Endless War [Hardcover]

Ralph Peters shows once again why he is today's most insightful strategist on global affairs in his latest "must read" collection representing his best columns and articles on today's most vitally important issue - the assault of militant Islam on Western civilization, values and culture. A retired U. S. Army intelligence officer whose globe-trotting has gained him valuable first-hand experience in over 70 countries (including Iraq and Afghanistan), Peters is the author of 25 acclaimed books, a regular columnist in newspapers and magazines, and a popular on-air media strategist. While most contemporary pundits seem to be "lost in the weeds," content to carp about battlefield tactics and troop levels, Peters demonstrates his firm grasp of the Big Picture, the fundamental underlying nature of the struggle between militant Islam and the West that began fourteen centuries ago and still rages. Endless War's superb collection of essays, articles and columns - each one carefully selected by the author - represents a priceless primer on the 21st century's defining conflict. Peters' superbly argued introductory essay, "History and Hysteria" -- a plea for the importance of reading and understanding history - is alone worth the price of the book. The author's well-known provocative, hard-hitting, "tell-it-like-it-is" prose style has never been more compelling and revelatory. Endless War should be read by America's political and military decision-makers and by the public at large - before it's too late.

I do not always agree with Ralph Peters, but along with Steve Metz and Max Manwaring, both at the Strategic Studies Institute (SSI) of the U.S. Army, I consider him one of America's most gifted strategists whose integrity is absolute. He simplifies sometimes (e.g. Iraqis turned against Al Qaeda because of the demand for marriage that was refused followed by the bloodbath execution of the family by Al Qaeda, not because of anything the US did) but that aside, Ralph is the ONLY person that reminds me of both Winston Churchill--poetry and gifted turns of phrase on every page--and Will Durant, historian extraordinaire. Ralph has a better grasp of history, terrain, and the military than Robert Kaplan, and deeper insights into our failed military leadership (no longer leaders, just politically-correct administrators out of touch with reality) than my favorite journalist-adventurer, Robert Young Pelton.

I have read and reviewed most of Ralph's books, and am proud to consider him a colleague and a fellow Virginian. Ralph is the only author whose books jump to the top of my "to read" pile, and I absorbed this masterpiece over the course of moving my own flag from Virginia to Latin America. US national and military intelligence have completely given up their integrity, and it resonated with me that the key word that Ralph uses throughout this book--a word I myself adopt in my latest book in carrying on the tradition of Buckminster Fuller on the one hand, and most respected mentor-critic Chuck Spinney on the other--is that very word: INTEGRITY.

My extended review at Phi Beta Iota, the Public Intelligence Blog (PBI-PIB), has the totality of my notes, my selection of quotes from across the book, and links too numerous for Amazon's paltry ten-book limit. Ralph is, like me, acutely interested in history, and until I donated mine to George Mason University as part of clearing out of the USA professionally, has one of the best personal libraries in the tri-state area. Ralph writes commentary without footnotes, but it is a testament to his gifted study of history and his acute grasp of reality across time, space, and culture, that any one of his books easily leads me to connect the reader to 20 or more other books, one of my primary value-adds for the global community that follows my non-fiction reviews in 98 reading categories.

Buy this book; it is perhaps the only discourse to really look at our failures as a nation, as a government, and as a military, in the larger context of history where 1,000 year terms are the standard, not mere centuries and certainly not tiny little wars of 4-30 years duration.

Unusually for any book, I have fourteen "must share" quotes and I provide those in my extended review are PBI-PIB, along with all the links integrated into my summative notes.

This book is a compendium of strategic thinking, poetic memorable framing of core intelligence challenges, and a moral discourse as well. I share--deeply--Ralph's utter fury at the dishonesty prevalent with the most senior ranks of the military including specifically flag officers across all the services and flag officers responsible for the $75 billion a year cesspool we call national and defense intelligence.

There are multiple "ahas" in this book, and I am not at all reluctant to say that I learn from Ralph Peters with each and every book he offers up. I completely agree that the "elites" are out of touch with reality, with the public interest, and with the nuts and bolts of "doing" foreign policy, national security, and homeland development.

The author offers up several lists with explicatory text, I provide the lists in my full review at PBI-PIB.

Here I will link only to the still relevant earlier-era books of Chuck Spinney, Jim Fallows, and Tim Weiner and to my own new book, my personal game plan for the future of global intelligence, a game plan that will not only level the intelligence playing field, but will empower the public over the politicians.

Defense Facts of Life: The Plans/Reality Mismatch

National Defense

Blank Check: The Pentagon's Black Budget

INTELLIGENCE for EARTH: Clarity, Diversity, Integrity, & Sustainaabilty

This series of essays form an excellent analysis of 21st century conflict and American's reaction to it.
Peters' Introduction sets the tone for his book by pointing out that serious study of history has, essentially, ceased in our schools. This has resulted in a divorce from the harsh realities of the world. We have little or no sense of historical reality to the point where bumper-sticker slogans, "War never Solved Anything," substitute for knowledge and clear vision.
He goes on to cover the history of Islamic success and failure. He points out that the failure of the societies in the Middle East is, according to academics, the media and the Muslims themselves, the fault of the West, especially Israel and America. There is no self-examination by those in the Middle East. And, our Politically Correct academics and media have lived in a self-satisfied shell for so long they are unable to do so.
Peters' incisively points out our political and military leader's constant refusal to recognize that the enemy is Islamicism. The religious aspect, in too many instances, is completely ignored.
This flawed view, again, stems from our academic and political elites cloaking themselves in Political Correctness which applauds denigration of Judaism and Christianity while demanding a "non-judgmental view" of other religions.
Both Peters and I agree that war is a brutal and barbaric enterprise; an enterprise to be avoided, but recognized as a significant aspect of human beings' makeup. We cannot substitute "talking" with people who believe that their God is telling them to kill anyone who does not believe exactly as they do.
We cannot bring up our children believe that everyone's rights, even monsters who think nothing of killing children in the name of their religion, must be protected:

"Yesteryear's fairy tales warned us not to trust the wolves, but today's well-brought-up children are expected to consider the wolf's needs and discontents.
Sometimes, though, the wolf still needs to be killed."

We have had a number of wake-up calls over the years: the 1993 Twin Towers Bombing, the USS COLE bombing, the African embassy bombings and, finally, 911. Unfortunately, those who make policy still need a further wake-up call. Just how loud does it have to be?

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