Drift Continued

Having finished Rachel Maddow's Drift, I can say with all confidence that I was right to recommend it yesterday.

The first eight chapters of the book, which discuss the decisions and actions that led to us becoming "a nation 'at peace with being at war'" (Maddow, 2012, p. 246), are disturbing. But the final chapter, which discusses our nuclear weapons program - past and present, is downright horrifying. Funny too, but in that if-I-don't-laugh-I'll-cry way.

One would think that, having spent eight trillion dollars (that's a lot of zeroes) on our nuclear arsenal, the air force would take better care of it. Or at least be more careful with it. (Side note: The air force base in Minot, ND comes up quite a bit in the chapter. I've known such a base existed for almost a decade, but I had no idea that it housed a lot of our nukes. You see, Minot is also home to a call center for the insurance company I used to work for; every once in a while one of my contacts would leave because his or her spouse was transferred.) At least the 21st-century stories are funny in their ineptitude. (Although the fact that I'm using the word "inept" to describe the airmen who work with our nukes is chilling.) The stories from the Cold War are just scary. It is something of a miracle that we haven't unleashed nuclear annihilation unintentionally.

Maddow's not all doom and gloom, though. In the epilogue she proposes a to-do list of items that could walk the country back to a place that is more in line with the founders' intentions. Although she suggests that the items on her list are actionable, I am less sanguine. The thing I know for sure, though, is that nothing will get done if the public doesn't start paying attention and asking questions.

Maddow, R. (2012). Drift: The unmooring of American military power. Crown Publishers: New York.