We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Friday, November 9, 2012

Irregular Army: How the US Military Recruited Neo-Nazis, Gang Members, and Criminals to Fight the War on Terror

Click here to access article by Season Butler from CounterFire (UK).

Butler highlights the disturbing findings in a new book by Matt Kennard. Unfortunately, he doesn't evaluate the information or provide any information about the author so that we can decide whether to take the findings seriously. 

After perusing information about the book and the author on Amazon's website, I think that the findings are from a reliable and competent source. Kennard is an investigative journalist with the Financial Times and has worked for Salon and The Guardian. Here are the blurbs listed for this book:
“I have been following Matt Kennard’s work for years, with much appreciation. He is a fine journalist and political analyst, acute and perceptive, and his work is based on real insight and understanding over a broad range.” (Noam Chomsky )
“A startling new investigation that reveals the depths of the extremist and criminal elements that have infiltrated the US military over the past two decades. Irregular Army is a powerful investigation that exposes both the roots of defective military recruitment and its deadly aftershocks. Kennard’s book issues an urgent warning to the American public.” (Daryl Johnson, senior domestic terrorism analyst at the US Department of Homeland Security (2004–2010) )
“Matt Kennard is a fluent, powerful and authoritative writer whose debut book will surely establish him as one of Britain’s best-known investigative journalists.” (David Crouch - Financial Times )
“Matt Kennard’s new book expertly exposes the effect of the American colonial capitalist war machine on poor American soldiers as well as the stricken peoples of Iraq and Afghanistan living under them. I hope it is read by many people.” (Nawal El-Saadawi )
“An exceptional author. Matt Kennard never tries to paint a pig pretty. Thanks, Matt, for keeping it ugly.” (Hunter Glass, former gang investigator for the US military )
“Matt Kennard is a creative and dogged investigative reporter whose probe of hidden realities inside the US military promises to be a revelation.” (Esther Kaplan, editor of the Investigative Fund at the Nation Institute )
“Chilling … Illuminating … Kennard’s nonpartisan portrait of martial waywardness is foreboding.” (Publishers Weekly )