No one is objective. Like the anthropologist David Graeber, I tend to think that if anyone tells you she or he is objective, that person is probably trying to sell you something.1 Still, I believe we can and must strive for objectivity, even if it’s an unattainable goal. In this book, I have tried to be fair and to consider as many perspectives as possible on every issue I examined. As my ideas and conclusions took shape, I particularly tried to consider points of view opposite my own.
I think a good measure of fairness is whether, before publication, one can share one’s writing with interviewees with whom one might disagree. To that end, I showed drafts of sections and chapters to as many people involved in the research as possible and gave them opportunities to offer feedback, suggestions, and corrections. I am thankful for the openness with which so many people read my writing, especially when they dissented from my perspectives, and the helpful corrections that they offered.
In any work of research or writing, one’s background inevitably shapes the investigation and analysis. In the interests of transparency, here are some relevant parts of mine: I have been reporting and writing about U.S. military bases for more than thirteen years. I came to the subject in 2001, after lawyers representing the exiled people of Diego Garcia asked me to document the effects of the Chagossians’ expulsion on their lives. Over the next seven years, I conducted research with the exiled people in Mauritius, the Seychelles, and the United Kingdom. I then coupled that work with extensive archival research and with interviews in the United States, talking to some of the military and diplomatic officials who had helped create the base on Diego Garcia. Almost to a man (and all the officials involved were men), they expressed regret about the way the Chagossians were treated. My work culminated in the 2009 publication of Island of Shame: The Secret History of the U.S. Military Base on Diego Garcia.
I also helped produce The Counter-Counterinsurgency Manual, a critical analysis of counterinsurgency strategy, war, and militarization. I coauthored the book with other members of the Network of Concerned Anthropologists. The NCA is a group that sought, on both ethical and military grounds, to oppose the Army’s attempts to recruit anthropologists as embedded and sometimes armed members of combat brigades in the Bush administration’s war on terror. On the other hand, in January 2012, I published an opinion piece in Defense News that was coauthored with Ray DuBois, the former Bush administration Pentagon official whom I quote in the present work.
I conducted research for this book between 2009 and 2015 with the help of a grant from the Stewart R. Mott Foundation’s Fund for Constitutional Government and with faculty research support from American University and its College of Arts and Sciences. Otherwise, I funded my travels with savings, frequent flier miles, and the generosity of many who hosted me in their homes and assisted my work in so many ways. I will donate all proceeds from the book’s royalties to nonprofit organizations serving military veterans, their families, and other victims of war and violence.