Stripping Bare the Body: Politics, Violence, War

I too became aware of Stripping Bare the Body by way of an hour-long discussion devoted to it on the excellent Bill Moyers' Journal -podcast from USA PBS. So I was prevented from being put off either by the somewhat obscure title or the sheer size of the book: 563 pages of real journalism for various heavyweight New York magazines from Mr Danner's reports from trouhle zones around the world. Readers will note that sections of the book, published in 2009, have also been published previously under their own cover. Beginning in 1989 with an account of his first visit to Haiti when he was just 31, the book falls into four - not three - separate sections covering events in Haiti, Bosnia Herzegovina and finally, Iraq. The third section, called Marooned in the Cold War which in my view would alone be worth the price of the book, contains his reflections on the faltering steps being taken by Western - specifically American - diplomatic minds to try finally to come to some sort of accommodation with the world after the 1989 collapse of the Berlin Wall. Danner traces the determination of America to remain the world's preponderant power from 1945 and the creation of NATO in 1949, to its decision in the late nineties to march east. `We have chosen to do for Europe's east, what NATO did for Europe's west,' declared the then US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright in 1997, `to integrate new democracies, eliminate old hatreds, provide confidence in economic recovery and deter conflict.....' Danner is aghast at the degree of hubris and ignorance on display. He goes on to reflect on how and when the USA first became `the indispensable nation.' Throughout the 19th century, he points out, while the US was busying itself in its own continent, it was Britain's Royal Navy, pursuing its own preoccupations; protection of worldwide trade routes and the balance of power in Europe,which maintained the order that now the US struggles to maintain. Danner has no time for President Wilson. He illuminatingly describes Wilson's first encounter with the Old World at Versailles in 1918 as `one of great set pieces of history' `While we were dealing with momentous questions of land and sea,' said Lloyd George, the British Prime Minister, `He was soaring in clouds of serene rhetoric.' And it was rhetoric which trapped Clinton as the Yugoslav war unfolded. Danners's chapters are a marvellously detailed tutorial on the action, reaction and inaction, hopelessly confusing to people like me at the time, as we watched just a little of the human misery and suffering rolling out day by day from our television screens. Now I realise we didn't know the half of it. His chapters on Iraq cover ground made more familiar by reporters like Bob Woodward, George Packer and Anthony Shadid on whom he draws freely. However he has the benefit of a great deal of published reporting, both official and unofficial, on the subject of the US treatment of prisoners and torture which he pul

This book is a bit of a dense read at points, which is why I gave it four stars, but on content and information it rates a five. The book is split into three distinct sections: on Haiti, Bosnia, and Iraq, and each section is different in its treatment of the subject as well. The Haiti section gives an informative history on the country, explaining its political evolution and providing a thorough understanding of the failed and destitute state that existed even before the recent earthquake. The Iraq section is what I most expected from the book--a thorough analysis of the U.S. mistakes and failures in Iraq. It has many fascinating and revealing stories and helps one understand why supposedly brilliant people could make so many idiotic mistakes. The middle section on Bosnia was the one that affected me the most. I remember being outraged and horrified by the news broadcasts from Bosnia, but I had no comprehension of how truly horrible it was. The stories told in this section are beyond heartbreaking; they are soul-scarring. This part of the book almost threw me into a black depression, but for many reasons, this is a story that needs to be told and to be known more widely. Overall, the book gives its reader an excellent understanding of how the U.S. foreign policy machine really works, and why, despite our avowed good intentions as a people, we ultimately do not have the will, the ability, the clarity of moral purpose or the good judgment to significantly lessen instability, suffering, and bloodshed in other parts of the world.

I really like how this book gave you an inside look on topics you would otherwise know about. I expecially like the end of the book about the war in Iraq. I have to agree with the point Danner makes about former President Bush, and his policy. The book also shows you a lot of details surrounding the things that actually happened in Iraq that you wouldn't see in regular media coverage. It does show some good that has come out of the war in Iraq

This guy is wise, and he brings you the news so you don't have to (go to these hellholes for yourself). Veteran reporter calls it like he sees it, and the literary quality is outstanding.

Seeing Mark Danner in conversation with Bill Moyers inspired me to read his book, Stripping Bare the Body. In a quiet and deeply informed way, Danner pulls apart the threads of America's various foreign interventions of the past 25 years, from Haiti to Bosnia to Iraq. In each case he shows us the complexities of the local reality and how American foreign policy interventions got it all wrong. The usual scenario is action based on misinformation and/or support for the villain in power who promises us whatever he thinks we want to hear. In the general outline of the story, Danner uses more current interventions to relate what some of us have been hearing since the early 1950s. But his journalism has taken him deep into these places, often to where his life was on the line, so he shares details of each place that are new and that bring into sharp relief the larger policy questions. In this he reminds me of Rory Stewart's brilliant narratives about Iraq and Afghanistan.