Un-American

February 1, 2020
An Afghanistan veteran assails war and the military. In his debut book, Edstrom makes it abundantly clear that he hates war, especially America's "two illegal wars of aggression" in Afghanistan and Iraq and the "sensationalized" war on terror. The author also has little positive to relate about West Point, military training, military spending, the military's refusal to let people in uniform opt out of wars they oppose on moral grounds, and the governments that lead us into these wars. Throughout, Edstrom is unrelenting in his criticism. "The U.S. military, as it is currently used," he writes, "is not a wholesome institution: it escalates violence around the world, and inculcates a pro-nationalism, pro-militarism dogma that is hard to shake." Edstrom certainly has the credentials to speak his mind on this topic: He is a graduate of West Point and the U.S. Army Rangers School, was selected for the U.S. Special Forces, received a Bronze Star, and served as an infantry platoon leader in the toughest parts of Afghanistan. His story, part memoir and part manifesto, runs from his late high school days through West Point and the war in Afghanistan to 2019. He opens by asking his readers to consider three visions: their own death in war, how they would feel if another nation invaded the U.S. to protect us from an unpopular president, and what the world would be like if there had been no war. Then he divides the book into three parts, each part examining one of the visions. Edstrom does not shy away from recounting the gruesome conditions and challenges he faced during his deployment, including watching his friends being blown apart by roadside bombs. While he does express some hope, he believes peace will happen only if all Americans demand an end to war. An insider's you-are-there look at modern war. Veterans will love it or hate it, but there will be few in between.

COPYRIGHT(2020) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

February 24, 2020
Edstrom, a former U.S. Army infantry platoon leader in Afghanistan, debuts with a searing indictment of American militarism grounded in his transformation from gung-ho West Point plebe to embittered PTSD sufferer. Interspersing his account with song lyrics, novel excerpts, statements from U.S. military leaders, and media reports, Edstrom describes the war in Afghanistan as “morally dubious, illegal in its scope, and unjust in terms of its proportionality.” He reveals numerous instances in which U.S. military leaders covered up civilian casualties, and laments the futility of expecting poorly trained national guardsmen “to fight a politically sensitive, ethnically charged guerilla war.” Documenting the war’s physical and psychological effects, Edstrom describes his driver “shaking with adrenaline” after their armored vehicle was hit with an improvised explosive device containing “bits of bicycle chain,” and notes that one of his soldiers committed suicide after returning home; another is currently serving life in prison for murder. He bolsters his antiwar arguments with an impressive array of evidence, and bemoans the trillions of dollars devoted to U.S. military interventions around the world, which he feels would be better spent to combat climate change and economic inequality. This outraged, well-informed jeremiad will galvanize readers who agree with Edstrom’s assessment that the “war on terror” is “self-perpetuating, self-defeating, and immoral.”

March 20, 2020

After graduating from West Point, Edstrom was deployed to Afghanistan and returned disillusioned, bitter, and outraged about his experience and about America's War on Terror. Few escape his criticism in this book, which turns a critical eye toward West Point, the U.S Army, the military industrial complex, U.S. political leadership, corporate America, and Americans citizens themselves in this manifesto against what Edstrom calls "America's unchallenged war machine." The author finds no redeeming aspects in his service, talking candidly about the damage the army inflicted on the people of Afghanistan. In Edstrom's view, the response after the September 11 attacks was counterproductive and did not make the world or the country safer. Edstrom's ground-level perspective is unflinching and powerful. VERDICT This strident critique of the American military and its place in American society and culture, combined with Edstrom's firsthand experiences in Afghanistan, will interest readers seeking primary source accounts of the War on Terror.--Mark Jones, Mercantile Lib., Cincinnati

Copyright 2020 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from April 1, 2020
Edstrom graduated as a member of West Point's first post-9/11 cadet class, caught up in the patriotic fervor in the wake of the attacks. Deployed to Afghanistan as an infantry platoon leader, he started questioning what the U.S. was doing there and what his friends were dying for. This led to more questions about the nature of war and America's reverence for the military; a decade of reflection culminated in this well-researched meditation on a basic question: Why is it so difficult for Americans to reckon with the reasons, costs, and impact of our wars? Edstrom recalls his years of service with an admirable sense of validating knowledge and candor, expressing the shame and anger he felt during that time, while revealing many ugly truths about U.S. Army life. He asks a keen and poignant question: How many metric units of Americanness are needed (citing his West Point credentials, combat service, and Bronze Star) before a critic of American foreign policy is taken seriously? Edstrom's bracing inquiry should be at the forefront of the debate about our national perspective on patriotism, the military, defense spending, and, most challenging, our lack of courage to question these crucial issues.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)