War is a Racket by Smedley Darlington Butler

Wow. Wow.
 
I came across this book by accident. My curiosity got me here, and I don't know what to think. Even if only part of this book is true, this is a very scary world where greed-driven atrocities are dressed up in more palatable words. I'm hoping what he said in this book wasn't true, but I have a sinking feeling that it might.

War is a Racket was copyrighted in early 1930's (based on a speech and pamphlet) by retired US Marine Corps Major General and two-time Medal of Honor recipient Smedley Darlington Butler.

He wrote this book based on his military experiences, and it's a scathing indictment on our government's history of war (remember this book was published in early 1930's).

"I spent thirty-three years and four months in active military service, and during that period I spent most of my time being a high-class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism.

I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902 - 1912. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested.

Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate racket in three districts. I operated on three continents."

In everything I read, I tell myself that this book probably contains some partial truths, but it's hard to deny "at least 21,000 new millionaires and billionaires were made in the United States during the World War (he means WWI)." He went on to ask "how many of these war millionaires shouldered a rifle? How many f them spent sleepless, frightened nights, ducking shells and shrapnel and machine gun bullets? How many of them parried the bayonet thrust of an enemy? How many of them were wounded or killed in battle?"

If nothing, this book is thought provoking, just like the Imperial Life in the Emerald City by Rajiv Chandrasekara. And just like the Imperial Life in the Emerald City, War is a Racket should be a must read for government officials because they needed to be reminded of who is actually paying the price for their decision to go to war. Mr. Butler makes an interesting proposition - the decision to go to war should  not be made by government officials who seldom have any personal stake in the decision they make, but it should reside with the population group that will have to bear arms in case of war - the young and able bodied.

I wonder what he would say about the wars that followed WWI, especially the wars in Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc. However, as a Korean-American whose father hails from North Korea (he made it down to South Korea during the Korean War), I am profoundly grateful for the American led UN intervention. And to be honest, I don't care if the decision to join the Korean War was based on greed orchestrated by Big Business, Wall Street, whatever entity that might have an ulterior motive.

A couple of years ago, at a 4th of July parade, I met a Korean vet and thanked him for his sacrifice. He was in the engineering corps and later worked for a Japanese company for a while. He visited Korea with his wife later on and was happy that his service meant something.

Although it seems like Iraq is imploding right now, I hope the Iraqi veterans will take heart that it, too, may be on the road to recovery and success like South Korea. You just need to give the country about 25+ years to see the first results.

I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in history, conspiracy theories, and war/anti-war materials.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smedley_Butler

For more information, check out the link.

The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel

I am a Christian, but I haven't attended church in the last year or so. I am struggling with several aspects of Christianity, and I'm trying to find my way back to the kind of faith I had when I was younger. Though I've enjoyed listening to many of Dr. Timothy Keller's sermons, his book has left me feeling flat. So, I wasn't so sure about picking up this book, but it was only at $1 at the local library book sale. So, what do I have to lose? Right? 

To be honest, I have mixed feelings about this book. I think the outline of the book appeals to people such as me - scientific and data driven. However, I think Mr. Strobel has squandered an important opportunity by interviewing and sourcing those experts who were already Christians. To me, this book's credibility has been compromised because it seems to lack independent sources. 

I know. I might be confusing. Please, allow me to explain.

Mr. Strobel divides the book into different types of evidence. Here is the list of his evidences.

1. The Eyewitness Evidence
2. Testing the Eyewitness Evidence
3. The Documentary Evidence
4. The Corroborating Evidence
5. The Scientific Evidence
6. The Rebuttal Evidence
7. The Identity Evidence
8. The Psychologica Evidence
9. The Profile Evidence
10. The Fingerprint Evidence
11. The Medical Evidence
12. The Evidence of the Missing Body
13. The Evidence of Appearances
14. The Circumstantial Evidence

Of this list of evidences, I found the Corroborating Evidence the most convincing of them all precisely because it is drawn from sources outside of Christian origins. I also found the Eyewitness Evidence fairly strong as well. 

