[quote]Bismark wrote:
[quote]SexMachine wrote:
In terms of US foreign policy I’ve read a great deal from many perspectives. I dislike the reckless and naive policies of the neocons and the revisionist blame America first leftists too. My opinions are grounded in my knowledge of history and human nature.[/quote]
I’d be interested to see a list of works that played a significant formative role in your views of world politics. Truly.[/quote]
We all would 
[quote]Bismark wrote:
[quote]SexMachine wrote:
In terms of US foreign policy I’ve read a great deal from many perspectives. I dislike the reckless and naive policies of the neocons and the revisionist blame America first leftists too. My opinions are grounded in my knowledge of history and human nature.[/quote]
I’d be interested to see a list of works that played a significant formative role in your views of world politics. Truly.[/quote]
That would be an extremely long list spanning over two and a half thousand years of history. However, in terms of modern insurgencies the book that had the most profound impact on me was Bernard B Fall’s Street Without Joy.
[quote]SexMachine wrote:
[quote]Bismark wrote:
[quote]SexMachine wrote:
In terms of US foreign policy I’ve read a great deal from many perspectives. I dislike the reckless and naive policies of the neocons and the revisionist blame America first leftists too. My opinions are grounded in my knowledge of history and human nature.[/quote]
I’d be interested to see a list of works that played a significant formative role in your views of world politics. Truly.[/quote]
That would be an extremely long list spanning over two and a half thousand years of history. However, in terms of modern insurgencies the book that had the most profound impact on me was Bernard B Fall’s Street Without Joy.
I suppose your top ten from that expansive time period then.
[quote]SexMachine wrote:
However, in terms of modern insurgencies the book that had the most profound impact on me was Bernard B Fall’s Street Without Joy.[/quote]
The moral of which seems to be Sun Tsu’s dictum that “if you neither know your enemies nor yourself, you will be imperiled in every single battle”.
The United States didn’t learn from the French experience in Vietnam: we didn’t deeply understand the political and social situation, and didn’t bother to get to know the Vietnamese, not really. And it cost us dearly.
I wonder what M. Fall would have had to say about our adventures in Afghanistan. How much did we really learn from the experience of the Russians and the British?
And I can’t imagine that we got to know the Pashtuns, Tajiks, Hazaras, Uzbeks et al., any better than we knew the Vietnamese, the Lao and the Khmer.
[quote]Bismark wrote:
[quote]SexMachine wrote:
[quote]Bismark wrote:
[quote]SexMachine wrote:
In terms of US foreign policy I’ve read a great deal from many perspectives. I dislike the reckless and naive policies of the neocons and the revisionist blame America first leftists too. My opinions are grounded in my knowledge of history and human nature.[/quote]
I’d be interested to see a list of works that played a significant formative role in your views of world politics. Truly.[/quote]
That would be an extremely long list spanning over two and a half thousand years of history. However, in terms of modern insurgencies the book that had the most profound impact on me was Bernard B Fall’s Street Without Joy.
I suppose your top ten from that expansive time period then.[/quote]
It’s difficult to choose a “top” ten however I’ll list some works that immediately come to mind amongst my favourites.
Livy’s History of Rome(Ab Urbe Condita) Books XXI-XXX (Second Punic War) read with Theodore Ayrault Dodge’s Hannibal for maps and commentary.
Cicero’s political orations. In particular the Philippics.
Sallust’s Conspiracy of Cataline read with Cicero’s Orations Against Cataline.
Machiavelli’s much neglected Discourses on Livy
Winston Churchill’s The River War
Jeffrey D Wallin’s By Ships Alone: Churchill and the Dardanelles
Churchill’s The Second World War
The Rommel Papers
Heinz Guderian’s Panzer Leader and Achtung Panzer!
Erich Von Manstein’s Lost Victories
[quote]Varqanir wrote:
The moral of which seems to be Sun Tsu’s dictum that “if you neither know your enemies nor yourself, you will be imperiled in every single battle”.
The United States didn’t learn from the French experience in Vietnam: we didn’t deeply understand the political and social situation, and didn’t bother to get to know the Vietnamese, not really. And it cost us dearly.
[/quote]
With the exception of the MIKE Force:
I think Fall was a bit overly pessimistic. No one had a better social, cultural and political knowledge of IndoChina however.
