What Are You Reading Now?

[Art Vandelay]

Capote practically fell in love with Perry Smith.

How could that be? Capote and Smith were both men.

[BigPiney]

How could that be? Capote and Smith were both men.

lol.

[oxcoug]

I have a problem which is that I almost never read a book straight through unless it's a quick one on an airplane. Because my life gets scattered bt NY and SC and DC I have books scattered in a few places. Here are some that I'm currently reading and really enjoying:
*The Island at the Center of of the World - Russell Shorto. It's about Dutch Manhattan but it's an absolutely awesome history - reads like a novel but it's history and a really fascinating look at early America.
*The War Against Cliche - Martin Amis. It's actually a collection of Book Reviews, but Martin Amis is just fun to read and it's a great in on some other books that I wldn't have discovered. Language and content warning.
*Koba the Dread - also Martin Amis. About Stalin and the way the Left rationalized Soviet communism (Amis's dad Kingsley was a very well-known socialist/progressive writer who was guilty of this).
*Stalin: A Biography - Robert Service. Service was one of my instructors and is an incredible write, manages to make his subjects very accessible.
*River of Doubt - Candice Millard. Really great read about Teddy Roosevelt after the election of 1912.
*Great Escapes - Kati Marton. About 9 Hungarian Jews who escaped Hitler and what they did that changed the world. A couple of them became the backbone of America's atomic project.

[happyone]

I just found this at the library and checked it out.

The Fourth Star: Four Generals and the Epic Struggle for the Future of the United States Army by Greg Jaffe and Dave Cloud

It looks at 4 four star generals that have shaped the modern Army our efforts in Iraq and Afganistan

John Abiziad - personal aside, one of my brother's worked for him and he said he was the finest general officer he had ever been around.

George Casey
Peter Chiarelli
David Petreaus

It has been bounced up in the que for this holiday break.

I finished The Fourth Star. It really takes on the Army about planning or rather the non planning on how to fight a guerilla war/insurgency. Basically after Viet Nam, the Army didn't want to deal with it. All the Army wanted to do is fight the Russians coming through the Fulda Gap. The authors really pound on this and how unprepared it made the Army for the aftermath of the 2003 invasion.

It make a point that until Petreaus got back from Iraq and got his third star and command of the Combined Arms Center at Ft. Leavenworth, the Army's manual for fighting an insurgency and low instensity wars hadn't been updated since Viet Nam. Petreaus made it his project to update it and "author" a new doctrine on how to fight low intensity wars. The Combined Arms Center is reponsible for developing the Army's warfighting doctrine.

The authors talk about the Social Science Department (sosh) at West Point and it role in nuturing unconventional thinking in the Army. Chiarelli and Petreaus both taught in the department. One of the things it brought out is how many former intructors in that department have recieved stars. I can't remember who, but someone remarks that teaching in sosh there is a good way to make general, but a bad way to make lt. col.

The authors don't have much good to say about Rumsfeld. They paint him as not listening to anyone who doesn't agree with him.

On the whole this book agrees with my thinking that the invasion, whether it was a good idea or not, was well planned, but the follow up planning left much to be desired. Basically they planned for a best case scenerio and got the worst case. For the record when the four officers voiced an opinion, they thought the invasion of Iraq was a bad idea. When it first brought up after 9/11, Casey or Abaziad tells the civilian leadership in the Pentegon that the reasons for not going to Bagdad in 1991 were still there in 2001.

The authors follow the four generals throught out there careers, from there commisionings through to their current assignments (2008).

If you have any interest in how we got into the mess in Iraq and how we are fighting it, I would highly recommend this.

[Flattop]

Cobra II: The Inside Story of the Invasion and Occupation of Iraq by Michael R. Gordon and General Bernard E. Trainor, USMC (ret.)

In describing this book, I could repeat some of what happyone just posted about The Fourth Star. It's hard to find anything good to say about Rumsfeld and how he handled Iraq, from the planning to managing the reconstruction of the country after the fall of Saddam.

