DRIFT: The Unmooring of American Military Power
by Rachel Maddow, ©2012
Published by Crown;  Hardback: 252 pp

Anyone who has watched The Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC is well aware that Ms. Maddow is an articulate, insightful commentator on the news of the day, whether or not you agree with the position she has taken on an event. Her academic qualifications are first-rate: in addition to a degree in public policy from Stanford University, she holds a doctorate in politics from Oxford, where she was a Rhodes Scholar.

Ms. Maddow does not flaunt her impressive scholarly credentials, however, as she definitely has a lighter side. In fact, she is actually a bit of a goof at times, given to cracking herself up, and even to face-making (those raised eyebrows, judiciously used, are worthy of Lucille Ball). She makes use of odd objects or graphics to make a point, and she is given to comic asides and/or ironic comments which are rarely mean-spirited, but are definitely designed to underline her point and deftly expose absurdities in the arguments of others.

Given her star-status as a television news commentator, it is not surprising to discover that she is also an excellent writer, albeit given to occasional, sarcastic, one-word editorial comments, like an occasional “Oops!” or “Barf!” at the end of a paragraph. While I wish she hadn’t felt obliged to make those (let the reader supply them for herself!), Maddow is so smart and thorough and logical that one can overlook the wise-apple stuff, and concentrate on the intent of her message.

Make no mistake: for all her high entertainment value the woman is a meticulous scholar and an eminently fair-minded individual. On her television show, when she interviews someone, she carefully spells out the sequence of events that have led to the interview, and then asks: “Is this a fair description?” Invariably, the interviewee agrees with her stated recounting of the facts, even if he or she disagrees with Maddow’s evaluation of those facts.

Drift is Ms. Maddow’s first book, and it is an enlightening and demanding read. It is also a detailed and stunning examination of what the author calls “The Unmooring of American Military Power.” She reaches back as far as our founding fathers to support her claim that early-on, our military served pretty much as a reactive, not aggressing, force, and was supported by a public that honored them.

She reminds us that the Constitution explicitly vested in Congress the sole power to declare war, on the theory that no one person (i.e. the President) should have that ability. By that theory, deciding to make war should be a complicated, thoroughly examined and argued matter, affecting as it does every single citizen.

Leading off with a two-paragraph quote from President James Madison that pretty much defines her topic, Maddow launches into a detailed exposition of how our military involvements have escalated and swallowed up not only America’s treasure, but also her psyche.

She recounts the steps that have led to the miasma of today’s involvements in Iraq and Afghanistan, and to the mismanagement of tangential matters like post-9/11 funding of a number of inefficient and/or inexplicable projects, starting with her small hometown’s share of the post-9/11 Homeland Security funds. After receiving a new fire truck which “turned out to be a few feet longer than the garage where the town kept our old fire truck” more funds had to be provided to build a new garage.

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