Military Power: Explaining Victory and Defeat in Modern Battleby Stephen Biddle

✍ Scribed by Review by: Lawrence D. Freedman

• Book ID: 125243052
• Publisher: Council on Foreign Relations
• Year: 2005
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 358 KB
• Volume: 84
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0015-7120
• DOI: 10.2307/20034231

✦ Synopsis

Hersh performed an even greater public service, as he did with the My Lai scandal more than three decades ago, by bringing to public notice disturbing events being investigated by the military in this case by Major General Antonio Taguba, whose report is found in the Danner collection. Hersh is a brilliant but flawed investigative journalist. His brilliance lies in his tenacity and readiness to expose the failings of government.

His flaw lies in his suspension of critical judgment when hearing a semi-plausible tale that fits with his own prejudices. For that reason, some of his past books (for example, on John F. Kennedy and Israel's nuclear capability) have not been at all reliable. Even in this book, which covers Abu Ghraib as well as topics such as the politicization of intelligence in the run up to the war, a good story often trumps evidence. Once again, nobody can accuse Hersh of aiming for balance.

Conceived well before the Abu Ghraib story broke, Levinson's collection of essays by philosophers and lawyers provides a cooler, though not dispassionate, look at the issues surrounding torture. Con