RECOMMENDED READING
From Callimachus at Done with Mirrors an excellent, reflective, critical, essay “Among the Dead Cities“tackling moral philosophy and history. A luminescent post.
From Dr. Thomas P.M. Barnett, on “New architecture, new enterprise“.
From Nadezhda at American Footprints, on “Ron Suskind and the Revolt of the Professionals“. This post is really worth further reflection and commentary from me, as is usually the case with Nad’s posts, but as I have not read the Suskind book yet I decline, even though obvious questions regarding secario planning leap to mind. Perhaps Art Hutchinson will deign to do a review of his own.
William Lind at DNI offers his review of Dr. Chet Richard’s Neither Shall The Sword.
Dan of tdaxp on “In Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, the Supreme Court Limits International Law“.
Some milreading titles available on Sonny’s “Expeditionary Bookshelf” at FX-Based.
Wiggins has a tripartite treat at Opposed System Design with ” China’s Interests -Part I“, “Part II” and “Part III“.
That’s it !
July 2nd, 2006 at 11:14 am
Mark,
Thanks for the mention. I read Wiggins’ posts on OSD, but have been unable to comment properly. I want to read Richards’ new book, but as you can see from my post, I am having problems keeping up with my reading. Out of the list that I put in my post, I strongly recommend Ahmed Hashim’s Insurgency and Counterinsurgency in Iraq, especially for those heading to the AOR. I also recommend Nate Fick’s One Bullet Away to get a warrior’s perspective. BTW, I posted a response to one of your questions on Small Wars Council. Take care and Happy 4th of July.
July 2nd, 2006 at 2:48 pm
Hi Sonny,
Great response. You hit the nail on the head regarding scholars, though in a rare defense of academics, the military might actually get a decent response by approaching scholars differently, by systematically reaching out on a personal, quiet, unofficial, level which will get around every university department’s obnoxious cohort of America-hating nutjobs.
A lot of academics simply need to be asked for their help in a ay that doesn’t create career-grief for them.
July 2nd, 2006 at 6:42 pm
Mark,
I also put some of the onus on the military to reach out to academics. There should not be such a wide gap between the military and academic institutions. That being said, I understand that many in academia despise what the military does. Part of what makes our country so great is the wide variety of views that we can express as citizens (and even as non-citizens) of our nation. I think the bridge has to be somewhat informal, a grassroot movement rather than something overly systematized by the government. The US military will continue to face many challenges that go beyond those of conventional warfare. In many places of the world, our military members have to act as diplomats, politicians, mayors, sherriffs and soldiers all sometimes within the span of a couple all days. The answers to many of our questions lie outside of the military. As Nate Fick relates in his book, how Tom Ricks, WSJ correspondent to the Pentagon at the time, replied to the argument that ROTC at a place like Darmouth will “militarize the campus and threaten our culture of tolarance.” Ricks answered that the opposite was true, the presence of ROTC at a place like Darmouth can “liberalize the military.” Fick then tells us how Ricks explained that in a democracy, the military should be representative of the people. It should reflect the best of American society, not stand apart from it. Regardless of what many say I believe that we have the best education system in the world, people all over the world come to study in our world-class educational institutions. We also have the best military in the world. Healthy exchanges between two of our greatest institutions can only benefit our country. Sometimes I feel like many scholars have a caricaturized image of military members and viceversa. I think that more contact among us will better prepare our nation to face the challenges of the future.
July 6th, 2006 at 3:00 am
Hi Sonny,
First, my apologies if you had trouble posting any comments. If you continue to have trouble, please feel free to email me (opposed.systems.design@gmail.com). I would hate to miss out on your perspective!
Second, let me offer hearty agreement to your call for more contact between the academic and military circles of our society. I’ve been meditating upon the following Thucydides quote ever since I read that Small Wars Council thread that you and Mark commented upon:
“Any society that separates its warriors and its scholars will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting done by fools.”
My meditations may turn into a post at some point, but I figured I’d share the quote here since it is so relevent…