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Thread: What Are You Currently Reading? 2007

  1. #221
    Council Member zenpundit's Avatar
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    Default Hitler as a warlord

    He does an amazing job of breaking down the tendency of the Germans to blame things on Hitler, and showing exactly what happened. Eye opening.

    Matt
    Agreed.

    Hitler was neither insane nor incompetent as a statesmen engaged in high military affairs, despite a lack of professional training or command experience. His intuitive judgments of developing military situations were often better than many top Wehrmacht generals and field marshals and Hitler's assessments of enemy psychology were frequently very shrewd.

    Hitler's mental capacity declined as the war progressed along with his health but Hitler, while essentially a self-taught amateur, hadability to work with than many comparable historical figures. Certainly moreso than Stalin or Roosevelt (Churchill came to the table with extensive, if bitter, experience at high level wartime policy making during WWI and service on the Western Front).

  2. #222
    Council Member zenpundit's Avatar
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    Default should have read

    " had more ability to work with " - sorry!

  3. #223
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    Pox Americana: The Great Smallpox Epdidemic of 1775-82: Fenn, Elizabeth

    Wars against man and disease have many similiar appendages. Elements of the Colonial press accused Cornwallis of intentionally spreading smallpox - talk about WMD and old time psyops.....

  4. #224
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    Default A Thousand Splendid Suns

    Not a military book, per se. Great read, especially for Afghan hands. Peace is right around the corner.

    I still have a hard time believing Hosseini is writing in a foreign language. Writes much better than I do in my native language. (Better'n a bunch of you, too. No offense.)

  5. #225
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    Leavenworth Paper No. 22 Moving the Enemy by Dr. Gary J. Bjorge. I am just fascinated by Su Yu's mastery of the Operational Art and his crystal-clear Strategic foresight.

  6. #226
    Council Member Tom Odom's Avatar
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    Norfolk,

    Gary Bjorge is a great historian and firend. He really broke ground on that one. he has also done great work on Merrills Marauders.

    Best

    Tom

  7. #227
    Council Member Tom Odom's Avatar
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    Norfolk,

    Gary Bjorge is a great historian and firend. He really broke ground on that one. he has also done great work on Merrills Marauders.

    Best

    Tom

  8. #228
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    Quote Originally Posted by Tom Odom View Post
    Norfolk,

    Gary Bjorge is a great historian and firend. He really broke ground on that one. he has also done great work on Merrills Marauders.

    Best

    Tom
    Tom, did Dr. Bjorge also write one of the CGSC's papers on Merrill's Marauders or was that all Col. McMichael?
    Last edited by Norfolk; 11-28-2007 at 02:09 PM. Reason: Sorry, wrong Colonel.

  9. #229
    Council Member slapout9's Avatar
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    Norfolk, can you post the link to the paper? Thanks

  10. #230
    Council Member Tom Odom's Avatar
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    Gary did a special study on them. Scott McMichaels used them in his light infantry study.

    Best

    Tom

  11. #231
    Council Member slapout9's Avatar
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    Thanks Tom got them all now. Slap

  12. #232
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    Quote Originally Posted by Tom Odom View Post
    Gary did a special study on them. Scott McMichaels used them in his light infantry study.

    Best

    Tom
    Thanks Tom, much obliged.

    Sorry Slap, I just saw your post, and Tom beat me to it!

    For anyone who's interested, here's the link to Dr. Bjorge's Leavenworth Paper No. 22 Moving the Enemy:

    https://cgsc.leavenworth.army.mil/ca...jorge_huai.pdf

  13. #233
    Council Member jcustis's Avatar
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    The Devil Came on Horseback: Bearing witness to the genocide in Darfur by Brian Steidle w/ Gretchen Steidle Wallace.

    Public Affairs, 2007. 223 pages

    Steidle is a former Marine Corps captain who contracted to serve as a monitor for the African Union in first southern Sudan, and eventually Darfur from Jan 2004 to Jan 2006. Upon ending his contract, where he was forced to be a completely impartial observer only, he became a vocal advocate for intervention and resolution of the Darfur crisis.

    His account of the internal strife between the various players and the innocents caught in between is a fairly easy read, most of the time. There are some occasions, however, when it seems obvious that his journal or voice recordings factor too heavily in the chopped writing. As an example, there are several occasions when the tension rises quickly and shots are fired, but his team simply leaves the area and Steidle makes no more mention of the incident.

    It could stand to have several detailed maps throughout the book, since I had to go to Reliefweb to find more detailed maps that provided some perspective of topography at least. As much as I enjoy the relatively easy read and reasonable length, I have also found myself desiring more development of Steidle's fellow team-members, the NGO groups working around them, and even the janjaweed (devils on horseback) militiamen who ae blame for much of the torture, rape, looting, and village burning. About 60% of the book tracks as though he is simply recounting daily events out of a journal or filed investigations.

    I give it 3 out of 5 stars. Good for getting started with an understanding of the problems in Sudan/Darfur.

  14. #234
    Council Member bourbon's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by SteveMetz View Post
    I need to read Charlie Wilson's War since my friend Mike Vickers (Janine's boss) plays a major role. Mike tells me the movie version with Tom Hanks will be out around the end of the year.
    From the Shadows to the Silver Screen, By RICHARD LARDNER. Associated Press, December 15, 2007


    Related story:
    Hollywood and the CIA: The Spook Stays In The Picture:
    Charlie Wilson's War is only the latest in a string of movies brought to you by CIA insider Milt Bearden, Laura Rozen. Mother Jones, December 13 , 2007.
    Besides Hanks, the film features Roberts as a right-wing Texas heiress and, in a bit of creative casting, Philip Seymour Hoffman as the late Gust Avrakotos, an operative remembered by colleagues as a "macho Greek" überhawk. "Avrakotos, rest his soul, would turn in his grave if he imagined that the guy who played Truman Capote was playing him," says Bearden.
    Got a laugh at this, Gust Avrakotos comes off as a real hard guy in CWW, Ghost Wars and Milt Bearden's book, If I recall his nickname was "Dr. Dirty". Truman Capote!

    Currently Reading: Unholy Terror: Bosnia, Al-Qa'ida, and the Rise of Global Jihad by John R. Schindler.
    Schindler, a professor at the Naval War College and former NSA Balkan hand, argues that the 92-95 Bosnia conflict served in the 90's as much the same way Afghanistan did in the 80's for the Jihad. Slowly working my through this, but so far so good.

  15. #235
    Council Member tequila's Avatar
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    Bourbon - Does Schindler have much on the role of Bosnia vis a vis Chechnya in this regard?

  16. #236
    Council Member bourbon's Avatar
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    Let me get back to you on this next week, I've briefly lent my copy out.

  17. #237
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    Fields of Fire. About halfway through, some of the characters seem more like stereotypes than full people, but otherwise really enjoying it.

  18. #238
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    Default defeating communist insurgency

    Just finished Sir Robert Thompson's "Defeating Communist Insurgency."

    Great read, and offers lots of clear, practical advice. I'm glad that our new strategy seems to be more in line with coin thought like this book offers. Fast read, but great information.

    Next: Persian Mirrors: The Elusive Face of Iran by Sciolino. So far, great insight into the day-to-day life of Iranians, and their personal attitudes and politics.

  19. #239
    Council Member davidbfpo's Avatar
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    Default What Are You Currently Reading? 2007

    Moderator at work

    New thread created to enable easier searching, so now split into years, started with 2007.
    davidbfpo

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