This much-discussed book is a riveting, brilliantly written, richly anecdotal account of the absurdities, stupidities, and dehumanizing banalities of military behavior, largely British and American, during the Second World War-a sustained elaboration of the famous acronym: SNAFU. It is controversial because of the dubious implication that the 1939-1945 war was without meaning, fought by enemies who were equally bankrupt morally.