Thanks for the initial thoughts!Originally Posted by Red Rat
I've got this coming in the mail, which I'll update folks on if anyone's interested. SOG has always been an interest of mine, and this looks to be either good or hugely disappointing...
Thanks for the initial thoughts!
I've got this coming in the mail, which I'll update folks on if anyone's interested. SOG has always been an interest of mine, and this looks to be either good or hugely disappointing...
"On the plains and mountains of the American West, the United States Army had once learned everything there was to learn about hit-and-run tactics and guerrilla warfare."
T.R. Fehrenbach This Kind of War
Sure, keep us updated. That was “back when the Green Beanies were cool,” as a veteran of the 82nd who I once worked with informed me.I've got this coming in the mail, which I'll update folks on if anyone's interested. SOG has always been an interest of mine, and this looks to be either good or hugely disappointing...
If you don’t read the newspaper, you are uninformed; if you do read the newspaper, you are misinformed. – Mark Twain (attributed)
Just finished Red Sparrow: A Novel by Jason Matthews, which is an espionage thriller centered on present-day Russia and the CIA vs SVR spy-war. This is an excellent novel from a debut novelist, who just so happens to have also served 33 years in the Directorate of Operations at the agency. Matthews was a denied area operations specialist and station chief in several locations.
In-short, Jason Matthews has taken his significant real-world expertise and gift for the written-word and created a first rate spy novel. I recommend Red Sparrow to anyone who considers themselves a fan of the genre.
“[S]omething in his tone now reminded her of his explanations of asymmetric warfare, a topic in which he had a keen and abiding interest. She remembered him telling her how terrorism was almost exclusively about branding, but only slightly less so about the psychology of lotteries…” - Zero History, William Gibson
Years ago a bought an out of print book about Marines in WWI called Make the Keiser Dance. Look around for it and if it is something you really want to read, but can not find let me know and we might be able to arrange something.
hey gute,
At Amazon.
Thank you for the ref.
Regards
Mike
I just finished War Comes to Garmser by Carter Malkasian.
http://www.amazon.com/War-Comes-Garm...mes+to+garmser
Everybody who hasn't actually been to Afghanistan, and I don't mean a big base somewhere, must stop reading whatever they are reading and read this book. Right now. For its conflict, this is as good as The Village. The author aspired to emulate War Comes to Long An. It has been a long time since I read that book but I remember how impressed I was with it and how it seem to shine a light on what had been dark. This book strikes me as the same.
The great thing about this book is it is about the Afghans. There stories and their names constitute most of the story. At the same time the British and the Americans are part of the story, a big part, but always as a influence on what is happening amongst the Afghans, not as the main show.
The author says three things give the Taliban an opening in Garmser, political infighting amongst the leaders of the dominant tribes, the sanctuary provided by Pakistan and the social disruption caused by the canal project. Taliaban's main support comes from mullahs who were elevated politically by them and poor immigrants who had no firm title to the land they stayed on. The story of how this all came to be is related in a way that is understandable. By the end of the book keeping track of mullah Naim vs Abdullah Jan (now he was something, a Magsaysay type) vs Omar Jan is a natural thing, as it probably should be when viewing this conflict.
One of the main points made in the book that I found surprising was that one of the very great strengths of the Taliban was not that they were furthering the interests of the Pushtuns, the conflict in Garmser was basically Pushtun vs Pushtun. The advantage over the Afghan gov was that Taliban was a hierarchical, disciplined organization with clear chains of command. There was one boss who decided and was responsible for an area. That was not the case with the Afghan gov (and not with us from what I've read) and it made a huge difference.
Another thing that struck me was something similar I read in Owen West's The Snake Eaters. In both books, on the eve of something important and good happening, the spec ops types did a night raid and 'effed everything up, to the extent people died who should not have died. The Afghans did not like night raids and repeatedly stated that to the author.
An additional point Malkasian makes is that things were not written over there and some of the bad things that happened happened because of things we did and decisions we made. A case in point is the woefully slow growth of the Afghan Army. In the 5 years between 2001 and 2006 only 36,000 troops were raised so there was nothing much to oppose the Taliban offensive of 2006.
I could go on and on but this is a great book and people should read it.
"We fight, get beat, rise, and fight again." Gen. Nathanael Greene
Berry has two other books out as well dealing with Marines in World War II and Korea. Both are excellent.
"On the plains and mountains of the American West, the United States Army had once learned everything there was to learn about hit-and-run tactics and guerrilla warfare."
T.R. Fehrenbach This Kind of War
(Not) The Art of Intelligence
Hank Crumpton's explanation of espionage and covert action. Crumpton was a long-time member of the Former Directorate of Operations at CIA. Thinking about working the book into one of my intel courses.
His tactical descriptions of HUMINT ops is pretty graphic. I'm a little surprised they got cleared.
His description of the initial deployment into Afgh is also very interesting. I recommend coupling it w/Gary Schroen's First In, Gary Berntsen's Jawbreaker rant and Bob Woodward's Bush at War. Maybe by comparing multiple sources you might get a clearer picture of the action. I'm still looking for a good military book on the same op.
To my way of thinking, there are some loose ends that never quite get tied up, but the book still deserves critical reading.
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