In impressive and often fascinating detail, she documents that the boundaries between war and peace have grown so hazy as to undermine hard-won global gains in human rights and the rule of law ... Brooks writes with clarity and epigrammatic wit, but the random oscillations of her views may annoy some readers. Can’t she make up her mind? Of course, she can. She is not one of those best who lack all conviction. Her honesty in the admission of second and third thoughts is a rebuke to the multitudes who can no longer remember that the Iraq war they denounce is the one they endorsed.
...a masterful analysis of how global connectedness has created vast new responsibilities (and vulnerabilities) for the armed forces of the United States.
Despite harsh criticisms of our post 9/11 record, Ms. Brooks’s book is not intended as a polemic. Her aim, she says, is to help America become a force for good in the world, and to that end she proposes reforms. Unfortunately, they are often vague or utopian ... moments of insight aside, Ms. Brooks’s general analysis is often tendentious ... She sweeps up widely different policies in a simplistic thesis and overbroad assertions.
