The Forever War: America’s Unending Conflict with Itself
By Nick Bryant
Bloomsbury Continuum, 2024
BBC journalist Nick Bryant fell in love with the United States as a young man in Birmingham, England when he viewed a mural featuring John F. Kennedy, a Camelot-infused symbol of what it could be. At that time – one would guess the early-to-mid 1970s – the US was in a post-Vietnam, post-Watergate, inflationary, oil shock induced funk, Camelot soiled by Chappaquidik and really only existing in purply media coverage of any next generation Kennedy. After reading history at Cambridge and gaining a PhD at Oxford in US history, Bryant joined the BBC and had two lengthy tours in the US, 1998-2003 (Washington) and 2013-2021 (New York), where he had a front row seat to four seismic events of the 21st Century, the 9/11 attacks (and subsequent wars), the Barack Obama presidency, the election of Donald Trump and the January 6 attack on the Capitol. Although his love for the opportunities that still existed in the US survived (277), Bryant and his family left “and not one of us looked back” (278).
The “unending conflict” in the title of Bryant’s latest work, “The Forever War,” is between competing versions on idealism, reality and definitions of tyranny. Some people saw America’s potential and wanted action to make reality both reflect the egalitarian sentiments expressed in the Declaration of Independence and overcome the tyranny of those holding back their fellow citizens. Others idealized America as it was at the time of the Founders and saw any attempt to significantly alter this historical reality as a tyrannical assault on individual liberty. The book depicted January 6 as the sadly logical culmination of interlocking historical issues – e.g. demagoguery, authoritarianism, race, guns – that gave shape to this treadmill of civil war.
“The Forever War,” no surprise, is a somber work, no more than its depiction of the January 6 rioters as more mainstream than the “QAnon Shaman,” i.e. 28% white collar, led by, among others, Yale Law School graduates and silently supported by police officers and FBI agents (59-60). The broader movement was supported by members of Congress who still voted to decertify the 2020 election even after the riot and was given broad legal cover by the Ivy League Dominated Supreme Court. Combine all this with the fringe elements and one has a potent force that existed seemingly just beneath the surface until it was fully unleashed by candidate/President Donald Trump, who "succeeded" where others mentioned by Bryant – Father Coughlin, Edwin Walker, Pat Buchanan, Newt Gingrich, failed.
A strength and weakness of “The Forever War” was Bryant’s overemphasis of history over journalism. On one level this was totally understandable; he took the opportunity to provide broad context to events he covered on a relatively superficial level for the BBC, which was essential for readers new to these topics. For more experienced readers, lots of what Bryant wrote recovered old ground – the NRA, Heller v DC, Citizens United, etc - no more so than the civil rights chapter. The overuse of history blurred the focus and limited impact of the “The Forever War;” to make the point about race being a defining issue, one that helps explain the genesis of January 6, Bryant did not need to provide such a comprehensive background chronology.
Falling out of love is tough; one has to balance the sadness and/or bitterness of the endgame with memories of what created the love in the first place. Perhaps Bryant’s next book will work through his understandable short term pessimism and reexplore what, beyond the symbolism of the Kennedy mural - made the US worthy of his affection.