Book Reviews

There has been much written about what is termed the religious right in the United States in recent years, with a particular emphasis on its relationship to the Republican Party. Beginning in the 1980s with the excellent analysis of sociologist Sara Diamond, those on the left began to take seriously the influence that the religious right had influencing public policy. Sarah Posner's recent book, God's Profits continues this important analysis.

Posner's book looks at the current manifestations of apocalyptic teaching, also known as End Times teaching. The popular San Antonio TV evangelist John Hagee best represents the belief that we are living in the last days. Hagee is particularly influential with his active support of the state of Israel and his constant pressuring of US politicians to maintain that support. During the 2006 Israeli attack on Lebanon, Hagee even advocated that Israel or the US bomb Iran as a way of bringing about the Apocalypse.

While Posner devotes a chapter to the religious right's influence on US foreign policy, the bulk of the book deals with what she calls the Prosperity Gospel movement. This movement believes that the Christian god wants believers to be materially wealthy and in fact, if they are wealthy, that is a sign of their faith in the divine. This is not necessarily a new belief, since the Protestant theologian John Calvin promoted a similar doctrine centuries ago with an emphasis on hard work that resulted in wealth. With the Prosperity Gospel movement less emphasis is put on hard work and more on belief and tithing. If you give a significant portion of your earnings to the church it will come back to you many times over is what this new movement preaches.

Some of the leaders of this movement are Hagee, Kenneth Copeland, and Rod Parsley. Parsley is probably not as familiar to many as Hagee and Copeland, but his influence is just as profound, particularly through his World Harvest Church. Parsley has perfected the art of convincing poor and working class believers into giving over what little money they have to keep Parsley living a life of private jets, multiple houses, and regular vacations in the most expensive tourist locations world wide. Posner does a good job of profiling people who have been bankrupted by the Prosperity Gospel preachers and even provides some documentation of overseas charity scams that some of these leaders have engaged in. The difficulty always lies with accountability since most religious organizations are tax-exempt, which makes it harder to track funding.

While this book provides some interesting insights into the Prosperity Gospel movement, it does not adequately address its relationship to the Republican Party. Posner does look at some of the key people in this movement who have developed relationships with the Bush administration, but the author does not spend adequate time exploring these relationships or how "values voters" end up influencing elections. Despite its shortcomings, God's Profits is a valuable resource for those seeking to understand current trends within the religious right in the US.

Sarah Posner, God's Profits: Faith, Fraud, and the Republican Crusade for Values Voters, (Polipoint Press, 2008).

Censoring Science: Inside the Political Attack on Dr. James Hansen and the Truth of Global Warming explores the efforts of the Bush administration--or at least its political appointees--to silence scientists studying global warming. The book focuses primarily on the work of Dr. James Hansen, a leading climatologist, but also touches on efforts to silence other scientists as well. The context for the book is the reality of global warming and recent attacks by the Bush administration--through direct means and cutting funding--aimed at reducing scientific discussion of global warming in the public and the media.

The majority of the book examines political appointees at NASA, which oversees James Hansen's work at the Goddard Institute for Space Studies, attempted to suppress the work of James Hansen. According to Bowen, this effort began in 2005 when political appointees raised concerns over the posting of routine climate data indicating that 2005 was one of the hottest years on record on the agency's website. While this had been routine procedure for years, administrators--without scientific background and appointed by President George W. Bush--raised concerns that they and the White House were "blindsided" by the information. In the future, these administrators demanded prior knowledge and overview of press releases. The public affairs appointees--who in the past did not have any direct say over scientific matters--began editing press releases, writing policies that limited media access to scientists, and requiring interviews to be taped. This created a climate in which science was "censored" and news was often suppressed or delayed until it was no longer "newsworthy." The book recounts these efforts in considerable detail that often makes for rather dry reading. While the importance and ramifications of their actions are obvious, the description of news releases bouncing between various facets of the NASA bureaucracy was not particularly interesting to this reviewer.

The last third of the book is considerably more interesting than the first two-thirds of the book. In that portion, Bowen provides an overview of Hansen's work beginning with his graduate research into the present. During this discussion, Bowen's writing is clear and the science of global warming is at the forefront. Consequently, readers learn much about the history of climate modeling and the methods that researchers such as Hansen are using to study global warming. There is also some discussion of so-called "global warming skeptics" or "contrarians" that seek to deny that global warming is happening. As would be expected, Bowen explains how there is little room for such claims in serious scientific inquiry and points out how many of the common arguments touted by skeptics are flawed.

