The core arguments of the book are solid, but it suffers from the standard advocacy book/popular nonfiction book problem: filler.
Solid analysis of gloThe core arguments of the book are solid, but it suffers from the standard advocacy book/popular nonfiction book problem: filler.
Solid analysis of global security situation facing the US/West, as well as how potential adversaries view the US -- essentially that the world changed around 2003 and we no longer were unrivaled hyperpower. Adversaries co-evolve, both the low end terrorist derived threats and the high end near-peer adversaries. The high-cost, low-casualty forces we have used for wars of occupation don't seem sustainable. In general, he argues for being much more selective in what wars we engage in, more cost-effective platforms, and better selected interventions....more
A good criticism of the failures of American foreign policy (specifically as it focuses on military and diplomatic engagement). Essentially, this is tA good criticism of the failures of American foreign policy (specifically as it focuses on military and diplomatic engagement). Essentially, this is the "military industrial complex" argument of Eisenhower taken to conclusion more than half a century later.
This is reasonably non-partisan; focused mainly on incompetence and failure to actually objectively measure the results of policies....more
Pretty good introduction/summary of the "burn pit" issue -- open air burning of garbage, including toxic materials, on military bases in Iraq/AfghanisPretty good introduction/summary of the "burn pit" issue -- open air burning of garbage, including toxic materials, on military bases in Iraq/Afghanistan, as well as other environmental hazard exposure (chemical weapons, etc.). Parallels to "Gulf War Syndrome" and Agent Orange (Vietnam). I lived on a base near one of these pits (as a contractor) and hope it hasn't increased my disease risk too much. The failure of DOD and VA to help the victims is especially horrible....more
This is about the "perpetual war" and the general US military strategy of using deployments around the globe to be ready for any contingency. Not simpThis is about the "perpetual war" and the general US military strategy of using deployments around the globe to be ready for any contingency. Not simply the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but deployments with friendly countries around the world, overseas training, and more, for both keeping the force capable and deterring adversaries.
The author is very critical of this posture, and of the military generally. One thing he proposes which might be useful is a Global Security Index (GSX) to try to score all actions on whether they improve or make worse security -- not merely military actions but political and logistics and economic decisions as well. I think he underestimates the difficulty in creating such a model, but at a very coarse level it might be possible, and could be useful....more
This book covers the most interesting period of the post-9/11 Afghan war: the first weeks, where CIA and Special Forces were on the ground, working wiThis book covers the most interesting period of the post-9/11 Afghan war: the first weeks, where CIA and Special Forces were on the ground, working with local allies, and rapidly taking territory from the Taliban and isolating Al Qaeda. It was during this stage where we had many choices -- a quick and relatively low cost victory against Al Qaeda, imperfect but pro-American local allies with their own extensive military forces defeating the Taliban and ruling the country, vs. nation-building, and CIA vs. DOD. In retrospect, we seem to have largely made the wrong choices, and I think it was obvious even at the time how bad the paths we were taking were.
Most of the focus of the book is the CIA/SF partnership with Dostum to fight to Mazar-i-Sharif and the prisoner revolt/false surrender at Qala-i-Jangi which led to the death of the first American combatant in the war, Mike Spann of CIA, and those around him, especially David Taylor, also of CIA. The administrative and political issues (CIA vs. DOD, how much to trust allies, human rights concerns, Rumsfeld, light vs. heavy footprint, "combat zone tourists". etc.) all remained issues for the following 20 years, but they were very clear during this early stage....more
Excellent overview of the strategic and policy aspects of US involvement in Afghanistan. Doesn't fall into the trap of focusing on one specific unit, Excellent overview of the strategic and policy aspects of US involvement in Afghanistan. Doesn't fall into the trap of focusing on one specific unit, policy, or commander, but overs the entire 20 year war with the same level of analysis. Nothing in this was particularly surprising to me (I was in Afghanistan for a couple years, and have compulsively read almost everything I can find about the conflict...), but it's an excellent presentation and seems to my experience to be accurate.
