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Thread: What Are You Currently Reading? 2007

  1. #61
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    Just starting reading "Wing to Wing: Air Combat in China, 1943-45". It's the story of the Chinese-American Composite Wing. Technically a Chinese Air Force unit, it was established to train Chinese air and ground crews up to the level modern air combat. The unit was organized so that the Chinese and American components mirrored each other (Chinese CO-American CO, American pilot-Chinese co-pilot and so on among the air and ground crews). The unit flew P-40s, P-51s and B-25s. The CACW produced 5 American aces and 3 Chinese aces.

  2. #62
    Council Member slapout9's Avatar
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    Here is link to paper written by Steven Metz in 1993 on the "Future of Insurgency" I read it some time ago but I read it again very good paper. Read and then read Brave New War and find on Mr. Metz was figuring this out in 93 but not to many were listening. especially like the terms Spiritual Insurgency and Commercial Insurgency. Best price on the net free download

    http://www.strategicstudiesinstitute...les/PUB344.pdf

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    I mm landing in MNF-I HQs in 3-4 days, so I've been mainly going through LtGen Mattis's MARCENT reading list (I'm pretty sure SWC has a link to it) and the host of books on Iraq and COIN. Coming as a planner from one staff (III MEF in Okinawa) to another staff, two recent reads that I think may be helpful are:

    Strategic Assessment in War by Scott Gartner (1997)-Gartner gives an interesting analysis of how war leaders use key indicators to base significant decisions upon. He doesn't argue about whether the indicators are correct, but he finds that its mainly the rate of change of an indicator significantly changes that decisions are made (for good or bad), not when they reach some plateau, etc.

    How to Lie With Statistics by Darrell Huff (1954)-A small classic in its field. Anyone subjected to, or involved with, the intersection of EBO and powerpoint should be required to read this.

    For just a good read on leadership and the chemistry involved in creating new military formations, I recently read Ridgeway's Paratroopers by Clay Blair (1985).

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    Quote Originally Posted by slapout9 View Post
    Here is link to paper written by Steven Metz in 1993 on the "Future of Insurgency" I read it some time ago but I read it again very good paper. Read and then read Brave New War and find on Mr. Metz was figuring this out in 93 but not to many were listening. especially like the terms Spiritual Insurgency and Commercial Insurgency. Best price on the net free download

    http://www.strategicstudiesinstitute...les/PUB344.pdf
    Yea, but he was on drugs.

  5. #65
    Council Member Ken White's Avatar
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    Default Possibly true but there are a few others that

    are equally good...

    Hopefully, he learned that long term use is bad for the circulatory system. Or is it the lymphatic system? Something, I forget... I'm old...

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    I just read one of the most peculiar books on the US military.

    It's called "The Men Who Stare at Goats" and it's about, well, a whole bunch of off the wall stuff such as psychics, the "first earth battalion" and weird interrogation techniques.

    Seems to be based around a guy named MG Stubblebine who was the Army G2 in the early 80's.

    Weird, and I can't believe most of the stuff is true. Anyone ever heard of this sort of thing going on?
    "Speak English! said the Eaglet. "I don't know the meaning of half those long words, and what's more, I don't believe you do either!"

    The Eaglet from Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland

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    Council Member SteveMetz's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ski View Post
    I just read one of the most peculiar books on the US military.

    It's called "The Men Who Stare at Goats" and it's about, well, a whole bunch of off the wall stuff such as psychics, the "first earth battalion" and weird interrogation techniques.

    Seems to be based around a guy named MG Stubblebine who was the Army G2 in the early 80's.

    Weird, and I can't believe most of the stuff is true. Anyone ever heard of this sort of thing going on?
    I think there was a Marine version of that as well. It was called "The Men Who Date Goats."

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    Here's a slightly less sensationalized view of the same subject matter:

    Unconventional Human Intelligence Support: Transcendent and Asymmetric Warfare Implications of
    Remote Viewing

    From 1972 until 1995, United States military and intelligence organizations conducted paranormal research and operations involving a process known as remote viewing. Remote viewing is generally recognized within the scientific community as the psychic ability to access and provide accurate information, regardless of distance, shielding or time, about people, places, objects or events inaccessible through any normally recognized means. Official confirmation of government participation in such research occurred in 1995 when a small portion of the voluminous classified research material was made publicly available via the Freedom of Information Act.

    Paranormal research, involving parapsychological and psychical functioning (PSI), has been perceived as a controversial field by American academia and scientific communities who have met its reported results with outright dismissal, skepticism, or methodological criticism. Since both the military and the intelligence agencies pursue efforts deemed acceptable risks, their involvement with remote viewing, therefore, sparks curiosity. What made the risk of potential ridicule by association acceptable? This paper reviews remote viewing's evolution, examines why and how the United States military and intelligence agencies became involved in its controversial application as a unique HUMINT support method, and explores its, heretofore, unrecognized status as an important and possibly revolutionary form of warfare with asymmetrical implications.