Overall, while Censoring Science has compelling sections, it's not essential reading. Dr. James Hansen's contributions to the study of global warming and his advocacy on the issue is admirable, but unfortunately it tends to get lost amid the focus on bureaucratic maneuvering.

Mark Bowen, Censoring Science: Inside the Political Attack on Dr. James Hansen and the Truth of Global Warming, (Dutton, 2008).

If you were able to create a list of books that you think US policy makers, military planners, and even combat soldiers who are in or will be deployed to Iraq should read, Muqtada should be on that list. Not only does this book provide great insight into the current situation in Iraq, it provides important historical background on one of the most important groups of people that make up Iraq - the Shia.

Patrick Cockburn, an author of several books, has been reporting for the British newspaper the Independent from inside Iraq since the beginning of the US occupation. Cockburn begins the book by telling readers about his experience of going to Najaf in 2004 to meet Muqtada and how he was almost killed by the Shia leader's followers who thought he was an American journalist. Cockburn's willingness to take risks not only makes the book an interesting read, it also means he has gained access to areas of Iraq that few foreign journalists have.

Cockburn provides a nice background on who the Shia are historically early on so that readers can have some context in understanding their religious identity. The Shia draw their lineages to the great martyr Iman Hussein, who was killed in 680 AD and was grandson of the Prophet Mohammed. The Shia will make an annual pilgrimage to the site of Hussein's martyrdom, despite the dangers posed during the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s, The Gulf War and the current US occupation of Iraq. What is interesting to note is that when Imam Hussein and other Shia martyrs were killed, they were trapped in the city of Kerbala under circumstances that are very similar to what Muqtada has experienced since 2003. These are the types of parallels that the followers of Muqtada like to draw upon in their current struggle for independence.

Muqtada's legend begins with the assassination of his uncle Mohammed Baqir al-Sada in 1980 by Saddam Hussein. Baqir became known as the first modern Shia martyr, known as Sadr I. His death was part of a campaign carried out by the Iraqi dictator, since the Shiawere increasingly seen as a threat to the Baath Party in Iraq. During Iraq's war with Iran, Saddam Hussein again targeted the Shia community with imprisonment, murder, and even deported some 16,000 to Iran, since Hussein claimed they were of Iranian origin. The Shia clerics during this period of persecution advocated a non-political response, while some also fled the country and went into exile. The crack down on Shia religious leaders eventually led to the assassination of Mohammed Sadiq al-Sadr, the cousin of Baqir and the father of Muqtada in 1999.

Mohammed Sadiq al-Sadr came to prominence just after the 1991 Shia uprising that attempted to overthrow Saddam Hussein during the tail end of the US War in the Persian Gulf. The Shia rebellion held every major city south of Baghdad and had a good chance of overthrowing the regime of Saddam Hussein, but at the last minute, US forces refused to provide support to the uprising. Much speculation has been put forth on why the US did not support the Shia rebellion. Cockburn says that George Bush Sr. was hoping that the Iraqi military would have taken out Saddam, since the US already had a working relationship with many military leaders in Iraq because of US assistance during the Iran-Iraq war. The author also states that US planners did not want to see the country become divided along sectarian lines. Cockburn quotes Zalmay Khalilzad, then director of planning for the State Department as saying, "The partitioning of Iraq will not serve our long-term interests. Iraqi disintegration will improve prospects for Iranian domination of the Gulf and remove a restraint on Syria."

The cost to the Shia community for not fitting into the US plans for the country was the death and imprisonment of thousands of Shia. Saddam's forces went on a killing rampage that left an estimated 150,00 Shia dead. The Shia has not forgotten what role the US played in preventing them from taking down Saddam Hussein. It is also important to note that the Sunnis collaborated with Saddam in preventing the rebellion, because, as Cockburn says, the Sunnis saw the rebellion as "being instigated from Iran and a betrayal to their country."

The Shia rebellion of 1991 was not so clearly led by the religious leaders, but in order to prevent such an uprising in the future, Saddam Hussein appointed Mohammed Sadiq al-Sadr as the leader of the Shia. The Iraqi dictator thought that Mohammed would continue to counsel his followers to stay out of political affairs and pursue a purely religious life. However, because of the tremendous animosity from the 1991 repression, the continued harassment of the Shia from the Baath Party and the conditions caused by the US led economic sanctions, Mohammed became more political. The conditions caused by the sanctions are something that is not known in the United States. Cockburn says that people were so desperate to make money to buy food and medicine that they would risk losing limbs or dying when collecting un-exploded landmines so they could sell the aluminum that was wrapped around the explosives. This is an extremely important point that Cockburn makes in helping readers understand the level of resentment that the Shia have for the US.

