The Men Who Stare at Goats film tie-in (original 2004; edition 2009)

By turns hilarious and horrifying. I enjoyed it. ( )

This is an odd duck of a book, one worth reading but one that made me a little queasy at times because of the way Ronson gives a wry twist to things like the Abu Graib photos, Hale-Bopp suicides, and "non-lethal" weapons like Tasers. Ronson undercuts his evidence-based case for the odd things the military and intelligence establishments are willing to try, from intelligence collection by psychics to dangerously stupid-sounding martial arts methods. ( )

Its hard to know what to say about this book as its a light-hearted, somewhat mocking look at the various always-nefarious schemes of the American Military, or at least of some of the specialised recherche departments of Intelligence. However, the subject is deadly serious and what seems funny on the surface - bombarding Iraqi prisoners with an endless loop of the Barney song, 14,000 renditions over three days - really isn't when you consider that this 'information' was probably released deliberately so the media could do a nice, feel-good, hahaha piece and be put off delving deeper, at least for a while.

It's an interesting, perhaps even necessary, book for all Americans, and citizens of its allies and satellite countries, who want to know of the less-obvious methods used in the defence of the US and free world. We all know about military offensives, about assassinations and torture, both always denied, apart from the Barney song. (Geez what hell that must have been - all mothers will nodding here). Really though, what do we know about psychological warfare and what has developed from the original barmy colonel whose thought-process went something like this: this wall is primarily composed of atoms, and atoms are primarily composed of space. I am primarily composed of atoms, and therefore I should be able to walk right through that wall if I only have the right frame of mind. Result: bruised nose and the development of a new Intelligence unit for the US Military and a new way to divert tax dollars into the hands of the less-than-mentally competent.

It's a fast read, well-written in a journalistic style with plenty of moments when you'll want to look up from the book and share what you've just read with anyone around. Recommended for a liberal-minded person travelling with a right-winger they don't much like. Shit-stirrer me!

Rewritten 31 May, 2011 because I rewrote the review for Them: Adventures with Extremists also by Ronson, and I'm sort of feeling a bit conspiracy-minded right now ( )

this book starts out in the lightly comic self-referential fashion of a mockumentary - so much so, that i rather believed i was reading a work of fiction for about the first 1/3. the author has himself written so heavily into the opening bits of this story ("i called this person", "i went to visit that one") that i just found myself waiting for the ashton kutcher figure to jump out of a closet announcing we were all punk'd, that this was just a little joke.

our intrepid journalist friend goes off in search for the truth about some entertainingly kooky goings-on at various military bases in the US. turns out that after the trauma of Vietnam, some guys decided there had to be a better way to wage war, and one of them wrote a how-to manual for it. through convoluted applications of the theoretical "warrior-monk" practices, we end up with a soldier who believes he can stop a goat's heart (or a hamster's) just by staring at the creature; a general who routinely attempts to walk through walls ("the atoms are mostly made of just space, after all"); a high-ranking officer who claims on public access tv to be "the real obi-wan kenobi."

it's all fun and games until we get the hint that it's supposed to be funny, that the public fails to notice the actual horror of psychological warfare if we're all busy tee-hee-ing about how they used the barney "i love you, you love me" song to torture prisoners.

a quick-paced, entertaining and unsettling read, even if you're not a die-hard conspiracy junkie. ( )

The audiobook narrator reads a lot like William Shatner, which doesn't really detract from the telling. Unfortunately, he does anyone who espouses any holistic or non-mainstream point of view with a goofy voice, which does detract and draw this reader, anyway, away from the book.

Ronson dives right in to his history of shadowy, weirs, and/or obsessive behaviors by the CIA and other intelligence agencies; the lack of set-up, context, or introduction heightens the bizarreness of what is to come. ( )