The only errors were maybe not applying enough tactical detail in specific areas (the CIA/SF 2001 operations, best covered by First In, and the imperial scale of Bagram and KAF, which I've not seen covered anywhere, and the insane wastefulness of contractor/military operations in building stuff), but there are other books for those details -- for the broad overview, this is probably the best book on the US-Afghanistan war yet written, and probably will be the definitive version for history....more
One of the best books written on the larger (century-long) trends of how technology influences society. Essentially, a focus on how the technology of One of the best books written on the larger (century-long) trends of how technology influences society. Essentially, a focus on how the technology of violence (capex vs. opex, specialist personnel vs. mass armies, materiel vs. human, offense vs. defense) influence structures of governments, and thus overall society. The book goes into agricultural vs. industrial revolutions, changes in European and global structure, but then is primarily focused on the modern era -- the transition from broad-scale mass movement political structures where overall force amount is most relevant, to information-age systems where efficiency is most relevant.
As a consequence, individuals and small groups, which are very efficient but don't have comparable total force levels to existing nation states, will be able to exist as first-class participants in the world. Osama Bin Laden was an example from this book (before 9/11...) of an individual capable of challenging a nation state; plenty of others exist in the commercial and scientific sphere, such as Bill Gates who appears to be more significant in the Covid-19 situation than many governments, and even middle-tier tech companies being more significant than most governments in information/commerce.
This book was written in the early 1990s and has accurately predicted the past 25 years, and seems on track for the rest of the century. The one area not addressed was the rise of China, although this might just be a nationalist rear-guard action as suggested in the book for Western countries facing this change. Otherwise, a book full of highly specific and highly accurate predictions.
The one thing the book got wrong was at the end -- saying "becoming a programmer isn't necessarily the best way to exploit the change toward computerization" -- this was wrong, as it's a very useful skill (even if not one's primary role), in addition to the general problem-solving skills they advocate. I think this was just because the author isn't a technologist and thus doesn't appreciate the skills of programming beyond just rote coding. Otherwise, the book is full of excellent and highly actionable advice....more
A remarkably detailed exploration of life in the worst part of a dumb war. Covers the individual personalities of soldiers in a place which tries to eA remarkably detailed exploration of life in the worst part of a dumb war. Covers the individual personalities of soldiers in a place which tries to eliminate distinction, the inanity of daily life, constant but not consistent mortal peril, and the essential goodness of the men in an essentially inhuman situation.
I can't believe I'd not read this book earlier, but I watched Restrepo which largely covers the same time and place. Both are excellent.
Junger is a truly exceptional writer. Most of what he wrote was naturally unbelievable, but was documented in photos and video by the excellent photojournalist accompanying him (Tim Hetherington), the soldiers, as well as through extensive fact checking and military reports....more
It was interesting learning how uninformed Orwell was before traveling to Spain to risk his life for a bunch of socialists/anarchists (vs. the nationaIt was interesting learning how uninformed Orwell was before traveling to Spain to risk his life for a bunch of socialists/anarchists (vs. the nationalists in opposition, and even more threats from his nominal communist allies). Read this mostly as a counterpoint to another Brit, Peter Kemp's Mine Were of Trouble, told from the Nationalist perspective.
The main lesson is "fuck Communism and Communists", but wow, there were a lot of "useful idiots" on the left at the time too. Throwing away lives through incompetence, applying ideas which were non-functional even in peacetime during wartime, and generally being their own worst enemy. Once the war started, it was pretty much guaranteed to be horrible, but the Spanish Civil War shows why avoiding civil wars is highly desirable.
Very well written. He's a far better writer than soldier (or personal life decision-maker...). Strongly recommend reading this and Kemp (and maybe Hemingway) to understand the experiences, plus a broader overview of the war itself from a more neutral perspective. Lessons for the modern era....more
A book about the origins of the "social justice warrior" on the left. Essentially that it is a union of the "Nietzschean will to power" and the PuritaA book about the origins of the "social justice warrior" on the left. Essentially that it is a union of the "Nietzschean will to power" and the Puritan tradition. That a lot of (nominally secular) modern politics and activism have taken the style of religion seems undeniable.