Muqtada eventually succeeded his father in becoming the most prominent Shia religious leader after the 1999 assassination. Saddam Hussein had hoped to do away with Muqtada as well, but he was able to escape. Muqtada was not a well-known leader however until after the US invasion of Iraq in 2003 and the capture of Saddam Hussein. During the reign of Paul Bremer, as the US viceroy to Iraq, Muqtada was seen as an increasing threat to US interests. Cockburn says that Bremer referred to Muqtada as "a rabble-rousing Shi'ite cleric" and even compared him to Hitler. Muqtada received such a designation from Bremer since he had the audacity to denounce the US Occupation as a form of colonialism. The animosity between the Shia and the US Occupation grew deeper during the US orchestrated siege on the city of Najaf in 2004. Najaf was a Shia stronghold and it is where Muqtada was able to recruit lots of Iraqi youth who were also against the US occupation.

The last few chapters of the book discuss the decision by Muqtada to enter into electoral politics in 2005. This was not a rejection of armed resistance, but a tactical move on his part to demonstrate the influence that the Shia had in parts of Iraq. Cockburn says that US diplomats and military planners continued to underestimate Muqtada. Shia leader Abbas Fadhel offers an astute analysis of how the Shia community viewed the US attitude towards the 2005 elections. Abbas says, "The Americans just wanted us to believe we were in power and at the same time end our confrontation with them." Soon the fighting escalated and was intensified in places like Baghdad. The growing influence of the Shia movement is what led to the US "surge" of 2007. Cockburn says that while the Bush administration was claiming a victory with the "surge," Shia resistance fighters were just blending in with the civilian population and waiting for the next round of attacks. At the same time more recruits show up daily since the conditions have become so severe, particularly food shortages, that one Iraqi in charge of the food rationing program in Baghdad said, "This never happened under Saddam Hussein's regime."

Muqtada is an extremely important book for those seeking to understand not only the Shia movement in Iraq, but why the US occupation has failed miserably. It is particularly important for those in the anti-war community since it can help us understand why so many Iraqis are pleading with us to end the occupation.

Alexander Cockburn, Muqtada: Muqtada Al-Sadr, The Shia Revival, and the Struggle for Iraq, (Scribner, 2008).

Movements for social change have always relied on common people to stand up and face an injustice. These people do not possess super human strength or abilities that the rest of us don't have, they just decide at some point that they have to take a stand and say no more, or as the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo have been saying for decades, "nuncamas - never again!" These women, mothers in Argentina, were not unusual in any way. These women had all suffered when members of their family had been disappeared by the Military Junta in the 1970s. Their acts of defiance were to stand in front of the National Palace and hold pictures of family members that were taken by the military or to beat on pots and pans in order to be a nuisance.

Standing Up to the Madness: Ordinary Heroes in Extraordinary Times is a collection of stories about people in the United States who are also choosing to take a stand against injustice. In their third book together, Amy and David Goodman have brought to life a wonderful collection of stories that tells us there are plenty of people in this country who are willing to take risks in order to stand up for justice. Many people have not heard these stories since they are generally not considered newsworthy by the commercial media outlets in this country. Amy Goodman, host of the awarding winning radio/TV show Democracy Now!, knows too well that the corporate media doesn't think it is profitable to tell stories about people who not only show courage, but also challenge beliefs that those in power would rather have us ignore.

The book starts by profiling the amazing work of people like Malik Rahim in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Malik, a former member of the Black Panthers, was confronted by how racist the local, state, and federal government responded to the poor and minority residents of New Orleans. Malik realized that not only was the government not interested in rescuing the poor black people from the community he lived in, they were actually an obstacle for those who wanted to help. Malik and other eventually founded the group Common Ground Relief and started not only to assist people during the rescue, but also to figure out ways to empower people to challenge what the government response. Malik and others began to listen to those displaced from the hurricane and to offer help in the form of childcare and emergency housing, health care and the ability for people organize and demand that they be treated fairly.

