Book Reviews
Surviving Climate Change: the struggle to avert global catastrophe
Editors David Cromwell and Mark Levene 2007 Pluto Press
This, the first multi-authored book from Crisis Forum, set up for the study of crises in the C21st (www.crisis-forum.org.uk), is for those who want to read about what is really going on around the politics of climate change. Governments and business keep reassuring the public they are going to fix the problem. This book brings together some leading activists who disagree. They expose the inertia, denial, deception - even threats to our civil liberties - which comprise mainstream responses from civil and military policy makers, and from opinion formers in the media, corporations and academia.
Climate change is a pressing reality. From hurricane Katrina to melting polar ice, and from mass extinctions to increased threats to food and water security, the link between corporate globalization and planetary blowback is becoming all too evident.
An epochal change is called for in the way we all engage with the climate crisis. Key to that change is Aubrey Meyer’s proposed ‘Contraction and Convergence’ framework for limiting global carbon emissions. This book, which also includes contributions by Mayer Hillman and George Marshall, is a powerful guide to how mass mobilisation can avert the looming catastrophe.
Dr Mark Levene is Reader in Comparative History at Southampton University, Crisis Forum co-founder and Director of the “Climate change and violence” project. He gave MAW’s 2009 Remembrance Sunday lecture at the Imperial War Museum
A Million Bullets: the real story of the British Army in Afghanistan
James Fergusson, Corgi Books
James Fergusson gives us a picture of the fighting in Afghanistan in 2006 that does not match that given through our media. For all our high-tech weapons, this is the story of a frontier war told by the soldiers themselves, reminiscent of some of Kipling’s tales of the Northwest frontier, or forts besieged by Indians in the Wild West. They describe the highs and lows, the desperate holding on under daily attacks, the small triumphs and mismanaged missions, coming to terms with killing for the first time.
It is clear they are proud of their profession, but not so clear what they are achieving. We know about Sangin and Musa Qala, but not about Now Zad, where a small company first of Ghurkhas then Fusiliers were under siege for 5 months. Nor did we know about Operation Augustus, when the Chinook helicopters full of Paratroopers had everything go wrong.
At the end, Fergusson shifts the focus with a riveting chapter about spending time among the Taliban. His conversations with them give real insight into their thinking, their belief, above all their certainty that time is on their side. They will win as they always have, against superior weapons, because this is their land. But these men are also Pashtun for whom the guest is sacred so, as Fergusson writes, ‘And then I fell asleep, confident that among these people my vulnerability would protect me better than any gun or body armour. Apart from the threat of another Coalition bomb, I could not have been safer.’
The Uses and Abuses of History
Margaret Macmillan, Profile Books Ltd (2009)
The uses and abuses of history covered by Margaret MacMillan include the popularity and limitations of history on TV and cinema; the way history has been used selectively to suit the ‘needs’ of current generations; and the way history, particularly military and political, helps form individual and collective identities nationally, or through religious and other organisations.
She suggests that history is to some degree always biased, continually being modified, suppressed, and sometimes completely re-invented. No era or geo-political area seems immune, though distortions are clearly worse in some power structures than in others.
Formal history-teaching, even in ‘democratic’ nations, can be hugely biased. As she points out , textbook publishers often have no compunction in publishing blatantly biased histories. However, she brings in recent initiatives that challenge this – French and German schoolchildren learning from almost identical history textbooks, while a more ‘mature’ view of national history is evolving in South Africa and Ireland.
The main goals of the book are admirable; complex issues are written in a readable way; while traditional ways of teaching history are challenged, although a reference section would be helpful. This has very relevant implications for organisations such as MAW, particularly when the deliberate distortion of history not only leads to war, but is sometimes intended to lead to war.
Lions, Donkeys & Dinosaurs – Waste and Blundering in the Military
Lewis Page 2007 Arrow Books
Lewis Page had experience of all three arms of the Services, ending up in the Navy, leaving in 2004. He clearly cares about our Armed Forces, and writes with a great deal of affection, not to say in-house banter. He gives a breakdown of the Army, the Air Force and the Navy, their personnel, equipment and weapons, describing how each works – or rather, doesn’t work. He’s withering, sarcastic and very, very funny. He is also absolutely furious about the appalling waste of money and resources, the unnecessary procurement of expensive equipment, whether tanks, ships or planes, which look good but are not needed, when basic equipment is missing. He is angry about the cosy deals between Government and British Aerospace, deals which mean we the taxpayers always pay through the nose to get useless equipment which doesn’t do what it is supposed to and which is delivered years too late. He is angry about the feather-bedding of the brass hats, the ‘army’ of well paid generals, admirals and air marshals sitting behind desks.
