What Are You Currently Reading? 2007

[Tom Odom]

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

[Norfolk]

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?

[slapout9]

Norfolk, can you post the link to the paper? Thanks

[Tom Odom]

Gary did a special study on them. Scott McMichaels used them in his light infantry study.

Best

Tom

[slapout9]

Thanks Tom got them all now. Slap

[Norfolk]

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

[jcustis]

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.