Two of the areas of injustice that Common Ground Relief began to identify was the government's desire to restructure New Orleans that would exclude many of the City's poor and minority populations and that many of the government relief funds were going to corporate America as kind of a kick-back. One example from the book is that Carnival Cruise Lines was awarded $236 million dollars from the federal government to house people on their vacation boats. It was discovered later that the amount they were charging the government to house people who had been displaced was more than double the cost the company would charge people who were on vacation. The other thing that Malik and others were discovering was that those in power were using the hurricane catastrophe as a way to restructure the city. The City wanted to tear down housing that once belonged to poor Black families so that new development could be proposed. This kind of restructuring is what author Naomi Klein has called disaster capitalism, where economic elites use a catastrophe to put in place the kinds of projects and policies they could not under normal circumstances. Malik and Common Ground Relief have been fighting these policies and through education, organizing and Direct Action, a fight that continues today.

Another story that is brought to life in Standing Up to the Madness is about the courage of students at one high school to perform a play about the US war in Iraq even after they school administration said they couldn't. Students at Wilton High School were scheduled to put on a play that was in large part based upon the writings and reflections of US veterans of the Iraq war. The play was censored at this high school after some parents complained that it was too anti-war. The administration stepped in and said that it could not be performed, but students decided to continue to rehearse. Eventually word got out and other venues offered to have their play performed, most notably the New York City Theater. As the momentum built the students began to get support form all kinds of civic organizations, from veterans groups and from the National Coalition Against Censorship. What was inspiring to read about this story was the impact it had on the students who stood their ground. One Wilton High student Natalie Kropf said, "I don't think I've ever learned so much from anything I've done." This is the kind of outcome you can expect when people stand up for what is right.

It is so rare that we get to hear these kinds of stories even though they happen all the time. Amy and David Goodman have done us all a great service by documenting these stories and communicating the message that it is possible to stand up against the madness. Amy Goodman will be in Grand Rapids on Saturday, May 10 while on tour promoting the book. The doors open for this event at 6pm, with Amy Goodman speaking at 7pm at Plymouth Congregational UCC at 4010 Kalamazoo SE in Grand Rapids. For downloadable flyers and more event details click here.

Amy Goodman and David Goodman, Standing Up to the Madness: Ordinary Heroes in Extraordinary Times, (Hyperion, 2008).

Rising healthcare costs are often erroneously blamed on the escalating costs of nursing care, new technologies, development of new drugs and an aging population. In his newest book, The Corrosion of Medicine: Can the Profession Reclaim its Moral Legacy, Dr. John Geyman presents well documented proof that the real cause of escalating healthcare costs is free market capitalism.

Over the past 40 years, healthcare has evolved from a morals and service-based, social contract into a marketplace controlled by corporations to create profit for shareholders. Like pork bellies and wheat, healthcare has been reduced to a commodity for sale on the open market. Geyman quotes Richard Scott, co-founder, chairman, CEO and president of Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corporation,

"Do we have an obligation to provide healthcare for everybody? Where do we draw the line? Is any fast-food restaurant obligated to feed everyone who shows up?"

Kickbacks, referral income, profits from investing in their own facilities, financial incentives for cutting costs and gifts from drug, medical device and medical supply companies have lulled the majority of physicians into complacency. The Hippocratic oath has been rewritten to read, "First, do make profits." Geyman cites seven HMO CEOs who, in 2003 alone, earned up to a healthy $50.9 million.

Private insurance industry lobbyists have managed to limit the government's healthcare debate to an argument over which insurance corporations will receive the biggest windfall.

Meanwhile, lower-income people needing care are increasingly marginalized and left behind, as hospitals and specialty medical centers make their escape to affluent suburbs and insurance carriers find ways to cherry-pick people without high-dollar health risks.

"The costs of care have become increasingly unaffordable for at least one-half of the US population. The Institute of Medicine has found that 8 million uninsured people with chronic disease have increased morbidity and worse outcomes, that 18,000 Americans die prematurely every year, and that the costs of diminished health and shorter life spans amounts to between $65 and $130 billion each year," Geyman writes.

This profiteering has also gutted public health programs throughout the nation. Geyman writes, "... more affluent insured Americans will find themselves as vulnerable as their lower-income and uninsured counterparts when trauma and burn centers have closed due to lack of funding or when a newly drug-resistant infectious disease spreads throughout the entire population without regard to socioeconomic groups."

Geyman concludes that the only solution to America's healthcare woes is a single-payer system of health insurance, i.e. national health insurance or Medicare for all.

Geyman organizes and substantiates his arguments within four sections:

I. How medicine arose as a moral enterprise.
II. The invasion of the business ethic.
III. How conflicts of interest sell patients short.
IV. Reclaiming medicine's moral credibility.

