What Are You Currently Reading? 2007

[T. Jefferson]

I should have listed Fred's book in my queue as well. I wrote a letter to the editor of the Weekly Standard about Fred's most recent Iraq essay for them. I hope they run it next issue. Here's what it said,

I've just read Frederick Kagan's "The New Old Thing" in the June 11 issue. While I normally agree with Fred on most things, I take issue with his argument that the Abizaid-Casey strategy which focused on training Iraqi forces "failed" and the current approach of using American forces to protect Iraqi civilians is better. I base this on the history of insurgency over the past fifty years. In almost every instance where insurgents succeeded, the immediate precipitant was not violence against civilians, but a collapse of will on the part of local security forces. The key is not whether Iraqi security forces can themselves substitute for American forces in short term, but that they retain their morale, and coherence. That should be our primary goal over the next few years. Perhaps the Abizaid-Casey strategy was not the best way to assure that. If so, we should adjust our efforts to bolster the Iraqi security forces, not abandon them.

I certainly agree that we ought not to abandon Iraqi security forces in general. The main question seems to be where and how to utilize our limited resources both military and political. Seems to me that only have a very small window left in which to effect many desperately needed changes.

[Ironhorse]

I recently read John Stewart's (et al) America.

T. Jefferson, great work on the forward. That was sheer & epic genius. That and the paragraph summarizing the working of Congress were Pullitzer material.

[Abu Buckwheat]

Now that I finished my book on Iraq I am taking a look at some others ... I am almost finished Assassin's Gate ... I ran across this guy and the charachters in that book so many times its like reading my own Iraq bio! Excellent book in my very biased estimation.

[SteveMetz]

Now that I finished my book on Iraq I am taking a look at some others ... I am almost finished Assassin's Gate ... I ran across this guy and the charachters in that book so many times its like reading my own Iraq bio! Excellent book in my very biased estimation.

How about come over here and finish *my* Iraq book then! I've got 300 pages and am waiting to hear if Potomac Press wants to sign it.

I sat next to Packer at the Chilis in Leavenworth during the famous February 2006 meeting to vet 3-24. Brilliant guy. I loved his piece on Kilcullen in last December 18th New Yorker. And I even made brownie points with my teenager who was impressed that I had dinner with someone who had been on the Daily Show a few weeks earlier.

If you haven't read it, I think Ron Suskind's The One Percent Doctrine is one of the most important books to come out over the past few years.

[Abu Buckwheat]

How about come over here and finish *my* Iraq book then! I've got 300 pages and am waiting to hear if Potomac Press wants to sign it.

Good luck with Potomac. I got told that no one wanted to read a book on the insurgents... by nine publishers over two years. Said Iraq was unmarketable and not likely to last as a political subject! However they all wanted a personal narrative story of my time in the Palace!

I loved the sourcing in the One Percent Doctrine but hated his writing ... terrible prose.

[SteveMetz]

Good luck with Potomac. I got told that no one wanted to read a book on the insurgents... by nine publishers over two years. Said Iraq was unmarketable and not likely to last as a political subject! However they all wanted a personal narrative story of my time in the Palace!

I loved the sourcing in the One Percent Doctrine but hated his writing ... terrible prose.

The project Potomac is looking at isn't really about the insurgency per se. It's called Iraq and the Evolution of American Strategy and looks at the way we used our conflict with Iraq as a lesson and a model from at least 1991 on. In other words, it first drove RMA thinking and transformation in the Cebrowski/Owens mode, then drove a revised version of transformation that we're in the midst of today.

My Learning From Iraq will be one chapter.

[jonSlack]

Since March I have managed to find time to read "God's Terrorists" by Charles Allen, a biography on Orde Wingate titled "Fire in the Night", "Banker to the Poor" by Muhammad Yunus, a biography of Mike Calvert titled "Mad Mike," Farwell's "Mr. Kipling's Army," and Chuck Palahniuk's "Survivor." I also read a smattering of articles and essays from various authors from sources such as Foreign Policy and The Atlantic to include Huntington's "Clash of Civilizations" essay from Foreign Affairs and Fukayama's essay "The End of History."

Right now I am taking a break from military history and working my way through Lord of the Rings for the first time. I should finish the Two Towers today or tomorrow and then move right along into the Return of the King. Next is either going to be Charles Allen's "Soldier Sahibs" or "Brave New War" if it finally gets here.