Of this list of evidences, I found the Scientific Evidence the weakest and most unreliable of them all precisely because he went to a Christian archaeologist who affirmed Mr. Strobel's Christian beliefs. As a Christian, I am actually angry that Mr. Strobel has taken the easy way out. Could he not find one archaeologist who wasn't a Christian who could have affirmed his findings? At least some possibilities of them? To me, this kind of evidence is tainted evidence. Therefore, a lot of Mr. Strobel's evidences (1 - 10, except for 1 and 4) seemed to have been tainted in the same way. I wish he could have found experts outside of Christianity to validate Christian possibilities.  It would have been enough for them to say - we can't rule out that possibility.

BUT this is not to say I wasn't convinced by them. I felt happy and heartened by these expert testimonies affirming what the Bible said happened, but had my faith been stronger, I wouldn't need a book such as this, right?

I fear I'm always going to be a struggling Christian precisely because it means so much to me. What value is my faith if I don't have to overcome any doubts or obstacles? The bottom line is, with its flaws and all, this book has strengthened my faith. So, I would recommend it to anyone who is struggling with Christianity and wants a more data-driven book about it. Or someone who is curious about Christianity. It might give you a good start. 

Longbourn by Jo Baker

What a glorious book! I loved it. 

I am a Jane Austen junkie. Anything with Jane Austenish take on it, and I'll read at least 150 pages before I give up and decide it's a waste of time. However, I've learned to revise my rule to the first 100 pages because my time is too precious to waste on a bad book, even if it is a take on Jane Austen's books.

I'm a mom with two kids, and I finished this book in 16 hours! Call me crazy, sleep deprived woman for a day, but it was worth it. This book stayed with me long after I finished it. It gave me so much to think about...such as how a household like the Bennet's ran in Jane Austen's time. 

I never gave much thought about who cooked the meals and did household chores when Mrs. Bennet and the girls were busy socializing and attending parties, dinners, and dances. I didn't care to know how labor intensive laundry day could be for those who actually had to do it. I didn't know how unfair their world could be without rank or wealth. I didn't realize how beautiful Jane, Lizzie, Mary, Kitty, and Lydia's clothes were to others who were less fortunate. All in all, this book was a revelation, in so many ways.

SPOILER ALERT~

The characters are finely drawn. I feel as if they are living, breathing members of Bennet's home. Sarah's characterization is a work of art, with her deep thoughts and feelings driving her actions. James, though known to Sarah and seen through her eyes, he is a mysterious stranger with a heart. Each is driven by need for love, acceptance, and following their heart. I love the portrayals of Mr. & Mrs. Hill, Polly, and Ptolemy Bingley, because they are so human and anchored in reality.

On the other hand, I don't like Ms. Baker's portrayal of Mr. Bennet and his involvement or lack thereof with James' life, but I can see how it can true to what might be deemed as "acceptable behavior" of a gentleman of that time. I was never a fan of Mr. Bennet, but in Ms. Baker's book, he could be considered the biggest villain in James' life. Some might argue that that title belongs to Wikham, but I disagree. Had Mr. Bennet taken some responsibility, James might not have fallen as much as he had. Some might argue that he had done what he could, but I'd say not enough. And poor Mrs. Hill.... It must have been hell to have to bear it all because she can do nothing to improve her son's situation. She had done what she could, but not him.

The book is divided into three volumes, and in volume three, I wish there was more of James' life there, instead of Sarah's. There was James' back story in volume three, but I wanted to know more about what he did after he left Longbourn. How did he overcome his disappointment in having to leave an employment that became more like a home, but more importantly, a woman he came to love dearly. I wanted to know the kind of mental strength he had, needed, and used to survive. I was disappointed that Sarah was the one who gave up her nice, comfortable life at Pemberley and go in search of James, with absolutely no assurance of finding him. Truly a case of blind faith and courage.

Sure, I was glad that she found him, and they decided to head back to Longbourn together, but I wish James had more active role in their reunion. However, these are minor complaints. I loved this book. I absolutely loved this book, and I went back to reading it immediately after I finished it, just in case I've missed something important.

I would recommend this book to any Jane Austenphile, but to anyone who likes a good read. Stories of Sarah and James, Mrs. Hill and Mr. Bennet have stayed with me long after I finished the book.

