"Men Who Stare at Goats" - Jon Ronson

The novel I read over this past month was Jon Ronson’s “Men Who Stare at Goats”. The author of this novel did a very good job in making it entertaining and humorous. He also writes very well in keeping the reader entertained by always having a joke that you laugh at, every time you turn the page. The plot of this novel is just so bizarre, that it’s hilarious that US Intelligence Agencies actually come up with these ideas, towards fighting the War of Terror. An example was their Special Forces, which came with ideas, believing that they could walk through walls and stare at goats and stop their hearts. The title itself sums up the bizarreness of this book, the funny thing is that this book is not fictional and totally the truth. Throughout the novel, Jon Ronson goes around the United States interviewing former military personnel and former Special Forces Unit. The madness of “staring at goats”, all started will General Stubblebine (1981 to 1984), when one day he decides that in his mind he could walk through walls. The General’s imagination runs on, and he goes to the Special Forces and suggests some of his bizarre ideas to them, military personnel were always wondering what was going in the General’s head. The story carries on, and in our present day, George W. Bush calls up for Stubblebine’s ideas in dealing with the war in the Middle East.

“Except for one last thing. Ten years later, Guy said, three Special Forces soldiers covertly traveled to Cleveland from Fort Bragg, having heard on the grapevine that Guy had once successfully stared at a goat to death on their base. They wanted to know if the rumor was true. They wanted to see it for themselves. They wanted Guy to kill a goat for them.” Pg – 65. This passage appeals to me because it very humorous and bizarre that people actually believed that this guy actually killed a goat by just staring at it. “The ‘high values’ were what the U.S. army called the suspected terrorists, insurgent leaders, rapists, and child molesters, although things were so out of control in postwar Iraq that many of the high values might have just been passersby picked up at checkpoints because the soldiers didn’t like the look of them.” Pg-174. This appeals to me because it shows the true racism that was going on in the paranoid government of the U.S. after 9/11. This quotation just describes how poorly people were just judged by appearance, for a being a terrorist, which is morally wrong.

1. Where did you first learn about the Special Forces in the U.S. army? 2. What bizarre subject will you talk about in your next novel? 3. Do you believe that Special Forces will be an important organization under new U.S. President Barack Obama?