Review: Spencer Ackerman - "Reign of Terror: How the 9/11 Era Destabilized America and Produced Trump"

 

Spencer Ackerman's Reign of Terror: How the 9/11 Era Destabilized America and Produced Trump aims to convince liberals to stop their support of the Global War on Terror in all its forms. The premise of the Global War on Terror is that the proper response to attacks against the United States, its allies and its interests is escalation of violence and tightening of control. This inevitably leads to the strengthening of illiberal elements within the United States, whether they be the national security state or everyday believers in American Exceptionalism who, despondent at the terrible cost of the national security state and lack of results it produces, seek to use its tactics against ever-widening circles of internal enemies, including United States Muslims, racial and ethnic minorities, migrants and liberals.

I was 33 years old in 2001. I pretended it was just a passing phase for the first few years. But I've been "woke" for at least the last 15 years. Nevertheless, I had forgotten some of the incidents Ackerman described. Remembering these horrors while reading this book was difficult. If you were too young to have lived them, or, if you have forgotten them because you enjoyed Ellen DeGeneres palling around with George the Small, or you think John Bolton is part of #Resistance because he criticized Darth Orange, this book, despite being over 300 pages, is a Reader's Digest version of the crimes of the Bush, Obama and Trump administrations.

The first sentence in the Acknowledgements is "Yes, I know this book is incomplete." So even as Ackerman zipped through episode after episode of human rights violations, ultra-violence, perfidy, propaganda and political maneuvering without guiding principle, know that there are many others he couldn't get to. He also acknowledged major lines of inquiry that he couldn't complete. So you the reader are likely going to need to keep on reading other books to be able to grasp the enormity of the Ackerman's thesis.

The decisive moment for the United States was its marginalization of voices such as Susan Sontag in favor George the Small's "They hate us for our freedoms." Since then, each time the United States approached a crossroads, its leaders chose the path of militarization, secrecy to conceal wrong-doing, immunity for wrongdoers and appeasement of the national security state.

Understandably, in the light of the comic villainy of #45Regime, many feel nostalgia for #44Regime Barack Obama and relief at #46Regime Joe Biden. That is a mistake. The policies Barack Obama pursued made the Forever War "forever," and, although Biden's first few months came after this book was written, he's pursuing similar policies.

If we can't get our act together for the coronavirus pandemic, or even to protect voting rights, what do you think the United States is going to do when climate disasters are just another Tuesday? Do you think people will embrace "we're all in this together?" Or will they elect somebody who fulfills their revenge fantasies and whom the oligarchs deem more capable and subservient than Donald Trump?

The book doesn't offer a way out of this spiral of negative politics, which makes it even more depressing. But maybe some of you readers will discover one by reading this book and thinking over its implications.