From Nietzsche, hostility to historical Christianity (and the subset of Western values closely connected with that outside of religion). Instinct, combined with a will to power (over others and the environment).
From the Puritans: egalitarianism, moral absolutism, and a determination to punish those who defy the orthodoxy.
These seem unstable in combination, and the book makes an argument that they probably are, but things can remain bad for a long time.
At the very least the book is thought provoking, as Nietzsche and the Puritans are definitely not who the social justice left would say they're modeled on, but it does fit with the evidence....more
This book is obviously racist and generally horrible morally. It's also significant historically because it was essentially the step by step playbook This book is obviously racist and generally horrible morally. It's also significant historically because it was essentially the step by step playbook for a lot of violent domestic terrorism in the 1980s/1990s, and in particular reads almost as a description of the Oklahoma City Federal Building terrorist bombing 20 years after the book was written.
I can't "rate" the book -- it's in negative numbers on a moral basis (it's...very, very racist), it's probably a 2-3/5 as propaganda for that cause, it's 5/5 as a historical book if you're studying domestic terrorism, and if you somehow removed the racism from the equation and the historical context, it's probably 2/5 as a weird anti-government fantasy.
I'd never read it until Amazon (and others, including Goodreads) tried to ban it. In reading it, I learned a few things, although it's such a distasteful book to read that I wouldn't recommend it.
1) A huge amount of the 1980s/1990s far-right white nationalist activity wasn't just random, but was following a fairly structured program outlined in this book. I don't think the goals are in any way good, but the plan was also a "bad plan" in that it was ineffective. It basically seemed like a documentary of the early 1990s (which is the time the book is set in), despite having been written in the late 1970s. ANFO bombing of a major Government building, financing criminal/terrorist operations through robbery and counterfeiting, etc.
2) As propaganda, it makes little sense, and only appeals to a narrow slice of readers. It's full on hardcore racist from the beginning, rather than using a fictional universe to manipulate events and try to make the reader believe something he didn't already. There's a very limited degree of motivation/justification for the racism of the protagonists (mostly reactionary to other racism by "the System" again them). But, it also fails if you just accept the beliefs of the characters -- a victory won through domestic nuclear terrorism, the destruction of many US cities, international nuclear war, etc. makes little sense as a "goal". If you're going to write a piece of fiction designed to convince something of something they don't already believe, make the end state desirable, at least.
3) As a book, the framing technique worked pretty well (diary of a mid-level guy who does various things and dies at the end). Due to his particular role as a technical expert and instructor, it let the author show (rather than tell) many activities in a cell-structured organization, which otherwise wouldn't have made sense (since cells are supposed to be isolated from one another), and avoided having to introduce lots of other characters.
4) Just because Amazon bans a book doesn't make reading it particularly fun. The book is has always been objectionable and not something I'd want to read. It does make sense to read if you're interested in early 1990s white nationalist domestic terrorism ("The Order"/murder of Alan Berg, but particularly OKC bombing), but generally is still quite unpleasant to read. Still, on balance, banning it is worse than not banning it, and banning it in response to the 6 JAN 2021 capitol event seems crazy (if you wanted to ban it, ban it because of OKC, but that apparently wasn't something people even considered doing back then.)...more
One of the best books written about the Iraq war -- starting in 2001/2002 with the initial hesitating deployment of CIA personnel to work with KDP andOne of the best books written about the Iraq war -- starting in 2001/2002 with the initial hesitating deployment of CIA personnel to work with KDP and PUK in the no-fly zone, and continuing to the beginning of the ground war in 2003. Written by Sam Faddis, who was the head of this operation for CIA,
This book answers a few big questions: why was the initial invasion of Iraq so understaffed, especially in the North (answer: DOD kept wishing Turkey would act against its own long-term interests and repeatedly revealed preferences and support the Kurds, and somehow policymakers never accepted reality and prepared an alternative plan); what was the deal with WMD (CIA on the ground was providing accurate and inconclusive information about WMD, and never found any solid evidence; the internal USG reasons for invading Iraq were not about immediate WMD threat, but WMD threat was used to sell the invasion to the public for political reasons, which had the disadvantage of being a lie); why didn't the Kurds get to do more in the initial war anyway (DOD-CIA rivalry and a political desire to not have the Kurds appear to be invading Arab cities, even when the alternatives were worse); why was the post-invasion so bad (people like Paul Bremer at CPA, genuine incompetence and bureaucracy in Washington, and unwillingness to face reality.)