It’s a riveting, infuriating, hilarious read, and stuffed full of facts and figures – the sort of facts that every campaigner against war can make use of.
The Green Zone: the environmental costs of militarism
Barry Sanders, AK Press
Given the crisis of climate change, military carbon emissions are a matter of concern, but facts have been hard to come by. Barry Sanders, basing his research on the American military machine, illustrates what an enormous environmental threat all military activity poses.
He gives numerous examples of the pollutants and toxic substances released by the military, from depleted uranium to CFCs (we may have banned chlorofluorocarbons, but the military still use them). There is leaked perchlorate, used in the manufacture of solid rocket fuel, contaminating much of the US food and water supply. The clean-up programme includes 28,000 sites in the US alone. Then there’s the oil.
At supersonic speed, the F-15 plane uses 4 gallons of jet fuel per second. The B-52 Stratocruiser uses 3,334 gallons per hour. The B-52H Bomber can carry 47,975 gallons of fuel but still requires mid-air refuelling, and the US Air Force owns 94 of these greedy beasts. Now add in all the petrol used by military vehicles. And all that used by contractors and ancillary civilians.
Bit by bit, Sanders adds the figures together and the totals are startling. In places he uses estimates, and he is clear when he does so. But he must be getting something right, judging by the slating of his work by pro-military people in the States. And even if his figures were only half as bad as he concludes, the result is obvious – the earth and all the life on it simply cannot afford the military any more.
WIRED FOR WAR: the robotics revolution and conflict in the twenty-first century
P. W. Singer Penguin (2009)
Science fiction warfare is already with us for better or more probably for worse. Where does it go from here?
We are in the cusp of a massive shift in military technology that threatens to make real the stuff of I Robot and the Terminator. More than twelve thousand robotic systems are now deployed in Iraq. Pilots sitting in Nevada are remotely killing terrorists in Afghanistan. Scientists are debating just how smart – and how lethal – to make their robotic creations. Military expert P. W. Singer describes how technology is changing not just how wars are fought, but also the politics, economics, laws and ethics that surround war itself. He sees clearly that technology has to be kept in context.
The book has a strong focus on military robotics. Dull, dirty and dangerous battlefield tasks once done by people could soon be done by machines. If this means that humans may be able to stay clear of harm’s way, it may have a significant impact on governments’ readiness to fight, as well as on the form of combat that results.
As these technologies develop and multiply, they will have profound effects on the front lines, as well as the politics back home. Moving humans off the battlefield makes wars easier to start but more complicated to fight. Paradoxically, these new technologies will also bring war to our doorstep. As other nations and even terrorists start to build or buy their own robotic weapons, this revolution could even undermine America’s military pre-eminence.
The book is in some ways a strange read. As Singer explores the issues raised by military robotics – meeting with entrepreneurs, engineers and operators, ethicists, and pundits – his enthusiasm becomes infectious and child-like and one forgets that the subject is not about video games and children’s toys but machines that kill and can do so with the controller a continent away. With its informal style and cultural references, and because of its topic, Wired for war is a book of its time; let us hope the Facebook generation has the sense to see the underlying reality on the killing grounds!
Voices Against War
Lyn Smith, Mainstream Publishing (in association with the Imperial War Museum)
I had been looking forward to this book since Lyn Smith gave a talk at the last Peace History Conference. It was well worth the wait. Taken from the Museum’s archive of recorded interviews, many of them conducted by Lyn herself, it charts all the strands of anti-war campaigning from WWI to the present day, and will be an invaluable resource for campaigners and historians. And, as Lyn says, it will provide a counterbalance to the endless military accounts of war.
There are many levels of conscientious objections to war, from the ‘absolutist’ position of complete pacifism, through those who refused to bear arms but worked under fire with ambulance units, right down to those whose consciences told them that while war itself was wrong, it was sometimes necessary to defend their country. In their own words we hear how the absolutists suffered, from imprisonment, abuse and discrimination; what it was like to serve in the Field Ambulance Units or the Parachute Field Ambulance; how people persevered in their campaigning for peace.
