Scattering Chaff

Reviews / Votes

"Bob Bergen has written an extraordinary and compelling account of Canada's participation in the Kosovo Air War. The book is an indispensable guide for anyone interested in what it was like to be in the thick of war, the nature of media coverage and the politics of Canadian involvement. Scattering Chaff is well crafted, deeply researched and a superb read." -- David Taras, Professor and Ralph Klein Chair in Media Studies, Mount Royal University "The opening chapter of Scattering Chaff offers a riveting cockpit view of the sorties Canadian CF-18s flew over Serbia: Managing that many warplanes in a confined airspace before, during, and after combat missions is a science and a highly choreographed art of war. Bergen explains how such choreography played out in Kosovo, inviting readers to imagine "battle space management as a ladder superimposed lengthwise over a map of the Adriatic Sea, with its rungs forming six individual boxes or areas of responsibility at precisely designated Global Positioning System (GPS) locations. The long left rail of the ladder down the Adriatic close to the eastern coast of Italy behind those individual AORs was an air transit route code named Backstreet. Inside each AOR in the ladder were air-to-air refuelling tankers like flying gas stations." He continues in this manner, layering operational detail on top of detail: Each formation would leave their marshal point to hit their timing reference point at an exact time that would allow them to fly into the target area and deliver their weapons. What emerges is a wholly fleshed out portrait of Canadian fighter- bombers in action. Such descriptions give Bergens work a drama and verisimilitude appropriate to the subject. But the compelling narrative is only a vehicle for the books two- pronged critique of Canadian military management: first, a public affairs approach marked by inherent secrecy, lack of cohesion, and timidity; and, second, a procurement system that hampered Canadas ability to deliver on its commitments." - Geoff White, Literary Review of Canada