The Orphan Master's Son by Adam Johnson

Where do I start? Stunning, harrowing read. Visceral and emotionally draining. A must read for anyone who is interested in learning something new about the most insulated and isolated state in the world. My heart aches at the thought of millions who still live in that country.

Before I start, I would like to tell you my North Korean encounter story.

I know a Korean-American man who visited North Korea as an American citizen in 1990 (before the great famine of 1995). As an aspiring writer, I wanted to talk to him about the experience. He said Pyongyang had the cleanest, emptiest streets he had ever seen. He said none of the restaurants was open for business. Whenever he asked about a particular restaurant, his minders (two men) told him that it was closed on that specific day of the week. His children asked for souvenirs, any souvenirs, but the man came back with nothing. He said there was simply nothing to buy.

He came from a family of six brothers and three of his brothers still lived in North Korea, so it was his dearest wish to see them all. His eldest and second eldest brothers had died, and he was the third brother. When he went to North Korea, he was able to his fourth and sixth brother, but couldn’t see his fifth brother. When he went to visit his brothers’ homes, he could smell the fresh wallpaper paste and all the furniture was new. Everyone associated with his brothers’ families had days off from work, and they came to see him. 

One day, one of his brother’s bosses came to visit, and he brought something the North Koreans hadn’t eaten for a while, a chicken. This Korean-American man said that people were going after the chicken before it was cooked, and they asked why he wasn’t eating the chicken. When this Korean-American man told them that he could have chicken anytime, and he wanted them to have it, they all thought he was just repeating the American propaganda stories. A few believed him, and told him in secret, that it was a living hell. But private moments were very limited. His two minders slept in the same room with him, and they wouldn’t leave him alone with anyone. The Korean-American man said the lack of privacy was quite irritating.

The North Koreans drove the Korean-American man in a Mercedes, and when Korean-American man begged to see his fifth brother who was interned in a gulag system by the northern border, one of his minders told him that he and his family would be sent to the same gulag if he tried to do anything like that (he told the Korean-American man this when the other minder wasn’t present). The North Korean minders told the Korean-American man to spend all the American dollars he took with him, and told him that for $500, a family of five could buy all the white rice that the family needed for a year.

The children of his fourth and sixth brothers were not allowed to attend high school or college because they were from a tainted family whose members chose to escape the communist regime during the Korean War. The fifth brother was considered a traitor to the state, and maybe he couldn’t see his brother because his brother had died already. Who knows… The sixth brother, as if to make up for his family’s lack of communist credentials, was an ardent communist who sent letter after letter to the Korean-American man, begging for money yet bad-mouthing everything America supposedly represented. But he never once told his brother to come back and live with them in North Korea.

Now, back to the book…. There are so many shocking episodes, but what’s most startling was the randomness with which the acts of violence were inflicted upon people. People just disappeared and no one said anything. The random disappearance was the norm. That was the scariest part. There was no set of rules that the North Koreans could follow to assure their safety. It was all about the story that an unfortunate group of people would have to tell, and they hung their hopes on keeping their story consistent. Whether it was the truth of not, it didn’t matter.

In the beginning, part 1 and part 2 of the book don’t seem to go together, especially part 2. It was confusing to figure out how characters all fit together. Parts of it were jarring, especially with a lot of point-of-view changes, but in the end, I have to concede that it’s brilliant. That jarring experience is what the main character experiences. There are many viscerally shocking scenes (but I have to admit, what I read in this book is mild compared to some true accounts I read in books written by North Korean defectors), but what I found even more unbearable was that even family members couldn’t be trusted to keep each other’s secrets and thereby keep one another safe.

In a world such as that, I wonder why people even have children. I wrote somewhere (maybe in the blog for the book The Road) that in a truly hopeless world, I didn’t think people would have children. If I had to live in North Korea, I wouldn’t have children, but then I wouldn’t know any better, either, I suppose. Also, I wondered what the suicide rate is for the country.