After WW2 and the end of conscription, the need for conscientious objection has lessened, but the work for peace goes on. There is a fascinating section on the women of Greenham Common, including comments from the Base Commanders, and the book ends with the massive public objection to the invasion of Iraq. From the great and famous down to the humble unknowns, all the voices are here and demand to be heard.
Adrian: Scotland celebrates Adrian Mitchell
Edited by Chrys Salt and John Hudson, published by Markings
Adrian Mitchell was one of the most respected and admired literary figures of his day, writing plays and poetry for adults and children as well as novels and satire. He was a pacifist; he was a radical, subversive, child-like and full of love, gathering round him a circle of friends and fellow writers, many of them in Scotland.
This anthology is largely a collection of poems from Scottish writers, but it also includes poetry from friends who loved him, poets who read with him, remember his warmth, his generosity and many kindnesses. It was collated by Chrys Salt and John Hudson of Markings publishers, who say the book grew as if by collective will, beginning as a small pamphlet and evolving as more people heard about it and wanted to contribute. It in no way pretends to be definitive; it is described as a modest act of recognition.
Forty people contributed including Carol Ann Duffy who chose a children’s poem, The words of poems in recognition of Adrian’s writings for children; Michael Horovitz who wrote specifically For Adrian Mitchell (1932-2008) about his character; Bernard Kops whose poem tells of his grief On hearing of Adrian’s death; and Paul McCartney whose Black jacket includes the lines: ‘sadness isn’t sadness, it’s happiness in a black jacket’.
The anthology was launched on October 24, 2009 at the Scottish Poetry Library in Edinburgh. It would have been Adrian’s 77th birthday.
All profits from the sales of the anthology are being donated to the Movement for the Abolition of War. The book is available (£10.95 inc p&p) from www.markings.org.uk or The Bakehouse, 44 High St, Gatehouse of Fleet, Dumfries & Galloway, DG7 2HP. Tel: 01557 814175.
The Secret Life of War – journeys through modern conflict
Peter Beaumont, Vintage Books, 2010
This is a must-read book, beautifully and honestly written. Peter Beaumont, as the Observer’s chief foreign correspondent, has covered many conflicts. Drawing on his notes and memories of people and places, he explores what happens to those whose lives become ruled by war. Whether soldiers, journalists, insurgents or civilians, all end up damaged in some way.
In Lebanon, 2006: “I am not passive and neutral in this violence. I have a horrible investment in something happening to justify my being there…. Without a war I feel my identity diminished.” So might the soldier say. But then Beaumont tells of a six year old Palestinian boy who witnessed his little brother shot dead by an Israeli soldier. Now he hates the Israelis. Violent conflict has, even at that age, become part of his identity.
The book is full of tiny details and observations. It is not only the machines and the big explosions, but the shoe in the road, the piece of broken china in the dust. Exploring the bombed out ruins of Mullah Omar’s compound in Kandahar he writes: “The bathrooms, too, are shattered. Now human shit dots the rubble. It is one of the sights and smells of war, the human turd, ignored by the poets and chroniclers of war. Where there are battles there is always shit. Excrement and bullet cases.”
How better to describe how life disintegrates when war is waged?
Newspeak in the 21st Century
David Edwards and David Cromwell, Pluto Press, 2009
The authors run the Media Lens website, which challenges the unbalanced view of events provided by mainstream media. In this book they explore in great depth how the news we receive can be biased towards the establishment or corporate agenda. Even those sources regarded as reliable, the Independent, the Guardian, the BBC and Channel 4, give mixed messages. The Guardian, for instance, highly regarded for its stance on environmental matters, relies heavily on adverts by the motor industry for fuel-hungry cars.
Taking well-known issues – climate change, Israel/Palestine, the Iraq invasion, the Lancet Reports on Iraqi dead – they demonstrate how selectively the news is presented to the public; how hard evidence from one side can be dismissed in favour of a statement from a nameless ‘government spokesman’; how a ‘balanced’ report is anything but. Reading the justifications given by news editors for the way they report a particular event, makes me wonder why we buy papers or watch the news at all, except that all campaigners for peace should be well informed. This is not a comfortable book to read, but it will make you look again at how you are manipulated into taking certain views, make you more discriminating in your analysis of events, more aware of what is really happening in the world.
There are many alternative sources of news. On this website, under Briefings & Reports/Useful Links, there is a list of just some of the sources that give the other side of the news.