The Men Who Stare At Goats - Hardcover

Ronson, Jon

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0743241924 ISBN 13: 9780743241922

Publisher: Simon & Schuster, 2005

Synopsis

In 1979 a secret unit was established by the most gifted minds within the U.S. Army. Defying all known accepted military practice -- and indeed, the laws of physics -- they believed that a soldier could adopt a cloak of invisibility, pass cleanly through walls, and, perhaps most chillingly, kill goats just by staring at them.

Entrusted with defending America from all known adversaries, they were the First Earth Battalion. And they really weren't joking. What's more, they're back and fighting the War on Terror.

With firsthand access to the leading players in the story, Ronson traces the evolution of these bizarre activities over the past three decades and shows how they are alive today within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and in postwar Iraq. Why are they blasting Iraqi prisoners of war with the theme tune to Barney the Purple Dinosaur? Why have 100 debleated goats been secretly placed inside the Special Forces Command Center at Fort Bragg, North Carolina? How was the U.S. military associated with the mysterious mass suicide of a strange cult from San Diego? The Men Who Stare at Goats answers these and many more questions.

Ronson's Them: Adventures with Extremists, a highly acclaimed international bestseller, examined the paranoia at the fringes of hate-filled extremist movements around the globe. The Men Who Stare at Goats reveals extraordinary and very nutty military secrets at the core of George W. Bush's War on Terror.

About this title

Review

"Few more earnest investigative journalists would have had the brilliant bloody-mindedness to get what he has got and hardly any would have the wit to present it with as much clarity." (The Observer)

"Simultaneously frightening and hilarious." (The Times)

"A jaw-dropper of a non-fiction story. It moves with wry, precise agility." (The New York Times)

"A hilarious and unsettling book." (The Boston Globe)

"Ronson sets his book up beautifully. It moves with wry precise agility from crackpot to crackpot in its search for the essence of this early New Age creativity." (The New York Times)

"Supposedly the military has soldiers who can stare at animals and kill them, holograms that scare people to death, psychic spies, and plans for chameleon camouflage suits. In 1979 they were called the First Earth Battalion, and now we learn that they're back to help fight the war on terrorism. Narrator Sean Mangan takes a tongue-in-cheek attitude, making the voices of the characters sound like they're nuttier than Mrs. Fields' cookies. He leaves listeners wondering whether to laugh or lament. His voice has a slight whispery cast, and he extends the last word of every sentence, as if to point out the periods." (AudioFile Magazine)

Book Description

The Sunday Times number-one bestseller that inspired the major motion picture.

Edition details

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Publication date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0743241924
• ISBN 13: 9780743241922
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 259