I highly recommend both "God's Terrorists" and "Fire in the Night." "God's Terrorists" centers on the origins, development, and history of militant Sunni Islam in the Indian subcontinent and the development of Wahabism in Saudi Arabia and its spread and impact on the Indian subcontinent and the rest of the world. The book ends in modern times with the rise of the Taliban and AQ in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

As mentioned above, "Fire in the Night" is a biography of Orde Wingate. It chronicles his entire life but specifically centers on his service in Palestine, Ethopia, and finally Burma. While his service and accomplishments in those three theaters were very interesting and remarkable. However, also interesting are the authors' coverage of Wingate as an individual including his eccentricities, some of which made me laugh out loud a number of times and also lead me wonder how an officer like Wingate would fare in the US Army today. One especially humorous, but not atypical, incident involved Wingate's packing list on a reconnaissance flight of Italian controlled Ethopia which consisted of nothing but "a large piece of cheese, an onion, and an old-fashioned alarm clock with a bell and carrying handle." Following the completion of the recon, when asked why he carried the alarm clock, Wingate responded by announcing "Because wrist watches are no damned good - they never work."

[BScully]

Just finished reading Cobra II and Imperial Grunts. Just started one from Tom Odom's reading list...The True Believer by Eric Hoffer. So far a very interesting read. Next up is Shake Hands with the Devil by Dallaire, also from Tom's list.

Not a book, but extremely good (and from Tom's list) I also read T.E. Lawrence's The Evolution of a Revolt.

Brian

[Tom Odom]

How about come over here and finish *my* Iraq book then! I've got 300 pages and am waiting to hear if Potomac Press wants to sign it.

I sat next to Packer at the Chilis in Leavenworth during the famous February 2006 meeting to vet 3-24. Brilliant guy. I loved his piece on Kilcullen in last December 18th New Yorker. And I even made brownie points with my teenager who was impressed that I had dinner with someone who had been on the Daily Show a few weeks earlier.

If you haven't read it, I think Ron Suskind's The One Percent Doctrine is one of the most important books to come out over the past few years.

I really enjoyed Packer's insights on the evolution of the neo-cons and their rise to influence. Pages 30-31 are especially interesting.

His writings on Chalabi are on the mark; funny that we dismissed pretty much out of hand in the early 90s reports sourced to the "Iraqi resistance". Packer's book does much to explain how that all changed.

Tom

[Culpeper]

I recently read John Stewart's (et al) America.

T. Jefferson, great work on the forward. That was sheer & epic genius. That and the paragraph summarizing the working of Congress were Pullitzer material.

I have a copy of that book. My sister in San Francisco sent it to me for Christmas. She gets all her news from John Stewart. She seems very happy. No joke.

[Stevely]

I just finished Brave New War and recently before that, My Life Among the Deathworks by Philip Rieff, which is long and depressing indictment against modern anti-culture, written by a member of the culture establishment (professor of art and sociology IIRC at UVa, recently deceased). Unfortunately Rieff spent too much time in the belly of the beast, and his writing has much of the stilted, somewhat disjointed, jargon-ridden style found amongst po-mo culture types, but it was a rewarding read nonetheless. I will post something about it when I have the time/ energy. Probably join the BNW discussion at some point, too...

Currently reading Jesus of Nazareth by Pope Benedict.

[Old Eagle]

Just re-read The Ugly American. I still have my 55cent original copy. Lederer & Burdick use irony in the title, of course, because the chapter on the "ugly American" is actually about a true hero, while many of the beautiful people are really the ugly ones. Military comes off pretty well.

Gotta re-read Hofer now that Tom has dredged that out of my memory.

[goesh]

The Little Green Book: Sayings of Ayatollah Khomeini

[Ski]

Mostly focused on Master's degree related reading:

Stonewall in the Valley by Robert Tanner
Maurice's Strategikon translated by George Dennis
Warfare, State and Society in the Byzantine World, 565-1204 by John Haldon
Storm of Steel by Mary Habeck
The Training of Officers by Martin Van Creveld (have read this many times)
Technology and War by Martin Van Creveld
The Russian Way of War, Operational Art 1904-1940 by Richard Harrison

[Culpeper]

Mostly focused on Master's degree related reading:

Stonewall in the Valley by Robert Tanner
Maurice's Strategikon translated by George Dennis
Warfare, State and Society in the Byzantine World, 565-1204 by John Haldon
Storm of Steel by Mary Habeck
The Training of Officers by Martin Van Creveld (have read this many times)
Technology and War by Martin Van Creveld
The Russian Way of War, Operational Art 1904-1940 by Richard Harrison

I once read, "I Rode with Stonewall"; by Henry K. Douglas. It is interesting due to the fact that he wrote in basically real time and doesn't describe battles necessarily by the names we are now familiar with.