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- —Amazon
- —IndieBound
- —Powell’s
Since the launch of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars—now the longest wars in American history—the US military has struggled to recruit troops. It has responded, as Matt Kennard’s explosive investigative report makes clear, by opening its doors to neo-Nazis, white supremacists, gang members, criminals of all stripes, the overweight, and the mentally ill.
Based on several years of reporting, Irregular Army includes extensive interviews with extremist veterans and leaders of far-right hate groups—who spoke openly of their eagerness to have their followers acquire military training for a coming domestic race war. As a report commissioned by the Department of Defense itself put it, “Effectively, the military has a ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy pertaining to extremism.”
Irregular Army connects some of the War on Terror’s worst crimes to this opening-up of the US military. With millions of veterans now back in the US and domestic extremism on the rise, Kennard’s book is a stark warning about potential dangers facing Americans—from their own soldiers.
Reviews
“Matt Kennard’s careful and judicious investigations reveal an aspect of the modern US military system that should be of deep concern to American citizens.”
“Armies corrupt and disintegrate when they fight colonial wars. Matt Kennard’s outstanding, meticulous book exposes the secret recruiting of criminals in an army whose wars are criminal. This is journalism as it should be.”
“In his first, gripping book, Matt Kennard delves deeply in the heart of darkness of the US government’s so-called War on Terror. Irregular Army is required reading for anyone probing the true horror of modern American war. Kennard exposes an organized system of destruction that serves well the generals, the politicians, and above all the profiteering military contractors, but which exploits the poor and vulnerable, and trains and arms the most hateful and vicious in our society, consigning so many millions around the world to displacement, misery and death.”
“A startling and powerful new investigation that reveals the depths of the extremist and criminal elements that have infiltrated the US military over the last two decades. Irregular Army exposes both the roots of defective military recruitment and its deadly aftershocks. Kennard’s book issues an urgent warning to the American public.”
“Chilling … illuminating … Kennard’s nonpartisan portrait of martial waywardness is foreboding.”
“Matt Kennard is a fluent, powerful and authoritative writer whose debut book will surely establish him as one of Britain’s best-known investigative journalists.”
“Expertly exposes the effect of the American war machine on poor American soldiers as well as the stricken peoples of Iraq and Afghanistan living under them. I hope it is read by many people.”
“Matt Kennard is a creative and dogged investigative reporter whose probe of hidden realities inside the US military is a revelation.”
“An exceptional author, Matt Kennard never tries to paint a pig pretty. Thanks, Matt, for keeping it ugly. In his riveting book Irregular Army, Kennard exposes Americans to the real Frankenstein’s monsters. Criminal brains in the bodies of some of the finest fighting soldiers in the world. Indispensable.”
“Provides the first comprehensive account of the lengths the military went to maintain its numbers.”
“An excellent piece of journalism … It’s not only Kennard’s longform, first-person style and sharp, concise writing that keeps you with him to the end, but the fact that solid research is backed up with hundreds of interviews, from neo-Nazis to former generals … As a result of [Kennard’s] research and fresh angle, it stands out amid the vast sea of literature already published on the failings of the War on Terror.”
“Irregular Army makes a … strong case that nothing good lies in the future so long as the American government continues to dissolve its standards of human decency to keep the pipeline filled with new soldiers.”
“Faced with declining enlistment numbers as fighting dragged on year after year with no clear end in sight, Kennard shows that the American armed forces looked for alternatives to populate its ranks. In the process, regulations were weakened, rewritten and in some cases, not enforced … If the Sikh temple massacre is any indication of what may be in store, Kennard’s argument that the United States faces an uncertain future as these veterans return home from war couldn’t be more urgent.”
“Goes into great narrative detail to illustrate an unfolding disaster that has engulfed the US military, particularly the Army and Marine Corps … [Kennard] demonstrates a serious weakness in America’s ability to recruit a long- or even medium-term occupying force.”
“Kennard joins an important, and all too small, tradition of military analysis from the position of logistical capacity and strategic effects, in the tradition of a writer like Jeremy Scahill … [Irregular Army] is exhaustively written, and based in incredibly thorough documentation … Kennard’s book is a fantastic description of the specifics of force degradation.”
“Grim but compelling reading, a book which exposes the apparently irredeemable position the US military has created. The reader is indeed left with a deeper sense of the horrors of the last decade of futile wars, and an understanding of how far-reaching their implications have already proven themselves to be.”
“Reveals the extent to which racist extremists have been welcomed into the nation’s armed forces despite the fact that they openly view enlistment as a means of training for a race war at home.”
“Devastating critique of the recruitment policies of our major ally … Kennard's indictment is persuasive.”
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