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Originally posted by Joss Weatherby I tend to read about destroy things as I destroy the toilet bowl... Thats actually a really sorta shoddy book. If you do want a good idea of the amount of hubris in the US military's mind and its followers and touter's minds as well then read this. It was written after the early success in the war in Afghanistan (infact the author tends to refer to it in the past tense, like it is over) and before the invasion of Iraq (or the real war drum had began to beat). His critical analysis of Russian military strength is also laughable as his is still in a very early post-cold war attitude. With their oil money the Russian military is on the long march back to standing toe to toe with the US and NATO.

Hey, that's actually quite interesting

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Originally posted by Lira Hey, that's actually quite interesting

Yes, he desperatly trys to convince people that the lessons from Vietnam were learned and the fixes made.

There is also the common blame laid again at the feet of the media for the failures in Vietnam.

He does make one striking prediction though that almost justifies all the mis-calculations in it.

On the topic of operations during peace time and the tendency for those who have served in combat zones to slowly move out of the chain command he says this:

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This change has been going on for several generations, and, more and more, the generals think less like fighters and more like bureaucrats. In the past, whenever bureaucrats have been appointed to run an army, disaster arrived along with the next war. Watch for it.

Emphasis mine.

Other than that the book is fairly good from a listing of major nations military systems and their comparative values though I do not know where he gets the values he uses for comparison.

He tends to overly simplify Eastern system and degrade them as being so unsatisfactory that they would not hold up in major combat. This is made with little to no reference to the actual combat history that most former Soviet systems have had in Eastern Asia, the Middle East and Africa.

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Originally posted by Joss Weatherby I have taken a crap on the phone before though... usually its to people id like to crap on in the first place though.

How did you get the smell out?

my newest obsession is solitaire on the shitter. Bakers game ftw.

If someone calls me, then yes.

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