A pointed case study in unintended consequences—in this case, of the war against drugs spilling out into civil war, and vice versa.
In Colombia, write journalist Bruce (No Apparent Danger: The True Story of Volcanic Disaster at Galeras and Nevado del Ruiz, 2001), documentary filmmaker Hayes and Colombian native and reporter Botero, a four-decade–long Marxist insurgency grew in strength and wealth as a direct consequence of “the disastrous multibillion-dollar plan to wage war on an herbaceous shrub, Erythroxylum coca,” the plant that gives us cocaine. Their story begins with three American contractors working to eradicate the shrub with a toxic airborne defoliant and being shot out of the sky for their troubles, landing not just in FARC guerrilla territory but also in the gaps between bureaucracies. Had the plane crash occurred elsewhere, U.S. military forces might have intervened and rescued the crew, but Colombia was the State Department’s beat. More than five years of captivity ensued for the contractors, largely forgotten by all but their families, and certainly by the American press. Meanwhile, by the authors’ account, FARC continued to grow, drawing on urban middle-class theoreticians and peasant fighters alike, and seized turf not just from the government but also from Colombia’s homegrown drug mafia. By the mid-’90s, Bill Clinton was calling the Marxists “narco-guerrillas.” Though their leaders protested that the revolutionaries “could eradicate coca production in three to five years with crop-substitution programs if supplied with economic aid from the government and international organizations,” the drug trade continued to grow. Moreover, for complex and maddening reasons, every time the U.S. government threw more money at the problem, the drug trade expanded even farther. Billions of dollars have now been spent on the so-called War on Drugs—a phrase that the Obama administration has officially retired—including three billion dropped in the five years that the three Americans were held captive. Meanwhile, American contractors and soldiers still swarm in Colombia, while the drug trade shows no signs of slowing down. Of gang after gang that can’t shoot straight, but still find ample market for their wares in an ever-hungry Norte—fuel for the fires of the legalization movement.
Pub Date: Aug. 12, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-307-27115-0
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 26, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2010
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A cosmic straw man is vanquished in the fight against dangerous ideals such as social justice and equality. This is not the place to look for original ideas or honest analysis. Presumably, Sowell’s (Migrations and Cultures, 1996, etc.) goal is to entertain those who share his convictions rather than convince open-minded readers, and this audience will be pleased. “Cosmic justice” is presented as a fundamental departure from the “traditional” conception of justice, which Sowell claims has the “characteristic of a process,” rather than of a particular outcome. He conveniently forgets to mention that this “tradition” dates back only to the emergence of liberal-democratic states and that contrasting notions of procedural vs. substantive justice remain the subject of lively debate. Admitting legitimate disagreement over even something as slippery as justice would soften the blows he aims at those who think inequality and any associated oppression raises concerns a just society should address, and Sowell is not one to temper a political argument simply to maintain intellectual integrity. He is not straightforwardly defending inequality, of course, but rather is pursuing the familiar strategy of attacking measures that could alleviate it. Sowell, a fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford, boldly asserts that those who believe equality should be pursued through public policy “assume that politicizing inequality is free of costs and dangers.” No names are mentioned, and it is indeed hard to imagine that anyone would believe there are no costs or dangers. By stating the issue in terms of extremes, however, he ducks the real issue—the challenge of weighing costs and benefits—and avoids the need for incorporating any subtlety into his discussion. Confronted with such disingenuous blather, readers may find Sowell’s criticism of others applies well to Sowell himself: “To explain the levels of dogmatism and resistance to facts found in too many writings . . . it is necessary to explore what purposes are served by these visions.”
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-684-86462-2
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Free Press
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1999
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Not flawless, but one of the best recent analyses of the contemporary woes of American economics and politics.
Remarkably comprehensive and coherent analysis of and prescriptions for America’s contemporary economic malaise by Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Smith (Rethinking America, 1995, etc.).
“Over the past three decades,” writes the author, “we have become Two Americas.” We have arrived at a new Gilded Age, where “gross inequality of income and wealth” have become endemic. Such inequality is not simply the result of “impersonal and irresistible market forces,” but of quite deliberate corporate strategies and the public policies that enabled them. Smith sets out on a mission to trace the history of these strategies and policies, which transformed America from a roughly fair society to its current status as a plutocracy. He leaves few stones unturned. CEO culture has moved since the 1970s from a concern for the general well-being of society, including employees, to the single-minded pursuit of personal enrichment and short-term increases in stock prices. During much of the ’70s, CEO pay was roughly 40 times a worker’s pay; today that number is 367. Whether it be through outsourcing and factory closings, corporate reneging on once-promised contributions to employee health and retirement funds, the deregulation of Wall Street and the financial markets, a tax code which favors overwhelmingly the interests of corporate heads and the superrich—all of which Smith examines in fascinating detail—the American middle class has been left floundering. For its part, government has simply become an enabler and partner of the rich, as the rich have turned wealth into political influence and rigid conservative opposition has created the politics of gridlock. What, then, is to be done? Here, Smith’s brilliant analyses turn tepid, as he advocates for “a peaceful political revolution at the grassroots” to realign the priorities of government and the economy but offers only the vaguest of clues as to how this might occur.
Not flawless, but one of the best recent analyses of the contemporary woes of American economics and politics.Pub Date: Sept. 11, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-4000-6966-8
Page Count: 576
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: July 16, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
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