When my husband and I had our first child, our American friends asked if we’d name him after my husband and add junior. My parents were horrified by such thoughts because for Koreans, each name should be unique. There’s much thought, science (astrology in some cases), and aspirations all put in a name. You’d never jinx or burden a child with someone else’s already lived life associated with that name. So, I found it really interesting that the main character started off his life, as far as he could remember in the orphanage, with someone else’s name. He never had his own identity, and it was his duty to become whoever his country needed him to be.

I found the escape phase of the book to be something hard to believe, but because it’s hard to believe, I think it might actually be based on the truth. I intentionally stayed away from talking about the book more specifically because I want the reader to experience everything fresh. 

 

I would recommend this book to everyone. It might be a hard read, but it’s something that we should all read, at least once, sort of like Rape of Nanking by Iris Chang (however, this book, I wouldn’t recommend to everyone. The pictures are enough to induce nightmares). Good thing this book didn’t have pictures.

The important question is – what can we do to make the lives of everyday North Koreans a little better tomorrow? 

Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

That’s the saddest part of this book.

David and Goliath by Malcom Gladwell

2/05/14 – David and Goliath by Malcom Gladwell

I don’t usually read non-fiction (except some history) but I’ve read several of Malcolm Gladwell’s books (The Tipping Point, Blink, and Outliers). I guess I should review all these since I really like them all. Anyhow, the reason I like Malcolm Gladwell’s books is that he starts with something you think you know already. Something most of us would dismiss quickly and wonder why anyone would want to spend time delving into it. But therein lies his magic.

He starts the book with the story of David and Goliath. This is one story that almost everyone thinks he or she knows, right? A little shepherd David with a rounded stone and his slingshot against a giant of a man wearing full armor and carrying a javelin, a spear, and a sword. Do we even need to think about who is going to win this match before we bet on the winner? But, Malcolm Gladwell goes on to explain that it was really a one-sided match up, and it was David, not Goliath who had all the advantage. Almost from the beginning, a positive outcome was assured…for David.

*****SPOILER ALERT*****

I’m just going to summarize these people’s experiences in a couple of sentences.

The Advantages of Disadvantages (and the Disadvantages of Advantages)

Vivek Ranadive – a man who didn’t know how to play basketball game and ended up taking his daughter’s team to almost win the National Junior Basketball Championship.

Teresa DeBrito – upending the educational holy grail of class sizes…, that smaller isn’t always better and the optimum size is actually larger than you’d think.

Caroline Sacks – sending your children to Ivy League schools might give you bragging rights, but it might be one of the worst things you could do if you want your children to live their dream careers, especially in science and technology.

The Theory of Desirable Difficulty

David Boies – you wouldn’t wish dyslexia on your child. Or would you? Dyslexia might be a contributor to dizzying success.

Emil “Jay” Freireich – how hardship in life makes a person an optimist, how German Blitz on England failed because although people died, many remote misses helped the Londoners feel invincible, and how he revolutionized the treatment of childhood leukemia.

Wyatt Walker – the most famous photograph in the history of the American civil rights movement was taken on 5/3/1963, and it’s not at all what it seems.

It’s May now (I read this book in February, but couldn't finish the review until now), and I can’t easily remember the less memorable parts in the book, and I don't have time to go back and reread parts of it. So, I’ll let you find out for yourselves. 

There are more people and topics Malcolm Gladwell covers in the last third of the book, and as usual, in almost every case, the conventional wisdom of how things should be is upended. We learn that, in many cases, one person or a small group of people could face almost impossible obstacles and triumph.

I love this book because I’ve learned so much from this book. I’ll be sure to go back and refresh every so often to make sure I don’t forget the lessons. I think everyone should read this book. As a parent of two young children, I want to recommend this book to all the parents who covet Ivy League education. That eye-opening section (Caroline Sacks) alone is worth the price of a hardback book.

The Death of Jesseline by Margaret Regan

I am very conflicted about this book. I think that's why I forgot to post the blog when I originally wrote it almost a year ago. 

6/20/13 – The Death of Jesseline by Margaret Regan

This is a book about immigration, and I’d like to start by telling you a little bit of my immigration story. As long as I could remember, we were coming to America. I can’t remember a time when we weren’t planning to come to America. 