  9. #69
    Council Member Dominique R. Poirier's Avatar
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    Default Eclectic tastes.

    Both at the same time, depending the mood of the moment:

    - Spy Wars - Moles, Mysteries, and Deadly Games, by Tennent H. Bagley.
    - Movies - A Psychological Study, by Martha Wolfestein and Nathan Leites.
    - Espionnage Business - Guerre Economique et Renseignement, by Jean Jacques Cecile (A French book. Don't know whether it is available in English.)

  10. #70
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    BWAAAAHHAAAAA! LMAO! Nice one Steve!


    Quote Originally Posted by SteveMetz View Post
    I think there was a Marine version of that as well. It was called "The Men Who Date Goats."
    "Speak English! said the Eaglet. "I don't know the meaning of half those long words, and what's more, I don't believe you do either!"

    The Eaglet from Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland

  11. #71
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ski View Post
    BWAAAAHHAAAAA! LMAO! Nice one Steve!
    Someone said T.X. Hammes lurks here, so I'm trying to smoke him out.

  12. #72
    Council Member slapout9's Avatar
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    Default Suspect X

    There was a movie made about this called "Suspect Zero" with Ben Kingsley as an FBI agent that does this. Based loosely on allegations that the FBI was involved in (Remote Viewing) this also. Should be out on DVD. There is a website I found once where you can order the remote Viewing kits if you want to try it yourself. Just let the SWC know when you find out where Bin Laden is hiding.

    Here is the link for your Remote Viewing supplies and training also a short video of a Remote Viewing test by a TV station.

    http://www.remoteviewing.com/movies/...=wmv&speed=300

    Correction: title of the movie is "Suspect Zero"
    Last edited by slapout9; 06-28-2007 at 10:34 AM. Reason: fix stuff and post link

  13. #73
    Council Member Tom Odom's Avatar
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    Default Lee Marvin's brother

    Quote Originally Posted by Ski View Post
    I just read one of the most peculiar books on the US military.

    It's called "The Men Who Stare at Goats" and it's about, well, a whole bunch of off the wall stuff such as psychics, the "first earth battalion" and weird interrogation techniques.

    Seems to be based around a guy named MG Stubblebine who was the Army G2 in the early 80's.

    Weird, and I can't believe most of the stuff is true. Anyone ever heard of this sort of thing going on?
    He spoke at my advance course graduation. I had a senior officer tell me about the spoon bending.

    And yes he is Lee Marvin's brother--he made a joke about his brother's palimony battles when he spoke to us.

    Tom

  14. #74
    Council Member Tom Odom's Avatar
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    Default Read an Old Friend

    I read Stirlings Desert Raiders when I was a kid. And I picked up a reprint in 1985 and packed it around for 22 years before reading it (again) on the flight to Kansas this week.

    Funny thing was that I had been to many of the places referred to in the book, like Kabrit which is in the Sinai along the Bitter Lakes and had a Bar-Lev line position when I was there in the mid to late 80s. Also the book resonated more after 20 + years of developing an understanding just how hard it is to change a military. That Stirlling did it at age 24 is truly remarkable.

    Tom

  15. #75
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    Default Reading List

    Reading -

    On Strategy: A Critical Analysis of the Vietnam War H.G. Summers

    The Third Wave A. Toffler

    Clausewitz R. Parkinson

    Jut finished -

    The Interrogator's War: Inside the Secret War Against Al Qaeda C. Mackey with G. Miller.

    Found it to be a very informative and a little easier to read than the other three but a real eye opener. Recommended.

  16. #76
    Council Member SteveMetz's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Tc2642 View Post
    Reading -

    On Strategy: A Critical Analysis of the Vietnam War H.G. Summers

    The Third Wave A. Toffler

    Clausewitz R. Parkinson

    Jut finished -

    The Interrogator's War: Inside the Secret War Against Al Qaeda C. Mackey with G. Miller.

    Found it to be a very informative and a little easier to read than the other three but a real eye opener. Recommended.
    On Strategy was written in the office next to mine.

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    Making a Killing: The Explosive Story of a Hired Gun in Iraq
    by James Ashcroft

    http://www.amazon.co.uk/Making-Killi.../dp/1852273119

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    The Places In Between by Rory Stewart. Scotsman's walk from Herat to Kabul 2002. Very big on cultural geography. Wish I had read it before going to Afghanistan.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Old Eagle
    The Places In Between by Rory Stewart. Scotsman's walk from Herat to Kabul 2002. Very big on cultural geography. Wish I had read it before going to Afghanistan.
    I just picked that one up, but haven't read it yet. I recently read his Prince of the Marshes, which I really enjoyed, having spent a bit of time in the same areas of Iraq during the same time-frame. The style of writing has faint echoes of that of the memoirs of Brit political officers who served in Iraq in the '20s.

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    I'm reading available essays and pamphlets by Mahmud Es'ad Cosan on Sufism trying to focus in on the Naqshbandi sect

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