The Format of War Has Changed
Review of How Everything Became War and the Military Became Everything: Tales from the Pentagon by Rosa Brooks
Until the turn of the 20th century war was waged basically the same as it had always been, with soldiers lining up to battle in uniform patterns. The two world wars brought new technology to the game plan but the actual fighting played out on battle fields. One incident changed everything. As four planes were hijacked flying into targets on US soil the battlefield expanded, changing not only how the military of Earth engaged but also how war has become the lifeblood of policies. Author Rosa Brooks takes readers into the back rooms of the Pentagon exploring war in her recent book 'How Everything Became War and the Military Became Everything: Tales from the Pentagon, shortlisted for the Lionel Gelber Prize.
War, once reserved to battlefields has branched out. Today unmanned drones are more likely to be used than risking human bodies, borders breached that are not actively combat zones and personnel being utilized for peacekeeping type work.
For most of the North American population dealing with military issues isn't considered a daily thing. In the past how war works didn't affect the masses directly. Today, however, that is changing. Brooks explains how the US budget's division of funds is now almost completely dictated by military needs. If there is combat line to the bottom line the sky can be the limit while funding for other areas like education and health care for the general population can take the fight.
The 'war on terror' that began on 9/11 is all out global warfare. Decisions made at the Pentagon don't play by the same rules of past wars. Today enemies of the state are monitored by drones, tracking down targets anywhere in the world.
Brooks knows the ins and outs of the Pentagon from her job as a counsellor for the undersecretary of defence for policy. She sat in top secret meetings, visited places like Gitmo and Afghanistan and saw first hand the rapid changes of war policies of the 21st century. Heavy on details, 'How Everything Became War and the Military Became Everything' is filled with short blurbs of a world that is generally off limits to those without clearance.
How Everything Became War and the Military Became Everything' is a must read to have the knowledge of what is really going on within the United States war machine. Giving readers the background of the hard to understand what war, peace and the rule of law mean in this new era that we are living in.
The winner of the 2017 Lionel Gelber Prize, a literary award for the world’s best non-fiction book in English on foreign affairs that seeks to deepen public debate on significant international issues, will be announced on February 28 and invited to speak at a free public event at Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs on March 29, 2017.