In âa clear-eyed and shrewd examinationâŚof how the US seems to be mired in a losing and intractable battle against global terrorismâ (Publishers Weekly), Mark Danner describes a nation forever altered by President George W. Bushâs war of choice after 9/11.
The War on Terror has led to fifteen years of armed conflict, the longest war in Americaâs history. Al Qaeda, the organization that attacked us on 9/11, has been âdecimatedâ (the word is Obamaâs) but replaced by multiple jihadist and terror organizations, including the most notoriousâISIS.
Spiral, explains Mark Danner, is what we can call a perpetual and continuously widening war that has put the country in a âstate of exception.â Bushâs promise that we have âtaken the gloves offâ and Obamaâs inability to define an end game have had a profound effect on us even though the actual combat is fought by a tiny percentage of our citizens. In the name of security, some of our accustomed rights and freedoms are circumscribed. Guantanamo, indefinite detention, drone warfare, enhanced interrogation, torture, and warrantless wiretapping are all words that have become familiar and tolerated.
And yet the war goes badly as the Middle East drowns in civil wars and the Caliphate expands and brutalized populations flee and seek asylum in Europe. In defining the War on Terror as boundless, apocalyptic, and unceasing, Danner provides his âchilling cautionary tale of Orwellian repercussionsâ (Kirkus Reviews). Spiral is âa timely, valuable bookâ (San Francisco Chronicle) that is âan excellent resource for those who want to understand Middle East unrest and the ISIS terrorism threat without being Middle East scholarsâ (Library Journal).