What is Reddit's opinion of Drift: The Unmooring of American Military Power?

From 3.5 billion Reddit comments

It is, and that’s because the only people telling the stories are people like me who bought into the deal at 18 and became disillusioned, or the people people who bought into the war and became even more gung ho.

Generally speaking, there just aren’t any Tolkiens or Protest Music from these wars because the writers, artists, and musicians who would normally inspire anti war movements with their experiences because they never had to go in. They’ve all been outsiders looking in. Shit, most civilians would be hard pressed to identify a combat veteran that they are even friends with.

I don’t typically like Maddow (really any news “analyst” for that matter), but she does have a great book on the subject

Drift: The Unmooring of American Military Power https://www.amazon.com/dp/0307460991/ref=cm_sw_r_awdo_navT_a_HK48XB0R41QEYB0JTQ5M

Frankly as far as I can tell there are several arguments being used.

(1) Our withdrawal from Syria is premature and does not support our long-term geopolitical aims in the Middle East.

(2) By withdrawing we effectively toss the Kurds under the bus. Of course one could argue this is something they're used to since administrations of both political parties seem to have a habit of tossing them under the bus.

(3) By withdrawing we are signaling to parties in the Middle East who have used chaos to gain power that they now have a freer hand to operate.

Of course there are arguments for withdrawing:

(1) Our presence in the Middle East is antagonizing other foreign powers, and those foreign powers should be the ones who step in to clean up the mess. (*cough* Saudi Arabia *cough*)

(2) Our presence in Syria, specifically, is insensitive to Russia's own ties to Syria. (Keep in mind that at some level, Syria is to Russia what Israel is to the United States.) And that creates a lot of opportunities to turn Syria into a proxy war between the United States and Russia.

(3) Our principle stated geopolitical goal for being in Syria was to destroy ISIS and other terrorist groups operating from there--and if their functionality has indeed been reduced, we have no reason to be there. (And it's not like we can't go back if they resume operations.)

---

All of these reasons (and I'm sure there are others) seem valid to me regardless of which administration is in the White House. And you see both sides of the aisle making both sets of arguments, with Democrats praising the withdrawal and Republicans being outraged by it.

The problem, however, is that we're seeing a new reason which is causing a lot of folks to speak up in ways that just hurt my brain:

> "Orange Man Bad."

And I don't use that phrase lightly.

There have been a lot of folks in the media who have come out against Trump's withdrawing troops from Syria--who have been screaming for the US to withdraw our troops exactly as Trump is doing.

I mean, Rachel Maddow wrote an entire book on the subject, whose thesis is that America has become quite comfortable in a state of perpetual war, and whose recommendation is for us to start withdrawing from overseas involvements.

And yet what does she tweet when the current White House occupant starts withdrawing troops?

That it is wrong, because it plays into the hands of the Russians.

Uh, WTF???

https://www.amazon.com/Drift-Unmooring-American-Military-Power/dp/0307460991#productDescription_secondary_view_div_1466976202009

Can't recommend this one enough.

I'd suggest Drift for general discussion of the military and society. Plan of Attack provides pretty phenomenal inside reporting on the decision to invade Iraq and Afghanistan.

If you found this article interesting, the book Drift by Rachel Maddow (the MSNBC host) is a really good piece of writing on the issue.

http://www.amazon.com/Drift-Unmooring-American-Military-Power/dp/0307460991

The only devastation being wrought by Maddow is her endless pontificating--aluminum porn, anyone? And her, "I have Trump's tax return--more when we come back".

That said, her book was excellent.

Maddow wrote an amazing book about the military, but I tell you, I cannot stand her show. She once showed like a minute's worth of chrome porn (shots of chrome ore, processed chrome, etc) when talking about something before she got to the point.

But check out the book. Fantastic read.

This. I highly recommend Rachel Maddow's book "Drift: The Unmooring of American Military Power".