nouveau

well this will be a fun review. at time of writing (10 Jan 2013), only 45 reads and 3 reviews. author Douglas Brinkley, not to be confused with the other professor/writer Alan Brinkley, is apparently something of a super teacher, convincing his university's administration to allow him to take an entire class on the road Ken Kesey style, a celebration of americana, hunter s. thompson, national parks, and hard rock music. god. i wish my professors were that cool. [b:The Majic Bus|229650|The Majic Bus An American Odyssey|Douglas Brinkley|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348275047s/229650.jpg|222390]

unfortunately, great teachers sometimes make only better than average writers. Brinkley's prose is skillful, but his career as a churner-out-of-thousand-page books seems to be somewhat marred by his tendency to pick microtopics rather than brilliant crowd-pleasers. Rosa Parks? I yes... the woman who started the Selma bus boycott. but do I actually want to read a book about Rosa Parks... well *cough... similarly, what could be interesting about Alaska-- maybe the Cold War, maybe the wildlife; instead "preservation efforts in Alaska"; etc etc etc

well I don't want to be too harsh... and this book about Kerry is relevant for a number of things outside the author's possible Democratic Party functionary function. specifically, Tour of Duty is a pretty well-research absolute refutation of the whole Swift Boating campaign... and the weirdness of the US navy operating riverine craft probably allows this book to join war literature in general. one of the people in the operation comments "i don't believe there is any exact precedent for what we're doing," and yeah exactly, the Japanese Navy tried to land Marines in Shanghai in the 1930s and sometimes SEAL teams get landed by submarines and run into media cameras and the Dnieppe Raid was a fiasco and Apocalypse Now is a fictional movie about a special riverine operation etc etc etc... navies operating inshore is just a weird thing.

the original 'asymmetric war,' Kerry's Swift Boat campaign has much of what is familiar in counter-intersurgency today; the continual grow back of guerillas, the civilians who all mysteriously disappear before an ambush, the anti-tank weapons being ill-suited against soft-skinned targets. anyway, a solid 3.5 stars, and of course, many kudos to ibooks for the weekly special price point.



this is a Swift Boat! on such a craft, Secretary of State John Kerry fought in the Vietnam War. democratic party operative david brinkley has researched and conclusively proven this fact. no more questions you stinkin' republican!!!!

*cough.

anyway such thin skinned boats made out of fiberglass were perversely invulnerable to anti-tank rockets. however, because of their irregular operation, kerry got sent up stream to bring back Kurtz



I saw the movie i saw the movie i saw the movie.

i sympathized with kurtz. why did SecState Kerry kill Kurtz?

the horror...

the horror...

Secretary of State John Kerry, a commander in the United States Navy, was sent up river to kill Special Forces Colonel Kurtz, because Kurtz had gone over the line. he had exceeded his missions mandates, and like a slug riding over a straight razor, he did not get hurt.

the man had compeltely lost his mind.

I voted for Kerry because he had what it took to bring the Communists back in line. it was radio transmissions yessir



your mind wandering like a sole individual through a de Chirico painting, had completely lost all its bearings. reading Nkut hamsun could not save you''

i man what did the man mean? he was a saviour. he was a saviour. 0

by god



i mean who do you think you are? you think you can bring back Tomas?

stop it men relaly. mean really. i mean it now. you couldn't save them. what were you thinking?