Geyman ends the lengthy, well-documented work on a note of hope. However, the writer of this review has little expectation that the industrial healthcare complex will revert to an equitable, morals-based enterprise as long as free market capitalism reigns as the underlying economic force within these United States.

John Geyman, The Corrosion of Medicine: Can the Profession Reclaim its Moral Legacy, (Common Courage Press, 2008).

If one is trying to wrap their mind around all of the current global conflicts in the world, particularly where the United States is involved, you can go to several go websites for a good analysis. If you are interested in finding out what the US policy towards Venezuela is you'll find great information at Venezuela Analysis. For those who are looking for current information on Israel/Palestine that doesn't give you a governmental perspective, then visit to Electronic Intifada. If you are trying to get the perspective of those who live in Afghanistan regarding their endurance of the 7-year US occupation, a great source is the Revolutionary Association of Women in Afghanistan (RAWA). For those interested in a broader understanding of US foreign policy, an excellent source is Foreign Policy in Focus. However, in order to come to terms with current US foreign policy one needs to have some historical context. The Cold War and the New Imperialism: A Global History, 1945-2005 is a good place to start for those wanting to put current policy into perspective.

Henry Heller, a professor of history at the University of Manitoba, has written an excellent overview of US foreign policy since World War II with an emphasis on the Cold War. This book is broken up into eight sections, beginning with the end of World War II and its aftermath. Heller makes a compelling argument that the US position after WWII was one of containment, particularly of left and Communist elements. This position of containment would explain why the US in many cases throughout Europe assisted in putting fascist groups back into power, particularly at the local level. The author does a wonderful job of demonstrating how this policy of containment is what led to the Cold War between the US and the Soviet Union.

The second and third section of the book takes a close look at the period of de-colonization globally and how the US made a concerted effort to enlarge its sphere of influence. The US directly intervened in places such as Guatemala and Iran by overthrowing democratically elected governments, while seeking to position themselves in Africa and Southeast Asia as countries moved toward liberation from European rule. At the same time the USSR was dealing with a post-Stalin era and trying to reform its government and expand its global influence as well. Heller demonstrates that the only real confrontation between the two super-powers was how they competed for building global allies, particularly in developing countries.

In the fourth chapter of the book, the author takes a look at liberation movements globally, particularly in Latin America with the influence that the Cuban revolution had on the entire region. The Cuban revolution is what really drove the Kennedy administration's desire to shift tactics in Latin America with the introduction of policies and agencies like the Agency for International Development (USAID), the Peace Corps, and the Alliance for Progress. These policies were not terribly successful by themselves, but when used in conjunction with military campaigns such as the use of proxy forces or direct intervention, the policies which began under Kennedy have continued to influence US policy makers ever since.

On the other side of the globe, US tactics were much more traditional with direct intervention in Southeast Asia during the Kennedy, Johnson, and Eisenhower administrations. What is generally referred to as the Vietnam War, was actually a US war against Southeast Asia since it included the US bombing of Cambodia and military operations which were being conducted out of Laos. Heller does a good job of framing this regional war within the larger Cold War context. As the US was becoming mired in Southeast Asia, revolutionary movements were emerging in other developing countries and to some extent in Europe and the US as more and more people were challenging traditional power structures. However, in this portion of the text the author does not give enough credit to Third World movements for their influence on the left in Europe and the United States.

In chapter six, the author looks at the shift from revolution to Neo-liberalism, particularly during the Reagan and Thatcher years. This shift was in part due to an increase in military spending but also because of a greater emphasis on pushing economic policies which drove many countries into debt. It was during the 1980s that the influence of international lending institutions and foreign investors began to push for structural adjustment policies designed to open Third World markets and impose a policy of privatization in countries that had just a decade early flirted with revolution. Nicaragua was a good example of where the Sandinista revolution of 1979 was squashed by a US proxy war and its economy devastated by an embargo and diversion of resources from development to military spending. The Sandinistas lost the election in 1990 and the new government, which was backed by the US, embraced the Neo-liberal plan imposed by Washington. Nicaragua went from being a country of hope to a country of child prostitution and poverty.

