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The Operators: The Wild And Terrifying Inside Story Of America's War In Afghanistan (2011)

by Michael Hastings(Favorite Author)

3.95 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

0316176257 (ISBN13: 9780316176255)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Little, Brown & Company

review 1: If I wasn't cursed with SAD, and maybe also if I wasn't a woman, I would be an embedded war reporter. So, I loved this book. But beyond all the horrifying (aka fascinating) observations of the Afghanistan war and the disgusting, raunchy albeit very brave behavior of our troops/leaders, Hastings has some awesome analysis of American politics, military culture, and Middle East/Western culture clashes that is surprisingly.... objective? (Wait, a journalist can be objective, or at least make an effort to be?) He's definitely left-leaning, anti-war, but he's critical of all the poor, corrupt choices of politicians and leaders in Europe, Asia and America, no matter their political affiliation. It contains a lot of lost context that you don't see in the finished product of mainst... moreream media outlets, especially the way people act off screen/radio and the amount of waste in the wars and government administration.
review 2: A juvenile ethnography of command culture in an ironic age. Hastings described a military whose symbology is thoroughly influencing and influenced by pop-culture media, a Swofford (Jarhead) for the upper ranks. It is all over the map: scattershot descriptions of intrigue and globe trotting travelogue of US installations and interventions. A portrait of a hollywood cowboy general who became a victim of his own mythos, but Hastings also shows that McChrystal is merely the proxy and the embodiment of the US effort in Afghanistan...self interested, arrogant, and reckless. It is an entertaining and irritating read...with lots of F-words. less

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