America fucked up in Iraq. To learn the intricacies of America's mistakes, however -- the sheer lack of competence and vision -- is enough to fry anyone's braincells and leave them cowering in the corner like a psychiatric ward patient. The picture tha You don't have to be a genius, or even up on current news, to know that America fucked up in Iraq. The picture that emerges is a horrifying one: My question after reading this book was: Similarly, why are the British so apathetic to the Labour government?
And this book's scariest news: Pakistan has been selling nuclear weapon know-how across the Islamic world and we are ever closer to the point when extremists will have a warhead in their hands. But lying would indicate an understanding of what is desired, what is possible, and how best to get there. A more plausible explanation is that words have no meaning for this President beyond the immediate moment, and so he believes that his mere utterances of the phrases makes them real. It is a terrifying possibility.
Dec 12, Parker Griffith rated it really liked it. I really enjoyed this book, but at the same time I was shocked. For years now, our government has tried to cover up all its corruptions around the time President Bush was in office. The author, Seymour M. Our government made foolish mistakes like attacking Afghanistan instead of Pakistan. Pakistan actually encourages terrorism against the I really enjoyed this book, but at the same time I was shocked.
Instead, the US attacked Afghanistan that fostered much less terrorists. Sep 08, Graham Mcmillan rated it liked it. Somewhat dated now, since it deals primarily in the Iraq war - its buildup and mistakes in planning and mis management. The book goes a great way towards explaining what went wrong in the "WMD" debate - how did we get it so wrong. According to the author, Rumsfeld and Cheney openly disrespected the Intelligence professionals because they often refused to stake a claim based on partial or imperfect information. So Rumsfeld and Cheney basically formed their own Intelligence system, based on selec Somewhat dated now, since it deals primarily in the Iraq war - its buildup and mistakes in planning and mis management.
So Rumsfeld and Cheney basically formed their own Intelligence system, based on selected individuals who fed them info they wanted to hear. But the info was raw and not properly vetted by skeptical minds in the Intelligence community, who were struggling to catch up and were seeking to get back into the good graces of the President.
The Killing of Osama bin Laden
The author also goes on to show the nexus between Gitmo and the eventual road to Abu Greib, claiming the White House set up a system open to abuse, and without checks and balances. The unfortunates at the bottom were prosecuted as scapegoats and sacrificial lambs while the higher ups went free. Overall a sad and depressing commentary on a sad and depressing war, and presidency. Jan 06, Sinistmer rated it really liked it Shelves: He touches on the actions of the administration as they tried to find intelligence which wasn't usually good and wrangled the system in order to get the military to do what they wanted.
I was shocked at their actions to "stovepipe" intelligence and their complete unwillingness to consider views that did not suit them.