As you'd expect by a CIA officer, it's well structured, and provides a lot of interesting details of daily life in Kurdistan before the war started. The most comparable book to this is First In by Gary Schroen, who did basically the same thing in Afghanistan with much more success (due to a more supportive US Government and less meddling)....more
This is a novel about a plague and climate change hitting in 2019-2020 written back in 2008, from the perspective of an infantry captain in the U.S. AThis is a novel about a plague and climate change hitting in 2019-2020 written back in 2008, from the perspective of an infantry captain in the U.S. Army. This is a flawed book but still great. Probably the best post-apocalyptic near-term book I've read. Strangely prescient in some ways, strangely flawed in other ways -- a few things were exactly backwards, possibly due to changes in the world between 2008 and today.
It doesn't fall into the weird right-wing novel trap of being a manual for revolution (with lots of detailed instructions, product placements, out of place monologues about philosophy, etc. There's some of that, but it's in-context and appropriate.
Book was written in 2006-2008. There's an obvious Hillary Clinton character as President in 2016-2020. The irony is most of the negative things ascribed to her turned out to be bipartisan (Trump did them as well, and some were Obama-type actions); you could have had the same novel with only insignificant changes written as a left-wing post apocalyptic novel. I guess there are universal forms of bad governance.
There were a lot of really unbelievable situations in the book which were somehow explained and made plausible through the story through other implausible situations, but it was consistently entertaining.
A fair number of technical errors throughout the book -- the author had some military background but only up to E-4, and didn't have really extensive personal knowledge of the geography of the areas involved in the novel, but it was still entertaining....more
Probably the best book about being a security contractor in Iraq that I’ve ever read. Author is a South African who worked for a number of companies (Probably the best book about being a security contractor in Iraq that I’ve ever read. Author is a South African who worked for a number of companies (including one of the largest, Triple Canopy) in a variety of senior operational roles, drawing from his experience in South African Special Operations. Vivid and accurate descriptions about life and challenges; I worked with some of the same companies (as a vendor and client) and in the same places, although doing much less exciting stuff. The only things that are missing are that a lot of the specific incidents described (logistical and bureaucratic challenges) might have been high (or low) points, but the same kind of stuff happened every day to some degree — the “Groundhog Day” aspect wasn’t so clear in the book....more
Mike Hoare's account of supporting the Government of Congo in their fight against communist rebels, by providing a contracted mercenary force, 5 CommaMike Hoare's account of supporting the Government of Congo in their fight against communist rebels, by providing a contracted mercenary force, 5 Commando. Lots of insights about structuring and leading such an operation, the difficulties of operations as a contracted force, geopolitical concerns, and effective military tactics. Mike Hoare is truly an exceptional individual....more
Wow. This describes how FBI has essentially manufactured terror plots using a bunch of idiots, informants, and perverse incentives.
Essentially, most tWow. This describes how FBI has essentially manufactured terror plots using a bunch of idiots, informants, and perverse incentives.
Essentially, most terrorism cases in the US from 2002-now (especially 2002-2016) have been essentially started by tips or other intelligence, then FBI-directed informants working with the "terrorists" to articulate and develop terror plots specifically for the purpose of prosecution. In most cases, the "terrorists" are losers who would be incapable of doing anything serious on their own, although it's possible some of them would "shoot up a bunch of people with a rifle" or something instead of the "blowing up the Sears Tower" plots the FBI informants directed them into. It was almost comical how incompetent most of the "terrorists" are -- incapable of buying weapons on their own, and often homeless or poor to the extent that their main goal is scamming the "real terrorist" (FBI informant) for small amounts of money.
