Spoils of War: Power, Profit and the American War Machine by Andrew Cockburn

Born in London shortly after World `War II, I grew up in rural Ireland, went to school in Scotland (where we trained every week to be junior officers in the next war) and Oxford, and thereafter entered into the family trade of journalism. After spells on Fleet Street - the Evening Standard and Daily Mail - I joined World in Action, a great investigative documentary show on British independent tv., where I began taking an interest in defense issues - very undercovered in the UK. Moved to the US in 1979, and in 1982 published The Threat - Inside the Soviet Military Machine. A national best-seller, the book revealed that the Soviets were not an awesome threat, as we had been told for decades by the western defense lobby. I showed that the troops were ill-trained, and badly equipped, all to the benefit of their military-industrial hierarchy. My argument, denounced at the time in Washington and Moscow, was proven absolutely correct following the collapse of the USSR. Since then, I have written hundreds of articles on defense and other topics, several books -- see below - many documentaries, and co-produced the 1997 action miovie The Peacemaker starring George Clooney and Nicole Kidman. Living in Washington, where I am currently the Washington Editor of Harper's Magazine, means I have a front row seat to watch the headquarters, the imperial court, of a declining but still rich and powerful empire. It is an endlessly fascinating spectacle, if sometimes horrifying. .