Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5
Audiobook15 hours
The Insurgents: David Petraeus and the Plot to Change the American Way of War
Written by Fred Kaplan
Narrated by Kevin Foley
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5/5
()
About this audiobook
Based on previously unavailable documents and interviews with more than one hundred key players, including General David Petraeus, The Insurgents
unfolds against the backdrop of two wars waged against insurgencies in
Iraq and Afghanistan. But the main insurgency is the one led at home by
a new generation of officers-including Petraeus, John Nagl, David
Kilcullen, and H. R. McMaster-who were seized with an idea on how to
fight these kinds of "small wars" and who adapted their enemies'
techniques to overhaul their own army. Fred Kaplan explains where their
idea came from and how the men and women who latched onto this idea
created a community (some would refer to themselves as a "cabal") and
maneuvered the idea through the highest echelons of power. This
is a cautionary tale about how creative ideas can harden into dogma,
how smart strategists-"the best and the brightest" of today-can win
bureaucratic battles but still lose the wars. The Insurgents made the
U.S. military more adaptive to the conflicts of the post-Cold War era,
but their self-confidence led us deeper into wars we shouldn't have
fought and couldn't help but lose.
unfolds against the backdrop of two wars waged against insurgencies in
Iraq and Afghanistan. But the main insurgency is the one led at home by
a new generation of officers-including Petraeus, John Nagl, David
Kilcullen, and H. R. McMaster-who were seized with an idea on how to
fight these kinds of "small wars" and who adapted their enemies'
techniques to overhaul their own army. Fred Kaplan explains where their
idea came from and how the men and women who latched onto this idea
created a community (some would refer to themselves as a "cabal") and
maneuvered the idea through the highest echelons of power. This
is a cautionary tale about how creative ideas can harden into dogma,
how smart strategists-"the best and the brightest" of today-can win
bureaucratic battles but still lose the wars. The Insurgents made the
U.S. military more adaptive to the conflicts of the post-Cold War era,
but their self-confidence led us deeper into wars we shouldn't have
fought and couldn't help but lose.
Author
Fred Kaplan
Fred Kaplan is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of English at Queens College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He is the author of Lincoln: The Biography of a Writer, which was named a Best Book of the Year by the New York Times and Washington Post, among other publications. His biography of Thomas Carlyle was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Pulitzer Prize. He lives in Maine.
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Reviews for The Insurgents
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5/5
2 ratings1 review
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I think this is an amazing book. Not only does it cover most of the history of the Iraq- and Afghanistan wars, which are important enough in themselves. It also provides a compellingly written case study of organizational culture and what it takes to change it. As such, the book is relevant for everybody involved with managing or changing large, tradition-focussed, conservative organizations.On top of it all, it covers important aspects of knowledge management in large organizations; and the US armed forces being a fairly transparent and well documented outfit, there is ample literature available to read in connection with this book.