The biggest problems with this policy are that mostly it is done under the cover of "FBI community outreach", playing into fears that any contact with the FBI or other law enforcement could lead to bad things. In some cases, they managed to drive even pretty decent people who would work with FBI overtly into prosecution by trying to blackmail them (in order to force covert vs. overt cooperation to entrap others), which is pretty unconscionable. In addition to driving a wedge between FBI/USG and the muslim community, they also seem to the majority of the time be pushing people who would likely never have done anything serious into very high end conspiracies and resulting prosecutions/convictions. There is maybe an argument that they do some good by making the US a very dangerous place for actual terrorists to operate (by making it likely everyone is an FBI informant or that the risk of informants is so high to block any collaboration, forcing overseas links which can themselves be monitored), but it definitely seems like the damage caused by the FBI informant program is greater than any benefits. I'm not sure what the correct level of anti-terrorism stings throughout the US is, but it's definitely less than we have now, and should be much more focused on credible threats who have taken much more overt actions.
A lot of this seems to come from the incentive structures for FBI agents (forced to "produce results", independent of base rate of terrorism -- even in environments where there is no actual terrorism, they are expected to show investigations and prosecutions) as well as for informants (paid well for entrapping people). The ability of FBI to use immigration violations and other things to apply pressure for collaboration is another issue.
Ironically, these manufactured plots are then used to justify more funding/continued investigations by pointing at a high level of terrorism!
Sadly, the FBI's focus on counterterrorism also led to a decline in FBI's more traditional investigations -- public corruption, organized crime, etc. -- which has actually decreased security as well....more
An exceptionally good series of personal experiences of a journalist from the war on terror. He focuses on exactly what he saw himself, vs the broaderAn exceptionally good series of personal experiences of a journalist from the war on terror. He focuses on exactly what he saw himself, vs the broader context, and personal stories of those around him, but this works well to show what life was like; people probably already know the broad context, few have the details. Possibly the best I've seen from a non-combatant on the ground during the global war on terror. Accurately portrays how random life and death can be, the emptiness, and terror.
Book published in 2008, so less than halfway through Afghanistan, and before Iraq even finished....more
In depth and detailed account of the use of torture and various legal justifications post-9/11 (up to 2008). Fairly comprehensive but harder to followIn depth and detailed account of the use of torture and various legal justifications post-9/11 (up to 2008). Fairly comprehensive but harder to follow than it should have been because of the excessive detail in certain areas and lack of detail in others, but part of that is due to difficulties sourcing information as everything was classified (and the book was written essentially at the same time or shortly after the events). Makes a strong case that the Bush I regime in particular behaved maybe reasonably for the first year or so in 2001/2002 but got worse and worse.
Doesn't include anything about domestic civil liberties (PATRIOT, etc.) which would have been a useful parallel, with the same kind of tortured reasoning applied to justifying unconstitutional actions.
Overall, a good source for interrogation/torture programs of DOD and CIA and the legal justifications applied to them in 2001-2008....more
One of the best books about modern infosecurity threats -- a detailed investigation into the activities of GRU in attacking infrastructure around the One of the best books about modern infosecurity threats -- a detailed investigation into the activities of GRU in attacking infrastructure around the world (primarily in Ukraine), their motivations, and where the threat is evolving....more
This is a surprisingly good book about modern and future war. Basically, the argument is that both third party proxy wars (with mercenaries, militias,This is a surprisingly good book about modern and future war. Basically, the argument is that both third party proxy wars (with mercenaries, militias, and foreign legions) will predominate, and that various forms of "shadow war" will also be preferred, even (especially) when fighting peers. Thus, it would make sense to focus the military investment on these kinds of capabilities and forces, rather than continuing with conventional forces. A good argument is made that Russia has already conducted this realignment (both vs. the west today, and especially compared to the USSR's old armor-heavy forces.)...more
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