My mother had two brothers. The younger brother had the luck to be scouted by an American company in the late 60’s and came to America. The younger brother started the paperwork for the visa for my mother and her older brother. Ten years later, the visa finally came out for us and we immigrated to US in 1978. However, my uncle, my mother’s older brother, died a few months before the visa came out for him and his family. Therefore, because of a matter of months, my cousins and my aunt didn’t receive their entry visa and couldn’t come to US. Our cousins were like our brothers and sisters, and losing them like that when we had planned for ten years to come to US together was a blow and a life-long loss to all of us. 

Even now, I’m not convinced that my parents’ decision to emigrate was the correct one for our family. We had a good life in Korea. A lot of people have nannies in Korea, and we had one, too. We took fun vacations, and we had a comfortable home. My father was on track to become a vice-principal of a girl’s high school, and my mother stayed home. I remember her bringing hot lunches to our elementary school.

My parents, they definite had a better life in Korea. Once in America, my parents both held down several jobs to make ends meet, and I think they usually go 4 – 5 hours of sleep each night. They never took vacations, and we lived from paycheck to paycheck for many years. Just recently, I asked them what induced them to give up all they had to come to America. They said, it’s hard to understand now, but a long time ago, a chance to come to America was like winning the lottery. Only those who had money to be educated abroad could come here and settle down, then invite his family to join him. Or like my uncle’s case, only those with very special skills could come. So, they asked back – if you thought you had won a once-in-a-lifetime lottery, would you turn it down? Of course, not!

I have to say, I think I’m more interested in the matter of the American Immigration policy than most people. Because of my personal history, I expected a lot from this book, and I don’t know what it is that I feel about this book. I know. It’s funny. I can’t say I liked the book because I didn’t. I wouldn’t read it over. However, it doesn’t take away the fact that this is an important book. Everybody who is associated with shaping of the American immigrant policy should read it. 

Every life, both lived and died, described in this book is worthy of notice and remembrance, and every one of the stories is heart rendering. There are no happy stories because even those who make it over the fences, through the scorching desert, and disappear into the vast American landscape must face the harsh realities of living in America – long separation from loved ones, uncertain future, and walking on egg shells every day for detection and deportation. Yet, hundreds and thousands make the arduous journey because there are definite rewards for making it into America – being able to provide for their families better. Is it worth risking their lives? Depends on how desperate their lives were…. 

If these people want to come to America so badly that they’d risk their lives to get here, how many would work toward to weakening that society? This book does talk about the toll the illegal immigrants have on government budgets, but I don’t think this book does a good job of talking about what these immigrants bring to America. 

But when the people complained about how long the visa process takes (10+ years!) for them to come to America legally, I had little sympathy for them. We waited that long or longer. There are thousands of people, all over the world, who wait that long for an official visa to come here. The only difference is that the geography prevents them from coming here illegally. So, why should that be any different for the people mentioned in the book? I guess I’m torn by the human misery and toll versus those thousands who are patiently waiting for their visas. 

I’ve learned some important things from this book. I’ve learned some oxymoronic laws that seem to punish the good and reward the bad, but the more importantly, we need some kind of reform. There must be a way, we must be able to figure out a way, to save lives.

Imperial Life in the Emerald City by Rajiv Chandrasekara

Where do I begin? How do I start to review a book such as this? Is this one of my favorite book? Oh, no. Not even close. But this is a very IMPORTANT book. This might be one of those books that everyone should read.

First of all, after 9/11, if America needed to chase after the perpetrators of that event, we should have gone after Saudi Arabia rather than Iraq. Where there any Iraqis among them? Out of nineteen, fifteen were from Saudi Arabia. Two were from UAE. One was from Egypt. One was from Lebannon. I don’t want to go into why America declared war on a sovereign nation which had nothing to do with 9/11, BUT I’d like to believe that President Bush did what he believed was best for our country at the time.

I think this book should be required reading for the President of United States and his cabinet members as well the various department heads and all those who are going into foreign service. I’m sure America will inadvertently be drawn into another nation building sometime in the near future. There is so much to learn from this book. Unfortunately, it’s mostly what not to do, not the other way around.

