With suppliers like this who needs enemies?

U.S. Military Weapons Inscribed with Secret "Jesus" Bible Codes.

No massacre investigation

I read about this when I was doing my research for my MA. It's unfortunate that there won't be anything official. UK 'rejects' Malaya deaths appeal.

Guerrilla Warfare: A Historical and Critical Study by Walter Laqueur

Guerrilla Warfare: A Historical and Critical Study by Walter Laqueur attempts to do what the title says. I'll give Laqueur credit some of the theorists and examples he discusses are those that are so obscure I haven't heard of them even though I've been studying the topic for 4 years now. That being said there are some major problems with his work. The most glaring is one of definitions. His idea of Guerrillas is so broad that it includes such groups as Baader-Meinhof and FLQ. To my mind this makes the term almost useless. These are groups that barely made it into phase one. He also strikes me as trying his hardest to be contrary. He frequently breaks with the standard view on various topics such as the utility of guerrillas in Yugoslavia during the Second World War with little or no evidence. In short borrow it from the library and copy the bibliography.

Not recommended.

Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq by Thomas E. Ricks

Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq by Thomas E. Ricks is a history of the attack and occupation of Iraq through 06. Ricks a reporter for the Washington Post has done extensive research and interviews with the major players. This is an excellent look at the failures that started happening just after 9/11. He argues that the initial war plan lacked a strategic focus which is something I hadn't considered before. He makes a convincing case for that. Most of the book is taken up with the occupation including the torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib. The 4th Infantry Division is held up as an example of what not to do in a counterinsurgency. Treat the entire population like enemies. If you do this it's a self fulfilling prophecy. There are endnotes and a bibliography.

The history of the occupation of Iraq is still in flux. This is an excellent work for the moment I'm not sure how well it will hold up 5 or 10 years down the road but if you're looking for something to read now you could do much worse than this.

Highly recommended!

Fifteen Days: Stories of Bravery, Friendship, Life and Death from Inside the New Canadian Army by Christie Blatchford

Fifteen Days: Stories of Bravery, Friendship, Life and Death from Inside the New Canadian Army by Christie Blatchford is a book on Task Force Orion that served in Afghanistan in 2006. Blatchford a journalist for the Globe and Mail has here basically done one long newspaper piece. She pulled out 15 days that she considers significant and writes about them providing back story. Now I'm treating this like a piece of military history because that's my background. That being said it can be rather frustrating and places. Most of the stories involve death or serious injury to Canadians. There's no real sense that what we're being told about is at all. typical of operations. In places the book almost comes off like a series of obituaries. That being said the stories of combat are riveting I only wish there could have been a little more.

This is up for a Governor General’s Literary Award should it win? Honestly I have no idea but if you're interested in the Afghanistan mission this is part of the first crop of books that deal with the combat experience for the CF.

Mildly recommended!

Note: this book was provided through Mini Book Expo.

Decent Interval: An Insider's Account Of Saigon's Indecent End by Frank Snepp

Decent Interval: An Insider's Account Of Saigon's Indecent End by Frank Snepp. This is the memoirs of a CIA analyst stationed in the US embassy. The publication of the book caused a long-standing legal battle that the CIA eventually won. Snepp lost all royalties to the book. The fact that the CIA took him to court would suggest that there's some explosive details inhere. It does not disappoint.

Snepp points out that both in the US Embassy and Washington there was an unwillingness to deal with reality particularly on the part of the ambassador and Kissinger. Kissinger comes off extremely badly as a doubledealing control freak. The CIA doesn't do much better. They were perfectly willing to massage intelligence when necessary. Snepp frequently was told to fudge up reports. I found it rather disconcerting how willing he was to do so.

The last quarter of the book describes the last day in Saigon. The scenes of panic and terror are gripping. The often difficult ethical choices people on all sides had to make are heart stopping.

Highly recommended!

Beyond Shock and Awe: Warfare in the 21st Century edited by Eric L. Haney and Brian M. Thomsen

Beyond Shock and Awe: Warfare in the 21st Century edited by Eric L. Haney and Brian M. Thomsen is a very hit and miss selection of essays on current American doctrine debates. The section on the history of technology centric high tempo fighting is interesting. The section on Iraq is a decent enough summary. If you're new to the debate then you'll learn something if you've been paying attention you probably won't. The section on the future of warfare is rather silly. Rather strange for there to be criticisms throughout the history and current affairs section of technology centric doctrine then to have future analysis based around technology. There's also a essay defending the Bush administration's military tribunals and giving suggestions on how they can appear to be more just as opposed to you know actually being just.

Not recommended!

The Tiger's Way: A U.S. Private's Best Chance for Survival by H. John Poole

The Tiger's Way: A U.S. Private's Best Chance for Survival by H. John Poole is a how-to/call to arms book on small unit tactics. Poole a former Marine believes that the American military is to interested in firepower and technology as opposed to rifleman skills.

