Book Reviews
Good effort that brings undeniable problems to the surface., May 5, 2005
| Reviewer: | R. ARANT "toun" (Lanesville, Indiana USA) |
The scenarios in the prologue brought many smiles to this reader, a former Army and Air Force linguist trained 30 years earlier than Saar. I had to chuckle when reading the reader reviews critical of Saar's Arabic language skills. An incredibly difficult language, much harder than the languages of Southeast Asia which fell to me and my generation. Saar tells us in his book that he had his fair share of trouble during language training. Who did not? I've had very brief and disappointing experiences inside one of our prisons in Iraq and another in Afghanistan, and never once saw an American who could interrogate at a professional level in Arabic or Pashto, not one. There must be a few out there, but they are rare creatures. We are doing the best we can in a war for which we were almost totally unprepared. I'm hoping that one of the brilliant Titan ethnic Iraqi or Afghan naturalized American citizens who carry the heavy interpreter burden will write his own memoirs about the trials and tribulations of assisting in these interrogations. These interpreters and native speakers have stories that will knock your socks off when compared to those told by young interrogators. The contract interpreters hold the true key insights into our by now well-recognized failures in the war on terror, and our failure to investigate their reactions disappoints me deeply. Saar does mention these contract linguists, and clearly has learned much from his association with them.
I see nothing in Saar's story that rings untrue. The spotless reputation of the FBI in regard to prisoner handling and enlightened interrogation strategies is still intact, and I would hope that any American who reads the internal FBI complaints which came out of Guantanamo has come to accept by now that our efforts have fallen short of the mark. [They always do fall short in many ways; perhaps that is easier for us older and more jaded veterans to recognize and admit.]
The appendix of "Inside the Wire" is a good collection of key policy documents which help us understand some of the origins of this debacle.
Erik Saar leaves me with the impression that he is a fine young man with a good heart, naive in the best and most traditional American way, expecting our actions in an ugly environment to match our declared American ideals and way of life. Sad to say, wars are not humane endeavors, precisely why we should undertake them only as last resort, so as not to bring ourselves down to our enemies' level. My personal feelings are that we would serve the long term goals of the United States much more effectively by treating these prisons as political reorientation facilities, viewing any information obtained as secondary to our primary goal of demonstrating by unfailing example to our prisoners what the American people truly stand for.
Any military prison is a complicated environment which arouses instinctive animal passions, reflexive brands of patriotism, bigotry, religious convictions both radical and reasonable, and deep-seated feelings of what is fair play and what is beyond the pale. Don't look for "heroism" in our interrogators or guards. Saar shows great insight into all of these diverse factors, and gives us detailed observations of the best and the worst of us at work at Guantanamo. Heroism in prison is reserved only for prisoners. Our prisoners who survived the abuses of the Vietnamese communists are our best example of that. The best any interrogator, interpreter, or guard can do is to remain human.
Erik Saar has made a contribution in the best way he could, and I admire his efforts and his service to our nation. I highly recommend "Inside the Wire" to anyone who understands that a sense of compassion and fair play is a prerequisite to being able to call oneself an American at heart, not merely an American by accident of birth.
An important and accessible work, May 14, 2005
| Reviewer: | Randolph A. Long (Babylon, NY) |
This book gives us an alternate view into the workings of the Guantanamo detention facility. Before this book almost all of the information we have received has been second hand, either from officials in Washington or commentators. None of these people have actually been there, day in and day out, as part of the operation.
Other reviewers have cast aspersions on the veracity of this book. My objective opinion is that Sgt. Saar's story rings true. For instance, we are told of a farmer who had no idea why he was there, and had not been charged with any crimes. If we were paying a bounty to Northern warlords for capturing terrorists, but not validating their claim that the people presented are terrorists, it seems reasonable that the warlord would pick up local farmers and tradesmen as easy money. It seems that they would certainly be easier to find and capture than real terrorists. In any case, the problems illustrated by this book would be easy for the government to check out.
Some of the reviewers have impugned Sgt. Saars motivations and patriotism. While it is difficult to speak of another's motivations, writing this book is the definition of patriotic right and duty. The fact that we are able to criticize our government is at the heart of what being an American is all about. The free press is the ultimate check on the behavior of our government - the fourth branch.
I believe that the most important point in the book is not the fact that we have violated international treaties and our own principals at Guantanamo, but that it hasn't worked. I remember the mood after 9/11. The world had shifted and only an extraordinary response would keep us safe. But this doesn't give us leave to forget about leadership, training, organized execution and oversight. We seem to have been making mistakes, but ignoring the outcome - the lack of good intelligence and the problems in moral and performance. Sgt. Saar is doing us a service by providing valuable feedback. The question is, will the leadership receive it from this source, as they didn't get it from proper oversight.
You might have noticed that I was using the pronoun "we" when I spoke of activities described in the book. This was unintentional, and when I focused on it, I felt it might have been presumptuous. I certainly wasn't there. I was living in safety and comfort in the presence of my loved ones while Sgt. Saar and the others were doing their countries work in Guantanamo. On reflection, I decided to leave the pronouns where they lay. The military is the shield that protects us, but our surrogates. The soldier shows the world how we respond to difficult situations.
Sgt. Saar's response has been both courageous and appropriate. This is an important book.
A gutsy personal account of life at Guantanamo, May 13, 2005
| Reviewer: | Julia Menzo (Lansdale, PA USA) |
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