A research feat, and an important book to read

books:

	• The Complex: How the Military Invades Our Everyday Lives Nick Turse Metropolitan Books, 2008 - 304 pages average customer review:based on 10 reviews view larger image
	for more information click here

A Must Read!

Scary. The American armed services serve, and are served by, many entities; but the least thing the military does "protect and serve" is our freedom to speech and religion or from want or fear; in fact, "the Complex" is nothing other than Satan physically constructed, and this entity is the most fearsome force this world has ever known!

Quite an eye-opening book!

God help us.

A research feat, and an important book to read

A fantastic book! We have needed a book that rigorously examines our government's spending with regard to the military, and furthermore, how it is entangled in other areas of our lives that we typically (and naively) think of as wholly separate. What thinking person doesn't want to know where his or her money is going?

Which brings me to another point. What has happened to us that we can no longer analyze and question what our government gives to us and demands of us without being labeled "anti" something or other? Anti-military, anti-America, etc. Where is the criticism for anti-thinking? It's disappointing to see reactionary reviews to a book such as this, which sets out to inform us not to lambaste the government in a playground brawl. Why are smart Americans so upset when the system they put money into and live within goes under scrutiny? If a person had a tumor on his leg, would he not seek medical attention because he likes the leg and wants to keep it? Our system is ill, and we have researchers and writers like Mr. Turse to thank for the scrutiny that might help us (begin to) figure out how to save it.

On to the review. I've followed Mr. Turse's work for many years, in The Nation and on TomDispatch, mostly, as well as in the Los Angeles Times. He's a fine researcher and that rare individual who holds his own bar highest. Not only is The Complex a research feat that few of us have the mind, talent, or energy to even attempt, Mr. Turse makes connections between the data he's amassed-the true work of a writer.

Anyone who is shocked to hear of a $640 toilet certainly doesn't remember the Chicago scandal over ten years ago when a government official had used city funds for a $150,000 toilet. Are facts untrue because they are shocking to us? My grandmother can't believe gas is $4 a gallon, either...

We should be smart and skeptical enough by this point in time to appreciate the efforts of those such as Mr. Turse who data-mine for us so we don't have to. The book is well-organized and extremely readable, especially considering the wealth of information. Have I stopped supporting the companies in the book? No. Do I wish that I could? Sure. Do I get the sense that Mr. Turse is preaching to me to do so? Not at all. But reading The Complex made me realize that what we need is more awareness. It's impossible to live off the grid and the author isn't suggesting anyone do that. How silly and naive to read this book with that interpretation. Mr. Turse urges us to think. What's wrong with that?

There's a dearth of writing like Mr. Turse's in our world today. This book is the first of its kind and we need more writers like him that are willing to exercise the mental muscle it takes to analyze the government and its spending and influence with regard to its military. I have to wonder, do a lot of parents, for example, throw money at their kids without asking them how they are spending it? Perhaps so. But if you care about your kids (and likewise your country) you might want to know what it's up to with all that dough. If it's in trouble, you might want to look at why.

Mr. Turse's book makes me proud to know that I live in a country where we can question our government and criticize (in the interest of fixing) what's broken. If people aren't comfortable with this level of intelligent scrutiny, then perhaps North Korea is accepting residencies. I hear they have a lovely plan for blindly getting behind one's government without asking questions about what it's up to.

Everyone who pays taxes ought to have enough intellectual curiosity to ask where his or her money is going. Heck, this isn't intellect; it's common sense. Thank you, Mr. Turse, for an excellent book. Hopefully the first of many.

for more information click here

reviews: page 1, 2

A mind-boggling investigation of the allpervasive, constantly morphing presence of the Pentagon in daily life?a real-world Matrix come alive Here is the new, hip, high-tech military-industrial complex?an omnipresent, hidden-in-plain-sight system of systems that penetrates all our lives.

From iPods to Starbucks to Oakley sunglasses, historian Nick Turse explores the Pentagon?s little-noticed contacts (and contracts) with the products and companies that now form the fabric of America. Turse investigates the remarkable range of military incursions into the civilian world: the Pentagon?s collaborations with Hollywood filmmakers; its outlandish schemes to weaponize the wild kingdom; its joint ventures with the World Wrestling Federation and NASCAR. He shows the inventive ways the military, desperate for new recruits, now targets children and young adults, tapping into the ?culture of cool? by making ?friends? on MySpace.

A striking vision of this brave new world of remote-controlled rats and super-soldiers who need no sleep, The Complex will change our understanding of the militarization of America. We are a long way from Eisenhower?s military-industrial complex: this is the essential book for understanding its twenty-first-century progeny.

for more information click here