The Insurgents: David Petraeus and the Plot to Change the American Way of War - Tapa dura

"A fascinating and powerful work by America's wisest national-security reporter about an epic battle: the Army's search for a way to win the wars of the 21st century. If you love your country, if you care about its soldiers, if you wonder about the wisdom of their commanders, read this book now." -- Tim Weiner, author of Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA and Enemies: A History of the FBI "Fred Kaplan is one of the best in the business, a top-notch journalist and military analyst with serious intellectual chops and a killer pen. His new book The Insurgents tells the story of the rise and fall of the COINdinistas from Iraq to Afghanistan and beyond, and it's not only a great read-it's a major contribution to one of the most important strategic debates of our time." -- Gideon Rose, editor, Foreign Affairs, and author of How Wars End "Fred Kaplan, one of the best military journalists we have, tells the compelling story of how a cadre of officers and civilians tried to rescue victory from defeat in Iraq and Afghanistan by putting the theory of counterinsurgency into practice, revolutionizing the US Army from within. His narrative is vividand revelatory, dramatizing a crucial piece of recent history that we shouldn't allow ourselves to forget, however painful the memory." -- George Packer, author of The Assassins' Gate: America in Iraq "The book's strength lies in the rich detail Kaplan offers the reader as he traces the network of colleagues all dedicated to stopping the violence in Iraq by employing classic counterinsurgency techniques. He untangles the web of professional connections much the same way an intelligence analyst might track down the associates of an al-Qaeda cell... What emerges is a meticulously researched picture." * Washington Monthly * "A compelling story combined with thoughtful analysis of the development, application and limitations of a new model of applying American military power." * Kirkus Reviews * "Excellent ... Poignant and timely. ... A good read, rich in texture and never less than wise." -- Rosa Brooks * Foreign Policy * "Fred Kaplan has written a dazzling, compulsively readable book. Let's start with the fact that it is so well written, a quality so often lacking in books describing counterinsurgency. Let's also throw in the facts that it is both deeply researched and also devoid of cheerleading for the military or indeed any other kind of political bias. This book will join a small shelf of the most important accounts of the wars America has fought and will likely continue to fight in the 21st century." -- Peter Bergen, author of Manhunt: the Ten-Year Search for Bin Laden from 9/11 to Abbottabad "A very readable, thoroughly reported account of how, in American military circles, 'counterinsurgency' became a policy instead of a dirty word." -- Janet Maslin * The New York Times * "Riveting...essential reading... Kaplan's meticulous account of the ways Petraeus found to bring together and nurture the counterinsurgency 'cabal' might profitably be read by anyone interested in bringing change to a giant bureaucracy." -- John Barry * The Daily Beast * "Excellent ... An intellectual thriller." -- Joe Klein * Time * "The Insurgents is a tremendously clear and informative guide to the strengths and weaknesses of the military we have today and to the decisions we are about to make. ... Anyone who reads The Insurgents will be better prepared to understand what America has done right and wrong with its military over the past generation." -- James Fallows, The American Prospect "Compelling" -- Dexter Filkins * The New Yorker * "Serious and insightful. ... The Insurgents seems destined to be one of the more significant looks at how the US pursued the war in Iraq and at the complex mind of the general in charge when the tide turned." -- Tony Perry * Los Angeles Times * "One of the very best books ever written about the American military in the era of small wars. ... Fred Kaplan brings a formidable talent for writing intellectual history." -- Thomas Powers * The New York Review of Books * "Riveting . . . Combining superb storytelling and meticulous journalism, Kaplan has produced an unparalleled account of how the U.S. military has adapted itself to the realities of the Middle East." * The Washington Institute, Silver Book Prize Winner * "Thrilling reading. ... There is no one better equipped to tell the story. ... Kaplan, a rare combination of defense intellectual and pugnacious reporter ... knows the military world inside and out. ... An authoritative, gripping and somewhat terrifying account of how the American military approached two major wars in the combustible Islamic world." -- Thanassis Cambaniss * The New York Times Book Review *

THE INSURGENTS unfolds against the backdrop of two wars waged against insurgencies-- wars which the Pentagon's top generals didn't know how to fight. But a small group of soldiers and scholars did have a plan for fighting these kinds of wars, people like General David Petraeus and Colonels John Nagl, David Kilcullen, and H.R. McMaster. In order to push the idea of "counterinsurgency" warfare, they behaved like insurgents within their own army-and very self-consciously so. Fred Kaplan explains where this 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") that maneuvered the idea through the highest echelons of power. But this is also a cautionary tale about how even creative ideas can harden into dogma, how smart strategists-the "best and the brightest" of our times-can sometimes sway politicians but don't always win wars. The Insurgents made their military more adaptive to the conflicts of the post-Cold War era, but their self-confidence led us deeper into wars that we shouldn't have been fighting and perhaps couldn't have been won.