The invasion was well planned and the credit should go to the ground commander, General David McKiernan, who finally came up with the Cobra II plan. Prior to that, Centcom and the Pentagon were wrestling with the number of troops that would be used.

There was a little postwar planning, which focused mainly on humanitarian relief. The planners expected to rely on the Iraqi army and police to stabalize the country after the fall of Saddam. No one asked what would happen if the police weren't up for the job or if the army melted away. When those two things became reality, we were in serious trouble.

Before the invasion, the troops were told by the CIA that the Iraqi army units in the south would surrender and the people would welcome them waving little American flags. As a result the initial rules of engagement were very tight. But the CIA missed out on the Fedayeen Saddam, and the Army and Marines got a rude wakeup call at Samawah and Nasiriyah. The Fedayeen employed guerrilla tactics to fight the invader and were the precursor to the insurgency that would follow the fall of Saddam.

Cobra II is detailed and very well written, and a must read for anyone who wants to understand what happened in Iraq.

[John McClain]

Cobra II: The Inside Story of the Invasion and Occupation of Iraq by Michael R. Gordon and General Bernard E. Trainor, USMC (ret.)

In describing this book, I could repeat some of what happyone just posted about The Fourth Star. It's hard to find anything good to say about Rumsfeld and how he handled Iraq, from the planning to managing the reconstruction of the country after the fall of Saddam.

The invasion was well planned and the credit should go to the ground commander, General David McKiernan, who finally came up with the Cobra II plan. Prior to that, Centcom and the Pentagon were wrestling with the number of troops that would be used.

There was a little postwar planning, which focused mainly on humanitarian relief. The planners expected to rely on the Iraqi army and police to stabalize the country after the fall of Saddam. No one asked what would happen if the police weren't up for the job or if the army melted away. When those two things became reality, we were in serious trouble.

Before the invasion, the troops were told by the CIA that the Iraqi army units in the south would surrender and the people would welcome them waving little American flags. As a result the initial rules of engagement were very tight. But the CIA missed out on the Fedayeen Saddam, and the Army and Marines got a rude wakeup call at Samawah and Nasiriyah. The Fedayeen employed guerrilla tactics to fight the invader and were the precursor to the insurgency that would follow the fall of Saddam.

Cobra II is detailed and very well written, and a must read for anyone who wants to understand what happened in Iraq.

I read this book a couple of years ago when it first came out. It is an excellent book and if you want a good overview of how Rumsfield screwed the pooch in Iraq, this book is a must read.

[John McClain]

Just started The Story of Edgar Sawtelle. It seems promising.

[Surfah]

Secrets of the Short Game by Phil Mickelson.

Unfortunately it's only making this winter drag.

[Brian]

finished Things Fall Apart by Achebe last night.
Excited to start another Palahniuk tonight, Diary.

[SeattleUte]

finished Things Fall Apart by Achebe last night.
Excited to start another Palahniuk tonight, Diary.

Did you like Things Fall Apart?

[Brian]

Did you like Things Fall Apart?

I enjoyed it quite a bit.

[New Mexican Disaster]

I enjoyed it quite a bit.

Why? This is one classic that I don't understand the admiration for.

[SeattleUte]

Why? This is one classic that I don't understand the admiration for.

Many classics are classics because their very existence represents a heroic triumph. They stand for opposition to oppression. They represent truth in a way wholly apart from their literary merit.

I have mixed feelings about this pheonomenon. Many Nobel Prizes for literature have been handed out on this basis alone.

I don't know about Things Fall Apart's literary quality, but the factors I mentioned are a big part of its stature. If you or I wrote that book, it wouldn't be the same.

[happyone]

If you haven't noticed, I read a lot of military history.

I started The Darkest Summer by Bill Sloan over the weekend.

It is about the first summer of the Korean War and how the Marines saved the army's bacon/Korea and as a result saved themselves as a service.

It is a fairly routine look at the first months of the Korean Conflict and the politics behind absimal perfomance of the US military in the first few months of the Korean conflict.

That said, I've enjoyed it.

[dabrockster]

Just Finished Transfer of Power by Vince Flynn.

Options are open for my next book. I like Spy books and War books that are based off of true events...