I’m also currently reading John Adams (which is a much thicker book), which I’m enjoying immensely. What surprises me about that book is…how in the world did all the stars and planets line up, and all these men, with flaws and all, came together to form this great nation? It’s as if all the men rose to the challenge of the time and pulled together and compensated for one another’s weaknesses. America was indeed lucky to have such men at such desperate times. But supposedly Oprah Winfry famously declared that she didn’t believe in luck. That luck only happened when preparation (however long it took) met opportunity.

Well, America’s efforts to rebuild Iraq were EXACTLY the opposite. How President Bush and his cabinet can pull together a team that failed and disappointed at almost every turn was amazing. How they squandered such an opportunity to rebuild Iraq is stupefying (I know. I’m repeating myself). I don’t think they could have put together a worse team if they’d tried. I guess that’s the sad part – they pulled the team together based on loyalty and party allegiance rather than experience and capabilities. A couple of people have succeeded, against overwhelming odds and by breaking the rules, but most have failed because they were driven by American ignorance and arrogance.

SPOILER ALERT.

“As the [American] viceroy, [Paul] Bremer need only put down his signature to impose a new law, or to abolish an old one. He wasn’t required to consult with Iraqis or even seek their consent.” How does this work? An American, who is not an expert in Arabic anything, gets this kind of power? If in the far future, America’s power wanes and some other country occupies it for whatever reason, would we want someone to impose or abolish our laws with a stroke of his/her pen?

I’ve been reading some books on Korean history in the time of Japanese occupation. In these books, celebrated Korean patriots (and yes, some were suicide bombers) who fought against the occupation were called terrorists, rebels, commies, etc. by the Japanese occupiers. The books go on to explain that any man, in any country, would most likely to resist and fight against an occupying power, no matter what. There is no benevolent occupying force.  There are no greater incentives to bear arms and fight than for your family, for your home, for your culture, and for your country. This should not be a new concept to the American diplomatic corp, should it?

Whether it is McPherson’s clean-slate approach to forgiving debt and nullifying assets to Foley’s utter disregard for the international law which prohibits the sale of assets by an occupation government when he talked about privatization, these people didn’t consider what the lasting consequences of their actions would be. Considering that Alexander Hamilton, America’s first treasury secretary, insisted on the American government making good on its foreign and domestic debts, McPherson’s approach was flawed but worse still, he refused to listen to any other input.

One after another, the list of ineptitude, misdirections, lost opportunities, not taking input from native Iraqis or regional experts, unscrupulous contractors, and ignorant arrogance is appalling and eye-opening. But worst of all (in my point of view), is that Americans forced the Iraqis to identify themselves in sectarian terms. In their blind, formulaic efforts to create a more “democratic government,” the Americans forced each Iraqi to declare himself as a Shiite, a Kurd, a Sunni, a Christian, a Turkmen, etc. The Iraqi governing council had strict quotas – 13 Shiite Arabs, 5 Sunni Arabs, 5 Sunni Kurds, 1 Christian, and 1 Turkmen. Before this, most Iraqis “…never saw each other as Sunnis or Shiites first. We were Iraqis first.” This forced identification led to dramatic rise in sectarian violence which continues to this day.

I, who hate to dog-ear any book, have dog-eared many pages in this book, because I wanted to write about those issues. But I’m getting tired and depressed (because there are so many…), so I’ll let you find out for yourself.

The last bit…in an interview before his departure from Iraq, Paul Bremer, the American viceroy, touted “lowering of Iraq’s tax rate, the liberalization of foreign-investment laws, and the reduction of import duties” as among his biggest accomplishments in Iraq. To that, I just want to say – what the…?

I usually read fiction because partly, I want to live in denial and think that these horrible things (not just talking about this book) don’t happen in real life. But this is one book that everyone should read because it’s so incredible and stunning.

This is an eloquent and a riveting book that is surprisingly balanced in its writing.  It’s a chronicle of what took place. A set of data put into words. But I can’t deny that the data, how little was accomplished for so much money, is damning. But most importantly, although these CPA staffers thought they were doing good, how much misery was heaped on the Iraqi people by the sum of CPA’s good intentions based on their sheer ignorance and arrogance is almost unforgivable.

Having said this, why don't you read it for yourself, and you be the judge?