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Title: Hideous Dream by Stan Goff, Stanley Goff ISBN: 1-887128-63-8 Publisher: Soft Skull Pr Pub. Date: 01 October, 2000 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $18.50 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.64 (11 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: A messy invasion
Comment: Mr. Goff doesn't give himself enough credit as a writer. Though somewhat disjointed, this book contains extraordinary passages. What's most startling is that the source of this leftist critique of the 1994 US "invasion" of Haiti spent several decades in the most elite (and most right-leaning) units of the US Army. I'm waiting for him to write a "prequel" that would tell the most fascinating story of all - how Stan Goff came to spend so much of his life working (and, apparently, thriving) in organizations to which he seems in so many ways ill-suited. Until Stan Goff writes that book, we can comfort ourselves with this fascinating volume, which serves as counterpoint to Bob Shacochis' brilliantly written but evidently questionable "The Immaculate Invasion."
Rating: 3
Summary: One Man's View of Reality
Comment: I was a Team Leader in MSG Goff's Battalion. The lack of focus of which he writes is exactly what happens when the fog of war meets a presidential administration who sold its soul for domestic agenda. The lack of clarity in our mission came from Clinton's pandering to segments of congress to pass his crime bill for which he agreed to invade a small black country so the US could say we are doing something for blacks around the world. Unfortunately, military action is used to enforce foreign policy...not domestic policy.
Goff writes of our (the Army's) disdain for blacks but does not speak out on the Clinton government who destroyed any progress Haiti had made in the last 20 years by wiping out the upper class who brought what little industry and prosperity to Haiti that there was. Sure, it wasn't by any means good...but when measured by American standards, few third world countries are.
His assertion that Special Forces is nothing but a sub-element of the white supremacist movement is a lie straight from hell and a result of Goff's troubled past and his tormented soul. Two of the finest operators on my team were black. The number of SF soldiers of color is low and less than the percentage of society as a whole, but reflects the number who volunteer for SF. Attrition rates for all races is statistically insignificant.
As for his team's bias...we are highly trained in cultural sensitivities...the reason for Special Forces use around the world. He went in with a chip on his shoulder and was known for being arrogant and contentious.
The mission to Haiti was a farce. It was contrived to pass domestic legislation and to divert the American public from the disaster that was Somalia. Clinton needed a "foreign policy success" on which to run for a second term. Haiti was a country beyond impoverished, with a military using heavy weapons given them by the U.S. after World War II. Soldiers armed with 38 caliber pistols with 9mm ammunition. In short, an adversary that would have taken hours, not weeks nor months to defeat.
Interestingly, Goff begins his book by documenting his participation in a war crime (the killing of the old lady). His troubled life then continues with drugs, alcohol, and various anti-social behavior towards members of his units. He portents all of these were part of his awakening to the bigotry of the white race.
Amazingly...at least to hear him talk...none of his enlistments were 'forced'...he signed on the line and went gladly to do his country's bidding. But now he implies some evil force moved him through his days with elite units from Vietnam through the Rangers and ultimately Special Forces.
Sadly, he paints a picture of hate, bigotry and evil within the elite forces of the U.S. Army. I would submit that any such qualities, counter-balanced by the caring, understanding, culturally sensitive actions of thousands more SF operators are a reflection of society as a whole and not a cesspool of racist losers.
I agree with Stan that we went to Haiti with no direction, guidance nor mission. Sam Nunn, then leader of the Senate only authorized a vote on the intervention in Haiti if we refrained from "Nation Building". Therefore our hands were tied as to what we could do to help the average Haitian. But, if we were going to truly help Haiti, we would have needed to be there running the country for 17 years like the U.S. Marine Corps did in the early part of the 20th Century.
This is a well crafted book, however, I recommend it only for veterans who have had experience with the Special Operations community. A novice reader without any military connection would be depressed and disheartened by this tale of one white guy on his journey to becoming black.(...)
Rating: 5
Summary: Very personal account of one man's disallusionment
Comment: Let's face it, the US government is probably every bit as evil as former US Army MSG Goff makes it out to be. He should certainly know, and I don't doubt that his comment about not wanting his experience in Haiti to be "another El Salvador" hides some dark secrets. Perhaps he will grace us with a book on that one day. But first, he must do us all a favor and regurgitate the idiocy that Leninism will save mankind. For by the end of his Haitian adventure (and conveniently just before he's put in his 20 years and qualified for a pension from the US Army), Mr. Goff is an avowed Leninist. His next book is not entitled "What I did in El Salvador", but rather will be some radical tract about "Women and War".
So should you read this book? It's well written, though a bit too long (one feels that it's building up to some kind of dramatic climax that never really happens, unless you consider that to be Goff's inevitable arrest and removal from Haiti). The little bit of communist diatribe doesn't come until the end, unlike with his more recent book "Full Spectrum Disorder", where it leaps off almost every page. "Hideous Dream" is a good read, and will help you understand much better what happened "on the ground", so to speak, in 1994. And once again, you will be disheartened to learn of all the evil people in the world who thrive and rape and kill not despite of the US government, but BECAUSE of it. For it turns out that the mission is to restore all the brutal and murderous club and machete-wielding macoutes to power! Democracy, hell!
It is no wonder that people all over the world hate us, because our government never practices what it preaches.
Just don't forget that socialism has killed just as many people as facism. The problem is not facism vs. socialism, it's -ism! Mr. Goff's heart is in the right place, but his head isn't. He's made the same fatal mistake of so many millions of intellectuals in the last century, forsaking one evil for another. And when the system changes to their liking, they are always the first ones to go.
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