Reddit reviews Dirty Wars: The World Is A Battlefield

Quicksand, by Geoffry Wawro

Power, Faith, and Fantasy by Michael Oren

The Coming Anarchy by Robert Kaplan

The Revenge of Geography by Robert Kaplan

The Shia Revival by Vali Nasr (although to be honest I found this one a little dull)

Imperial Life in the Emerald City by Rajiv Chandrasekaran

Little America by Rajiv Chandrasekaran

Soldiers of God by Robert Kaplan

Sleeping with the Devil by Baer

Dirty Wars by Jeremey Scahill

Ghost Wars by Steve Coll

Charlie Wilson's War by George Crile

The Way of the Knife by Mark Mazzetti

Eastward to Tartary by Robert Kaplan (I actually haven't read this one yet but it's definitely on my to do list and I'm a huge fan of Kaplan's writing, observation, and analysis.)

The Ends of the Earth by Robert Kaplan

This is a partial list of some books I've read in the past couple of years. I put stars next to the ones that I think are the really really excellent ones. Some of them aren't entirely about the Middle East but the concepts in them are really important if you want to understand the region. I hope you look through the list and at the very least look at some of the books that Amazon recommends to go along with these books.

Oh, you should also check out this essay. I like to think it's decent reading if you want to understand what motivated Bin Laden and the context surrounding his life.

If you manage to read just a few of these, and also keep up with the news (I recommend a subscription to the Economist and to the New York Times) you will be a phenomenally well educated person about the Middle East.

There is no such thing as an unbiased account. The very act of declaring our government as functioning and sustainable is biased.

Better to shoot wide and form your own opinions.

I recommend Dirty Wars by Jeremy Scahill and not a book, but still very good - the movie 'The War You Don't See'.

Blackwater by Jeremy Scahill is a great look into OIF which is the most significant event to happen in the region in the 21st century.

His book Dirty Wars is also excellent.

Also, Legacy of Ashes

This is all super American centric, but there's a reason for that.

Read the book, it's very good. https://www.amazon.com/Dirty-Wars-Battlefield-Jeremy-Scahill/dp/156858671X

Not remotely short, but still very informative.

josieKM: ^^original ^^reddit ^^link

in the book dirty wars by jeremey scahill it is pretty clear that Al-Awlaki was forced to become an informant of some description. He is also used frequently as a person who allegedly motivates others such Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and others who face terror charges..

And they all seem to allegedly get their ideas from Inspire magazine which also has very doubtful origins (some journalists say CIA produce it). So its like when they want to prosecute someone they use Al-Awlaki + Inspire - I usually get suspect when I read those linked to someone.
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2010/07/5-reasons-to-doubt-al-qaeda-magazines-authenticity/59035/
http://www.amazon.com/Dirty-Wars-The-World-Battlefield/dp/156858671X

Actually, it is the reverse. Saudi Arabia is acting on the behalf of the US. The US supplies all arms, targets, intelligence, logistical support, etc. Bush initiated covert operations in Yemen, using drones, special forces and agents. Obama continued these operations but determined that operations needed to be escalated to traditional bombing campaigns. President Obama felt that direct action by the US was not politically feasible so assigned Saudi Arabia to carry out the US's goals.

The book, Dirty Wars, covers this well and in depth.

Whether the State Department is or isn't assassinating people isn't really up for debate. There has been ample reporting on the issue by both the human rights organizations and the U.S. press; hell, Diane Sawyer covered the issue of the drone assassinations on World News a few weeks ago, the ACLU is embroiled in a prominent lawsuit against the State Dept. over it, etc. A respected journalist has just released a well-documented book that will bring you up to speed on this, if you're interested, but at any rate, again, as pkwrig alludes, the State Department is assassinating people left and right, in several countries, several of the victims by now have been Americans, and that really isn't debatable.

I am born and raised in America.

>It's not offense on countries with resources we deem valuable that's just a stupid talking point that has no merit.

Has no merit? http://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Economic-Hit-John-Perkins/dp/0452287081

>Economic hit men (EHMs) are highly paid professionals who cheat countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars. They funnel money from the World Bank, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and other foreign "aid" organizations into the coffers of huge corporations and the pockets of a few wealthy families who control the planet's natural resources. Their tools included fraudulent financial reports, rigged elections, payoffs, extortion, sex, and murder. They play a game as old as empire, but one that has taken on new and terrifying dimensions during this time of globalization.

>I was initially recruited while I was in business school back in the late sixties by the National Security Agency, the nation’s largest and least understood spy organization; but ultimately I worked for private corporations. The first real economic hit man was back in the early 1950s, Kermit Roosevelt, Jr., the grandson of Teddy, who overthrew the government of Iran, a democratically elected government, Mossadegh’s government who was Time‘s magazine person of the year; and he was so successful at doing this without any bloodshed—well, there was a little bloodshed, but no military intervention, just spending millions of dollars and replaced Mossadegh with the Shah of Iran. At that point, we understood that this idea of economic hit man was an extremely good one. We didn’t have to worry about the threat of war with Russia when we did it this way. The problem with that was that Roosevelt was a C.I.A. agent. He was a government employee. Had he been caught, we would have been in a lot of trouble. It would have been very embarrassing. So, at that point, the decision was made to use organizations like the C.I.A. and the N.S.A. to recruit potential economic hit men like me and then send us to work for private consulting companies, engineering firms, construction companies, so that if we were caught, there would be no connection with the government.


Or how about this book? http://www.amazon.com/Dirty-Wars-The-World-Battlefield/dp/156858671X

>America's hand is exposed in this sprawling investigation of autonomous US military operations and the abuse of executive privilege that escalated global war. New York Times bestselling author Scahill (Blackwater) pulls no punches from right or left in his exposure of governments that passively authorized the use of torture in interrogation, marked an American citizen for death without due process, and empowered a military branch to conduct warfare on their terms, turning at least four countries into warzones. Interviews with U.S. army colonels, former CIA officers, Somali warlords, and a Yemeni sheik are only a few focal points in Scahill's narrative prism. Years of ground investigation are chronicled in stock terms, creating an accessible and shuddering effect: congress "asleep at the wheel;" an enemy of the state "on a collision course with history;" government officials who "cut their teeth" in the White House. Even in Scahill's most frustrated moments fact supplants editorial, adding valiancy and devastation to his brutal portrayals.


Your view of America is unrealistic.. or you haven't been paying attention.

Here are some links for the product in the above comment for different countries:

Amazon Smile Link: this book


|Country|Link|
|:-----------|:------------|
|UK|amazon.co.uk|
|Spain|amazon.es|
|France|amazon.fr|
|Germany|amazon.de|
|Japan|amazon.co.jp|
|Canada|amazon.ca|
|Italy|amazon.it|
|China|amazon.cn|




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