The book concludes by looking at the disintegration of the Soviet Union and what factors contributed to it and how that set the stage for US global dominance. Heller provides a good overview of the Clinton years and how they set the stage for the Bush administration and its policies. This is important in that the Clinton years are usually overlooked as the first full administration in the post Cold War era and why the US government could get away with military campaigns in Somalia, Kosovo, Bosnia, Iraq and boost military spending overall, with major arms sales to countries such as Turkey and Colombia. The Cold War and the New Imperialism is a very useful resource for those who are not only trying to have some context for US policy abroad, but can also be a useful guide in determining which direction the policy might take with the next administration.

Henry Heller, The Cold War and the New Imperialism: A Global History, 1945-2005, (Monthly Review Press, 2006).

Most of us on the left are familiar with the idea of a "military-industrial complex" by which the military and industry are inextricably linked and in which both exist due to a mutually beneficially relationship and the involvement of a sympathetic and enabling legislative branch. Less known is the fact that the term was coined by former president Dwight D. Eisenhower who was concerned about the "unwarranted influence" that the system was having on the government and society. Eisenhower's words--spoken in 1961 and aimed at the Cold War system--has for years typified how much of the left views the relationship between the military and the economy.

However, in The Complex: How the Military Invades our Everyday Lives, author and historian Nick Turse argues that the "military-industrial complex" has become far more pervasive and larger than the system described by Eisenhower. While Eisenhower raised concerns about the "large arms industry," Turse argues that the military now invades almost every facet of our daily lives. From the food we eat to the entertainment we watch, Turse outlines a far more powerful system--"the military-industrial-technological-entertainment-scientific-media-corporate complex or "the Complex" for short--that exists as "a real-life matrix" that touches every part of our lives without must of us ever realizing it.

Much of Turse's book, while focusing on a variety of different topics from the relationship between the military and telecommunications corporations to the relationship between the military and Hollywood, highlights how the Complex is a product of mutually beneficial relationships between the government and private corporations. Turse describes Department of Defense officials who go to work for weapons contractors and contractors who serve in the Department of Defense, universities that do research for the Pentagon, and technology that is developed for military applications and then sold in consumer products. Aside from the obvious examples of weapons research, Turse discusses how the military has worked with private entities including MySpace, NASCAR, and various video game companies on recruiting efforts. Similarly, the military has been heavily involved in various entertainment ventures--from multimedia websites to Hollywood films--designed to convey the idea that the military is heroic, admirable, and morally correct.

A particularly interesting portion of the book explores how the military markets itself to teenagers for the purposes of increasing enlistment. Turse outlines the military's use of MySpace and high-tech websites to appeal to teenagers. Not surprisingly, death is notably absent from the cyber-recruiting sites despite the fact that it is a reality with the United States' occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. Turse also looks at how the military has used video games--particularly America's Army--to recruit youth. While the military has said that the game isn't necessarily a recruiting vehicle, Turse points out that it offers numerous ways for players to get in contact with recruiters. Similarly, he cites a 2004 study commissioned by the military that found America's Army was one of the most successful ways that the Army has to reach young people. Like other portions of the complex, the military's recruiting efforts are aided by private corporations including the companies that assisted in developing video games, public relations firms that do research on recruiting and demographics for the military, and media firms that give free promotions to the military.

Throughout The Complex, Turse raises the question of priorities as it relates tot the massive amounts of money that the United States spends on its military and related projects. While some of these are outright ridiculous--for example the thousands of dollars that the military spends on donuts and golfing--these are unfortunately some of the least insidious things that the military is doing. Turse describes the research being conducted by DARPA--an agency of the Department of Defense--into ways to "weaponize" nature by utilizing insects for military purposes or developing "systems" that would allow soldiers to function for a week without sleep. Money continues to be poured into DARPA, despite a fairly unimpressive success rate. At the same time, DARPA draws some of the most creative scientific minds and channels that energy towards death and destruction rather than research aimed at improving humanity. As a practical example, Turse points out that the amount of money spent on alternative energy research barely registers compared to the billions spent each year on military research.

Appropriately, Turse concludes with an exploration of Homeland Security. He explains that spending in this area has significantly increased and as such, it may be the area in which the Complex comes to touch most of us. Turse describes an increasingly militarized society in which surveillance is omnipresent, law enforcement agencies have an array of advanced weaponry, and where civilians are encouraged to report those whom they believe may be terrorists. This is just one of many important insights in Turse's book, a book which all on the left--and in the antiwar movement--would do well to read. While Turse says nothing about what can be done to channel energy away from the military, The Complex makes it clear that there are an almost infinite number of areas in which those opposing the military can become involved.

Nick Turse, The Complex: How the Military Invades our Everyday Lives, (Metropolitan Books, 2008).