Spiral

April 4, 2016
This lucid but gloomy book provides a solid account of how the U.S. seems to be mired in a losing and intractable battle against global terrorism. Danner convincingly argues that perhaps the biggest catastrophe of the “war on terror” was branding it as a “war” rather than a state of emergency, or, as he calls it, a “state of exception.” This state of exception has utterly consumed American politics and foreign policy since Sept. 11, 2001, and appears to have no end. Danner shows how the willful decision to torture (or apply “enhanced interrogation” techniques to) suspected terrorists created a ripple effect of prolonging the war and inspiring more terrorists, while gathering little useful intelligence. President Bush and Vice-President Cheney may have begun the war and implemented the laws governing the state of exception, but President Obama and his administration have normalized it. Obama greatly increased the number of drone strikes, refused to prosecute admitted torturers, and still has not closed the Guantánamo Bay detention camp. Danner’s book is a clear-eyed and shrewd examination of how easily terrorists achieve their goals of inspiring fear and retaliation. His proposed solutions for ending the forever war show how difficult it will be for any politician to upend the exceptional period that has, unfortunately, become the new normal. Agent: Joy Harris, Joy Harris Literary Agency.

July 1, 2016

The United States is now a decade and a half removed from the atrocities of September 11, 2001. Are we closer to defeating the forces that gave rise to that terrorist attack? Has U.S. intervention in the Middle East changed the world for the better and brought us greater security? Danner (English, journalism & politics, Univ. of California Berkeley Graduate Sch. of Journalism; Stripping Bare the Body) would say no to both questions. Here the author shows how a misguided logic based in an overblown interpretation of the events of 9/11 has only deepened the continued crisis in the Middle East and has lodged America in a war that may never end. Danner is equally critical of both the George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations for activities in Iraq and Syria--Bush for pursuing a "war on terror" and his administration's advocacy of torture, and Obama for supporting much of the Bush Doctrine and the use of drone strikes. VERDICT Danner's book will appeal to readers of all political stripes concerned about how U.S. involvement in Middle East conflicts affects this country's standing in the world.--Brett Rohlwing, Milwaukee P.L.

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from April 15, 2016
A somber examination of why the war on terror has stretched over 15 years and appears to have no end in sight. Fear has created what Danner (Journalism and English/Univ. of California; Stripping Bare the Body: Politics Violence War, 2009, etc.) calls the sense of "permanent emergency" among the American public and administration alike in keeping the wars in the Middle East percolating. In this poignant, thoughtful plea for accountability and a change of course, the author shows how the terrorists, specifically al-Qaida and the Islamic State group, have succeeded spectacularly in their aims of drawing Americans into a "forever war." He begins with 9/11 and the emergency measures put in place immediately under the administration of George W. Bush, starting with Congress' Authorization for Use of Military Force and the Patriot Act. Privately, there were presidential memorandums empowering the CIA to proceed with "the capture and detention of Al Qaeda terrorists" and the military order on the "detention, treatment, and trial of certain non-citizens in the war against terrorism," redefining the captured as "detainees" and "unlawful combatants" rather than "prisoners of war" and thus ineligible for protections by the Geneva Convention statues. From Bush's creation of this "state of exception"--defined as a time during which, "in the name of security, some of our accustomed rights and freedoms are circumscribed or set aside"--President Barack Obama has "normalized" it, despite his best intentions: "This is not who we are." Danner emphasizes the irony of this ongoing "secret war"--which he compares to Argentina's Dirty Wars of the 1970s--by the Nobel Prize-winning president, who cannot close Guantanamo or repeal AUMF and whose "light footprint" strategy in Iraq and Afghanistan includes targeted killings by drones and other "expansive use of the power of secrecy." Only through politics and education can we dispel the "twilight world" of perpetual war in which we are mired. A chilling cautionary tale of Orwellian repercussions.

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