Steve:

Agree with your post especially that too many folks take the SWM out of its context and turn it into a "how to" manual for today's conflicts.

Problem with it, Steve, as I see things is that nobody has the 1976 version of 100-5 (active defense) on reading lists and as "must reads" before deploying to Iraq or Astan. But that Marine SWM has become the latter. And unlike other great works from the past the have an element of timelessness and ongoing relevance to them (eg., Thuycidies, Clausewitz, Callwell, Lawrence, to name a few) the Marine SWM really is a situational, historical text and should be read that way.

gian