What Are You Currently Reading? 2008
Reading the 1986 edition of FM 100-5, Operations. Not exactly Small Wars material, but interesting to go back and take a look at what, and how, we were thinking in the last years of the Cold War. Much easier reading at any rate than either of the FM 3-0, Operations.
"Leaderless Jihad", by Marc Sageman
I just set down my copy of "Leaderless Jihad", by Marc Sageman. I liked the book as it is based on a real data set, is empirical in nature, and has minimal anecdotal evidence. He misses the point in a few places and he nails a few peacocks to the board if you know what I mean.
Here are some slides of a presentation he did on the book.
Here is a great video presentation of a talk he did about the book.
As I said his research is pretty good though he pushes the boundaries of his results and fails in some cases to bring in historical evidence to support or refute his own claims.
Ha. Casting aspersions on
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Originally Posted by
Tom Odom
See there you go making mistakes....
Must be your eyes
bifocals now, are we?
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"Cause you two and George Singleton makes three :D
Now you're picking on George. His kids are in their 20s, my oldest is 52, so George is old and wise but not yet geriatric. Since Bob T apparently went in the service a year before I did, we're probably both at least borderline (I know I am...).
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Is self abuse, geriatric abuse, if its voluntary?
Depends on what you have in mind... :D
Chesty Puller's aide-de-camp, Lt. Norton
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Originally Posted by
Rifleman
I have two in person exposures to guys who worked for up close Chesty Puller.
One was a Marine Corp. Lieut. Norton (cannot reliably recall Norton's first name) who was his aide-de-camp in Korea, after he, Lt. Norton was shot seven times and left for dead at the Yahlu Reservoir. A company of retreating Turks who had run out of ammo picked up still alive body of Lt. Norton and using bayonettes only fought their way through the Chinese surrounding them and saved Lt. Norton's life. Mr. Norton who then earned a law degree from Vanderbilt, was my Nashville, TN Woodmont Baptist Church Sunday School teacher when I was in about the 6th grade as best I can recall.
The other Marine I knew well was retired USMC Major General Big Foot Brown (Wilbert S Brown) who was a legend in the Marine Corp. Dr. Brown (he earned his incomplete from Annapolis, where he was kicked out for blowing up the Admiral's commode) BA, then his MA and PhD, all in History, also my major, at the Univeristy of Alabama where he also taught me history.
One story on General Brown (a USMC artillery school building at Ft. Sill, Oklahoma today is named after Brown). He commanded as a Brigadier General a Marine outfit sent to destroy a RR train full of US weapons and ammo abandoned by the Nationalist Chinese as Communist Chinese Army advanced along the coast of Mainland China. He was told under NO circumstances to engage the Communist Chinese Army.
However...then B/Gen. Brown while blowing up the train full of US weapons saw the approaching Communist Army, turned his men around and chased the Communist troops for miles, killing many of them.
Ordered by to the US to what he was a sure court martial, B/Gen. Brown was met at the DC area USAF base where he landed by his Uncle by Marriage, Senator John Stennis of Mississippi, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee and the Commandant of the US Marine Corp, who promoted Big Foot Brown on the spot to Major General. Brown then retired from Pentagon duty a few years later.
George Singleton
BA in History and Political Science
College of A&S, Univeristy of Alabama, 1962
PS - Excuse spelling and grammar errors. George.
CORRECTION re M/Gen. Wilbert S. Brown, USMC, Ret. Dec.
CORRECTION: Colonel (06) Wilbert S. [Big Foot] Brown, USMC, was spot promoted at the DC Air Base where he landed to 07, Brigadier, following the incident in China. He was tomb stoned as an 08, Major General, USMC. My memory error. Sorry. George.
I must take exception with Steve…
First off we lean more towards dating sheep. :rolleyes:
Second, we can write poetry that has no reference to Nantucket in it. To whit:
Steve Metz, an expert on insurgents
His writing it borders on pure vents
He penned quite a book
It’s sure worth a look
To see the extent of his dissents :D
Anyways, to get back on thread
Just finished:
How Can Man Die Better: The Secrets of Isandlwana Revealed
by Col Mike Snook
Zulu Victory: The Epic of Isandlwana and the Cover-up by Ron Lock
Working through:
The Vietnamese War: Revolution and Social Change in the Mekong Delta, 1930-1975 by David Elliott
The Battle of Ap Bac, Vietnam: They Did Everything but Learn from It by David Toczek
Triumph Forsaken: The Vietnam War, 1954-1965 by Mark Moyar
Kreker. Sorry, I missed this somehow when you posted.
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Originally Posted by
Kreker
"Guests of the Ayatollah: The First Battle in America's War with Militant Islam" by Mark Bowden, author of "Blackhawk Down." Am lokking for some feedback :)
Best
Read it and passed it to my son (or maybe he passed it to me -- we get confused sometimes). It's pretty good and I think fairly accurate. I was stationed in Tehran for a couple of years, still have some acquaintances from there I swap e-mails with and it seems to be pretty well on the mark. I'd recommend it.
Finished Chechen Jihad a Few Weeks Ago
That was an endurance trial. The suitcase nukes thing was the first flag. Later he briefly mentions a shoe bomber (a la Richard Reid) bringing down American Flight 587 in November of 2001. (NTSB disagrees with Bodansky.) He also glosses over the Nord Ost and Beslan hostage incidents. For a guy that makes a lot of claims about who said what and who's got nukes he doesn't cite too much in the way of sources. It wasn't quite a strategic overview, nor was it a quite a tactical outline. I kind of reminded me of reading the Old Testament: So and So begat So and So, then So and So begat So and So, repeat ad infinitum. I wanted a refund on my time when I finished. Terror at Beslan gave me a better understanding and overview of the Chechen conflict than Bodansky's 300+ page paperweight.
Robert Ludlum's Bourne Ultimatum
Milton Friedman's Free to Choose is in the queue...
Have to admit, have gone somewhat Retro
Just about done with DUMBOLOGY (Goeff Tibbals) its amazing what you learn about history that you never saw in the Lessons Learned sections
(Brits and a bunch of indian troops upset to the point of rioting over a lack of consideration for the animal fat used in rifle lubricants):eek:
Crawling my way through Hazard Adam's Critical Theory Since Plato
(gonna be a long yet informative trip:wry:)
And partially started on B.H Liddell Hart's Strategy second revised edit.