The technology-heavy US military led from the rear is contrasted with "Eastern militaries" that gives all soldiers tactical training on concealment, silent killing, reconnaissance and night fighting. Eastern militaries are the Soviet, Chinese, North Korean, Japanese Vietnamese and Germans from World War I through World War II. There are frequent references to both historical battles as well as examples of training and strategy from textbooks. Interestingly his historical analysis helps explain some things I hadn't realized about the Korean war. Particularly the use of tunnels to go underneath American units to appear in the rear.

My one major criticism is that Poole seems to have swallowed ninja myths without much skepticism. He even includes such strange ideas of soldiers becoming invisible and being able to mind control opposition forces. Because he is interested in giving tactical advice the book can be hard to read. There's not much narrative here.

There are appendices with suggestions for new training techniques and a bibliography.

Recommended with caveats.

Is available through Abebooks.

Counterinsurgency Warfare by John S. Pustay

Counterinsurgency Warfare by John S. Pustay is an attempt to come up with a policy for the West. This was published in the early 1960s before widespread involvement in Vietnam. Some of Pustay's analysis on tactics and strategy is quite interesting. He obviously agrees with the British school. The book is hamstrung by some bizarre concepts. Third World nationalism is apparently not valid real nationalism. This is just bizarre. His solution for American policymakers is to create a thoroughly convoluted bureaucracy [Well it was the 1960s]. He even lays out who will chair the committee at different times. I rather doubt the complex setup he suggested would work in practice. The author was in the Air Force so he does have some interesting things to say about aircraft usage during an insurgency.

Recommended as an interesting relic of counterinsurgency theory before Vietnam.

For more reviews take a look at My Insurgency/Counterinsurgency, Partisan and Guerrilla Warfare bookshelf.

The U.S. Army/Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Field Manual Forewords by John A. Nagl, David H. Petraeus, James F. Amos

The U.S. Army/Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Field Manual Forewords by John A. Nagl, David H. Petraeus, James F. Amos this is the current manual published by Chicago press. The introductory material contains a discussion of American policy or lack thereof as well as a description of the writing process well worth the cost of the book. The manual itself is what one would expect. The British school of counterinsurgency seems to have strongly influenced this. There's some not very subtle criticisms of the strategy used in the Vietnam War. I wouldn't recommend reading at cover to cover its rather hard going rather a thematic chapter at a time could be easier. No counterinsurgency or Iraq bookshelf would be complete without this.

Highly recommended!

For more reviews take a look at My Insurgency/Counterinsurgency, Partisan and Guerrilla Warfare bookshelf.

Muscat Command by Peter Thwaites and Simon Sloane

Muscat Command by Peter Thwaites and Simon Sloane is a memoir of Thwaites's time as commander of Oman's military. This took place during the insurgency in Oman. The insurgents supported by Yemen and the Chinese attempted to overthrow the government. Much of the discussion is about Thwaites going out on patrols and trying to get the Sultan to develop an actual hearts and minds strategy. He's rather opinionated about the other British services that were supposed to assist particularly the Air Force. A very interesting piece on a little-known conflict. The final chapter written by Sloane after Thwaites's death give some perspective on what his personnel thought of him. The book has several appendices including reports and more letters discussing Thwaites.

Highly recommended!

Is available through Abebooks.

Inside the VC and the NVA by Michael Lee Lanning and Dan Cragg

Inside the VC and the NVA by Michael Lee Lanning and Dan Cragg is a study on the soldiers of the North Vietnamese. The book deals with training, tactics, logistics and recruitment. Most of the research was gathered from POW interrogations and captured material such as letters and diaries. The book is excellent at describing day-to-day experiences. There's an extensive section of excerpts from a survey sent to US personnel giving their opinions on the North Vietnamese. Unfortunately there are some strange choices. There's some gratuitous whining about campus liberals and the media which seems out of place and the book concludes with a summary of the Chinese Vietnamese conflict. I'm not really sure what this had to do with discussing the soldiers experiences.

Recommended with caveats.

For reviews take a look at My Insurgency/Counterinsurgency, Partisan and Guerrilla Warfare bookshelf.

Make for the Hills: Memories of Far Eastern Wars by Sir. Robert Thompson

Make for the Hills: Memories of Far Eastern Wars by Sir. Robert Thompson is the autobiography of this counterinsurgency expert. He was the RAF liaison with the Chindits in Burma. He was a supporter of Wingate in the postwar controversies. After the war he rejoined the Malayan civil service and helped defeat the Communists during the Malay emergency. He was then off to Vietnam providing expertise to the British and US government's. Particularly Richard Nixon. There is some "I told you so" but it's done in a rather unoffensive way. Although I tend to agree with his analysis so that probably helps. There's quite a bit here on the failure of the Americans to change their style of war fighting to defeat insurgency. If you are at all interested in counterinsurgency this is a necessary book on your bookshelf.

