If you're a big fan of Sun Tzu's style of boiling down complexity into simplicity, I'd also recommend Kautilya. He was a teacher of Chandragupta, the Indian emperor who unified the whole country in the 4th Century BC. He was a more blunt advocate of manipulation and realpolitik than even our Italian friend. Very interesting if you can get a hold of his writings. He's best known for the Arthasastra, a political work similar to The Prince. He has even less pretense of humanity than Machiavelli. Quite entertaining, especially if you like Darth Vader-style political maneuvering.
I agree that it's tough to get through, no more so than your typical Keegan book (and Keegan is writing in English!). You want a huge insight to an insurgency that is redonkulously difficult to get through? That would be How We Won The War by Vo Nguyen Giap. And yes, I'm that guy that actually reads stuff that's on the Commandant's reading list (How We Won The War used to be, but it's not anymore) I don't think they will really learn that much, again - I think it should be read at the level the USMC suggests it. I would hope that a senior officer will have read and/or learned from Sun Tzu prior to being senior officers. Agree wholeheartedly with this.
Victor Davis Hanson is very Keeganesque, but in my opinion a better writer. Although "The Face of Battle" is a masterwork.
While I feel she's entitled to her own opinion, I still want to kick her in the face for having this specific one.
To me, it's more in the realm of disposing of trash or destruction of sensitive material. It's not like the green Waste Management recycling truck pulls up to the gate in Bagram to take waste paper to the recycling center. Framing this as book burning is a red herring, and this columnist knows it. Brett
It's always interesting how our enemies pull the religion card whenever its handy for them. These Korans more being written in by the detainees in order to pass messages, which is probably a form of desecration, yet once they're intercepted, it's our fault for destroying them. Kind of like using a minaret as a sniper platform, then complaining when we return fire at a mosque.
^^^ Counterinsurgency is a game where the championship football team has to decides to learn to play ghetto-rules basketball against someone who has the home court advantage. (edit)
Doesn't surprise me; she's a professor at my alma mater, where there's a serious lack of understanding of today's military. I'm not so sure that she sets any kind of narrative, other than what happens in her classroom and her department in a tiny corner of Vermont. It's interesting to see, though, that the chair she holds is named for a guy that taught some of my Poli Sci classes back in the day.
"If against the present one any objection be raised on the score of [the story's] truth, it can only be that its author was an Arab, as lying is a very common propensity with those of that nation; though, as they are such enemies of ours, it is conceivable that there were omissions rather than additions made in the course of it." Miguel de Cervantes Don Quixote, 1605 The more things change...
How about this little gem... http://news.yahoo.com/judge-dismisses-charges-against-muslim-man-attacked-atheist-204051912.html I don't deny the guy dressed as Muhammad was religiously insensitive, but... REALLY? I don't think this sets a good precedent at all, I hope the case is reviewed at a higher level and this judge is fired for his inability to properly apply the first amendment. By this judge's application of the first amendment, it could be argued a Neo Nazi has every right to attack as a Zombie Hitler because it offends his Neo Nazi beliefs. Freedom of speech only works if you don't squelch speech that offends you.
Just as a data point, neither the Army(http://www.history.army.mil/reading.html), Navy(http://www.navyreading.navy.mil/Navy-Reading/Books.aspx) nor Air Force (http://www.af.mil/information/csafreading/index.asp) have Sun Tsu's The Art of War listed on the professional reading list for any paygrade. Only your service advocates for this book and at the O-1 level (http://www.marines.mil/unit/tecom/mcu/grc/library/Documents/MarineCorpsReadingList2011.pdf). I know the Naval War College refers to Sun Tsu often, in fact I took the Sun Tsu elective years ago. I would hazard to guess that the other War Colleges (and Command and Staff Colleges) would also use this book often. I'm curious as to why only the Marine Corps "requires" this book and not the other services... Any one have any thoughts?
then why the apology from POTUS, the rhetoric from State, and why is the Pentagon sending officials out to local mosques to apologize? I mean its just trash/sensitive materials? I'm sticking with my caveman reaction: for a religion as old as theirs, they need to grow the f up and stop acting like petulant children every time some one looks crossways at 'em. and yes, there are christians who would receive the same criticism from me. from a western/christian perspective i thinks the bound paper with "bible" written on it is not that important - individually. burn one in front of me and its not going to change my thoughts on what is written on the page of another one just like it. having some faith in the bigger picture helps people not lose their minds over the small stuff. apologize.... WTF? let's apologize for killing the other 19 when our high rises ran into 'em.
I think that, if Americans weren't in harms way in Afghanistan, none of these "apologies" would have been made. It was likely a pragmatic decision, done to reduce as much as possible the risks to our people over there. Would the violence have been worse if the "apologies" weren't made? Who knows, but I don't think that "apologizing" fanned the flames any further, and doing so possibly mitigated some of the reaction.
^^ This. Agree that Islam writ large needs to get a thicker skin, but we shouldn't be too surprised when a band of unsophisticated goat herders goes ape shit over this kind of thing. We should expect it and craft policies and information campaigns that mitigate it to the extent that that is possible. Brett
Wouldn't these policies fail because of the unsophisticated goat herding nature? I'm not being a smart-ass, its a legitimate question. How do you rationalize / negotiate / reason with people who sew young girls shut to prevent "sin" - with people who stone a woman who was brazen enough to get raped - with people who cut each other's heads off for the slightest...?
I'm suggesting that the policies might involve not putting ourselves in a position where we're involved in hearts & minds type fights with completely unreceptive populations. Hindsight is a bitch, but we should have seen this coming. Brett
If you're the leader of a country, sometimes you are going to make decisions that your people won't like, but are politically necessary. Many leaders see their own people as a hindrance to making intelligent decisions about foreign policy and warfighting. Democracy can be a real bitch if you're the one in behind the desk. You never win. Yeah Obama knows he's gonna piss off a lot of Americans. His priority is minimizing casualties, which he calculated would be higher if he didn't apologize. My guess is he'd rather deal with annoyed people at home, than dead Americans abroad. How much that goes to bite him in the upcoming election... we'll see.
As of May, 2011 - 26 murders or attempted murders of ISAF personnel by ANSF or ANP personnel, resulting in 58 deaths of westerners. Of course, there have been more since - including the execution-style murders of two U.S. Military officers in a "secure" area by an Afghan intelligence officer. Source: http://www.michaelyon-online.com/images/pdf/trust-incompatibility.pdf The taliban has been decimated & thrown out of power, training camps damaged or destroyed and Bin Laden dead. Tell me again why we're still over there trying to "nation build"?
Because the "nuking the fuck out of a bunch of dirtbag ass hole fuck heads" plan doesn't go over well in diplomatic circles?
Ok seriously now, lets just leave... No nuking the fuck outa them, just leave. Let them figure it out on their own Maybe nukem if they find large amounts of oil (cause apparently we don't have any here)