[quote]
And I can’t imagine that we got to know the Pashtuns, Tajiks, Hazaras, Uzbeks et al., any better than we knew the Vietnamese, the Lao and the Khmer.[/quote]
The difference is many Vietnamese liked the Americans and wanted to fight the Communists. I don’t think the same can be said of the Afghans.
[quote]jjackkrash wrote:
Great movie. And this is the book he was talking about:
[quote]SexMachine wrote:
[quote]jjackkrash wrote:
Great movie. And this is the book he was talking about:
I love that movie as well. Thanks for the link, I’m adding that to my reading list.
Obama and the rest of the Washington DC establishment no longer deserve the benefit of the doubt. Credibility matters. That the architects of the U.S.’ disastrous foreign policy dating back to at least post WWII remain at the reigns tells you all you need to know about who controls the levers of power. Somehow the dialogue conveniently avoids just what exactly our goals in Afghanistan are, whether they’re worth the cost and perhaps most importantly, whether a so-called free country can co-exist with perpetual warfare/overseas imperialism.
[quote]SexMachine wrote:
The difference is many Vietnamese liked the Americans and wanted to fight the Communists. I don’t think the same can be said of the Afghans.[/quote]
It could, back in the eighties, when the Afghans were fighting the Communists. They liked Americans just fine, as long as we kept the money and guns flowing to the mujahideen.
He really crushed those chrome dumbbells !!!
[quote]Varqanir wrote:
[quote]SexMachine wrote:
The difference is many Vietnamese liked the Americans and wanted to fight the Communists. I don’t think the same can be said of the Afghans.[/quote]
It could, back in the eighties, when the Afghans were fighting the Communists. They liked Americans just fine, as long as we kept the money and guns flowing to the mujahideen.
[/quote]
Today’s client is tomorrow’s enemy.
[quote]MaximusB wrote:
He really crushed those chrome dumbbells !!![/quote]
You beat me to it. Well, at least no one can accuse him of being effeminate anymore.
I want to hate that kid… Problem is he seems to be the sort that wasn’t weeded out during any point in training. The guy seemed to be so out of place that he was more case where others had to babysit him. He was basically a liability the whole time I’ll bet and seemed to contribute nothing to his unit.
The guy was basically a civilian…
They canceled his home town parade LOL
[quote]Severiano wrote:
I want to hate that kid… Problem is he seems to be the sort that wasn’t weeded out during any point in training. The guy seemed to be so out of place that he was more case where others had to babysit him. He was basically a liability the whole time I’ll bet and seemed to contribute nothing to his unit.
The guy was basically a civilian… [/quote]
Based on the articles I’ve read, he was more squared away than his comrades, spending his free time reading Russian military manuals and studying Pashtun. Keep in mind his unit was plagued with discipline issues and was reprimanded for something as unprofessional as ditching K-pots for ball caps on patrol.
[quote]Bismark wrote:
[quote]Severiano wrote:
I want to hate that kid… Problem is he seems to be the sort that wasn’t weeded out during any point in training. The guy seemed to be so out of place that he was more case where others had to babysit him. He was basically a liability the whole time I’ll bet and seemed to contribute nothing to his unit.
The guy was basically a civilian… [/quote]
Keep in mind his unit was plagued with discipline issues and was reprimanded for something as unprofessional as ditching K-pots for ball caps on patrol.[/quote]
Link?
And the question is, how different were their reprimands compared to similar front line units?
[quote]angry chicken wrote:
They canceled his home town parade LOL
[/quote]
Trivia: Bowe Bergdahl is from the same town in Idaho where Matthew Inman, a.k.a. The Oatmeal, grew up.
[quote]UtahLama wrote:
[quote]Bismark wrote:
[quote]Severiano wrote:
I want to hate that kid… Problem is he seems to be the sort that wasn’t weeded out during any point in training. The guy seemed to be so out of place that he was more case where others had to babysit him. He was basically a liability the whole time I’ll bet and seemed to contribute nothing to his unit.
The guy was basically a civilian… [/quote]
Keep in mind his unit was plagued with discipline issues and was reprimanded for something as unprofessional as ditching K-pots for ball caps on patrol.[/quote]
Link?
And the question is, how different were their reprimands compared to similar front line units?[/quote]
http://m.rollingstone.com/politics/news/americas-last-prisoner-of-war-20120607
I do take that with a grain of salt, but it’s decent journalism.
From my understanding, it was a bit heavier given the publicity it received, a photograph illustrating the unit’s lack of discipline being featured on the front page of a major US publication.