Highly recommended!

For more WWII book reviews Take a look at My World War II bookshelf.

For reviews take a look at My Insurgency/Counterinsurgency, Partisan and Guerrilla Warfare bookshelf.

Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone by Rajiv Chandrasekaran

Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone by Rajiv Chandrasekaran is a history of the CPA [Coalition Provisional Authority]. This is a catalog of the various fiascoes and disasters that took place from the fall of Baghdad to June 28, 2004. The one overpowering flaw was that staffing was done on an ideological litmus test. Democrats need not apply. Unfortunately this pretty much destroyed the chance of getting competent people in. Those that were competent were unable to function. There was never an attempt to deal with the big picture mainly security everything was micromanaged. For instance import controls on cars were removed without realizing that there was not enough gasoline refining capacity. This is a superb book..

Highly recommended!

Is available through Abebooks.


For more Iraq book reviews take a look at My Iraq bookshelf.

For reviews take a look at My Insurgency/Counterinsurgency, Partisan and Guerrilla Warfare bookshelf.

Superb US soldiers blog from Iraq

Truly excellent stuff, Army of Dude.

Regular Armies and Insurgency edited by Ronald Haycock

Regular Armies and Insurgency edited by Ronald Haycock is the proceedings of a conference held at the Royal Military College of Canada in 1978. Papers include those written by some of the big names at the time such as Alistair Horne and Sir Robert Thompson. Coverage is of the Malayan emergency, Algerian war,Vietnam war, Mexican insurgencies and Irish Civil War. The papers are pretty short. There isn't much here that will surprise but they do provide excellent summaries. Chapters contain endnotes and suggestions for further reading.

Recommended!

Is available through Abebooks.



For reviews take a look at My Insurgency/Counterinsurgency, Partisan and Guerrilla Warfare bookshelf.

Battle Ready by Tom Clancy with Tony Zinni and Tony Koltz

Battle Ready by Tom Clancy with Tony Zinni and Tony Koltz is the memoirs of General Tony Zinni USMC Retired the American soldier probably most famous for being write about the troop levels needed in post-Saddam Iraq. Zinni was an adviser to a South Vietnamese Marine unit in Vietnam where he was badly wounded from their he moved through various posts in the United States Marine Corps's ranks. Perhaps most interesting was his time running a security detachment on Okinawa [a US base at the time] at the height of the racial troubles in the 1970s. He was involved in the protection of the Kurds after the first gulf war as well as the American involvement in Somalia. He would eventually lead Central Command during the late 1990s then attempt to broker an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement.

The book seems to be based on oral interviews that Clancy ties together. This makes it rather disjointed. The narrative will stop for several first-person remarks from Zinni in italics then continue. The book seems almost like a PR exercise at times. We're being constantly told how outspoken he was but there really isn't anything controversial. He seems to have been on the "winning" side of most arguments.

He glosses over incidents such as the mistaken attack on a pharmaceuticals manufacturer after the US embassy bombings. Shrugging it off by saying it was good intelligence. We don't really learn much about him personally. There isn't even the often brief discussions of wife and family that are normal for military memoirs.

The last 20 pages lays out his perspectives on low-intensity conflict as well as future threats and the necessary changes the military will have to go through. This is excellent I only wish it could have been more of the book.

Recommended with caveats.

Is available through Abebooks.

Harry is not going

So Harry is not going. Can't say I'm shocked with the decision or the rhetoric. "It was the media's fault". So why exactly did they waste all that time and money if he was just going to patrol a desk somewhere.?

Saddam's Iraq like today's Iraq for doctors anyway

According to this Washington Post story the current Iraqi administration in their infinite wisdom has started refusing to give out diplomas and transcripts to prevent doctors from leaving the country. This is something Saddam did.

Nouri al-Maliki is really getting desperate. I rather doubt this will have much effect. Apparently most refugees from Iraq aren't exactly doing white-collar jobs in their new country's anyway. But here are the statistics from the Iraqi Medical Association that were in the article.

The Iraqi Medical Association, with which all physicians must register to practice, estimates that at least one-third of the country's 40,000 or so doctors have fled to Jordan, Syria and other countries. Waleed Khalid, the association's vice president, said the organization issues 30 to 50 "certificates of good standing" to Iraqi physicians every day -- forms that any doctor must have to work abroad, he said.

Interesting historical note. One of the final attempts of the Roman Empire in the West to hang on was to attempt to stop people from changing jobs. Suffice it to say it didn't work.

New tanks good idea

It feels good to be right. Now if they had only decided to do this a few months back the equipment could actually be in the field now. Canadian Forces to refresh aging fleet of tanks.