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Beyond Terror: Strategy in a Changing World

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"Beyond Terror" by Ralph Peters leads off with a perceptive and upbeat essay on America in the post-9-11 environment ("Our Place in History"), and a ringing indictment of Islam ("The world of Islam must now decide whether to wallow in a comforting, medieval form of religion that warms the heart with hatred of others and whose greatest strength lies in its ability to shift blame, or to make the far more difficult choice of attempting to build tolerant, more equitable, open, and honest societies.") In the current War on Terrorism, Peters warns his readers, "Ferocity is the ultimate guarantor of peace."

The balance of the book, with the exception of the final chapter, consists of essays published by Peters between 1994 and 2001. During my four-year tenure as a faculty member at the U.S. Army War College, Peters' controversial and usually irreverent views were often showcased, either via his published works, or when he would appear as a guest lecturer. Having worked closely with him during an assignment in 1992-93 to uncover the truth about American military men who were missing in action during the Cold War, I considered Ralph to be perhaps the Army's premier intellect. His is a keen mind, steeped in history and fertilized by on-the-ground experience, its brilliance equalled only by its brashness and Peters' willingness to bluntly rail out at the many innanities of the post-Cold War defense establishment. I unashamedly pushed Peters and his essays on my War College students (colonels all), and was a bit dismayed at how many tuned him out, often because Peters, then a "lowly" major, seemed to them to be a bit of a pretentious upstart.

But as the essays in "Beyond Terror" demonstrate, Peters had it right all along. In 1999, for example, Peters wrote in "MacLean's," "Conventional war remains a threat, but a diminishing one. Today's--and tomorrow's enemies are half-trained killers in uniform, tribesmen, mercenaries, criminals, children with rusty Kalashnikovs, shabby despots, and gory men of faith. The most dangerous enemy will be the warrior who ignores, or who does not know,the rules by which our soldiers fight, and who has a gun in one hand, a cell phone in the other, and hatred scorching his heart." Small wonder that Peters reserves special contempt for some senior military officers ("Hucksters in Uniform") who steadfastly remain married to "heavy" forces of the Cold War, and who retire to positions in the defense industry to reap the harvest of seeds they sowed while on active duty. Concerning the Army and its pursuit of leviathan systems like the Crusader artillery system, Peters wrote in May 1999, "Obsessed with building the perfect division at Ft. Hood, Texas, the Army refuses to acccept that the number one requirement for the future is the ability to get out of Texas on short notice." It is a page out of Donald Rumsfeld's book, but the book is Peters', and he was saying it when such views were heresy and Rumsfeld had yet to re-emerge from corporate America.

All in all, those who have followed Ralph Peters' personal intellectual odyssey since the early 1990s will see in this fine collection of essays vindication of the warnings issued by Peters, usually far in advance of other defense "experts." Peters' hard-hitting essays, many of which were written and published while he was a serving officer, are a testament to a fine mind, a love of country, and a remarkably keen sense of smell for the future. They are also a tribute to the military establishment that encouraged him to speak out, even when his messages often gored sacred cows. If you are serious about understanding the business of national defense in the age of the War on Terrorism, you must read this book.

Ralph Peters' newest book, 'Beyond Terror,' is an important contribution to the ongoing debate over how best to repond to the emerging terrorist threat to our nation. His earlier Stackpole volume, 'Fighting for the Future,' presciently articulated this threat long before September 11, and this latest book expands and extends the ideas put forth there. Drawing on a vast synthesis of culture, language, history, and most importantly, on-the-ground experience, 'Beyond Terror' sheds a lot of light on the uncertain new terrain (both physical and psychological) on which we must engage our enemies in the years to come.

While this book could and should be read by military strategists, politicians, policy wonks, and other Washington types, its scope extends much further, and many of the essays contain insight and commentary relevant to many other disciplines. "The Rejection of the West," is the earliest and longest essay in the book, and it provides the centerpiece thinking out of which all the other articles flow. Every educator in our land would profit greatly by grappling with the ideas therein, although many would be angered by Peters' non-politically-correct thinking, his skewering of "multiculturalism," and his rejection of the glib theories of academia. Politicians on both sides of the national party divide will be discomforted by many of his conclusions--as they well should be, but voters would find that this book would help them define a new set of standards by which to judge those that would represent them.

The writing here is anything but a dry iteration of "policy," although there is plenty of food for policy-making thought. Peters' prose is forceful, colorful and witty--a genuine delight to read. I found the book utterly compelling and read nearly all of it in a couple of sittings. 'Beyond Terror' is a passionate plea to our nation to look beyond its conventional notions and thinking to creatively overcome the threats that are emerging in the world, and a call to all Americans to cherish and respect their precious heritage. Urgently recommended.

Ralph Peters has long been a favorite writer of mine. I've read both his fiction and non-fiction, and "Beyond Terror" may be his best writing yet. His candid insights will ring true to anybody who's travelled in the world's danger zones, but probably will offend those who learn about the world from books. Too bad. A few hours spent with "Beyond Terror" will give the reader a much better understanding of the world we live in than any political science course I've taken--and I've taken many. While his writing is brutally frank, he is never simplistic or jingoistic. The chapter "When Devils Walk the Earth" is perhaps the most original and thoughtful explanation of the terrorist's mentality I've ever read (and I read a great deal on related subjects for my job). Peters takes a refreshingly long view of history, and his writing is a joy to read, even on those rare occasions when I disagree with him. This is an important book. I strongly recommend it for anyone looking to make sense of the world today.

It's easy to get swept up in the rhetoric that jumps so glibly from the adroit fingertips of the verbally gifted former army Lt. Col. Ralph Peters. Indeed Peters occasionally gets swept up in it himself. For example, while marveling at the rapid change and dislocation characteristic of our times (so that "the collapse of the Roman Empire looks glacial by comparison"), Peters is led to exclaim, "Much of humanity is returning to the days of witches, anti-Christ, and self-willed apocalypse." (p. 87)

Well, not exactly. The degenerating culture in the Middle East that Peters so well delineates in the second essay in this collection has nothing to do with Christian apocalyptic delusions, nor have the horrors experienced by the people in sub Saharan Africa. And while there are nut cases in this country (as there have always been in Europe and the US) that believe in witches and warlocks and the Biblical anti-Christ, most of humanity is actually just trying to make a living.

Peters also loses it a bit when he writes "Men like to kill." He adds that some dislike it, but "the latter are few." Furthermore, "For many men, there is no more empowering act than taking a human life." (p. 83)

Again the generalization would be acceptable if indeed it applied to even a bare 51% of humanity. But it doesn't. The thugs and henchmen and Saddam Hussein-like warlords and bullies are greatly in the minority. Otherwise we could hardly cross the street. Peters shows that he realizes that he is overstating the case when he writes: "The crucial violence is usually perpetrated by a smallish number of actors...with a still larger group enjoying the spectacle of the violence and, perhaps looting." (pp. 86-87)

This is closer to the truth. Most people do not actually like to kill. We like to get others to do it for us. We don't even like to kill the cows and the pigs that we eat. We have specialists to do that for us.

It would be easy to dismiss Peters as a kind shock jock for those that can read or a postmodern son of Strangelove were it not for the fact that he is often right, and that he makes some critical points that cannot be ignored. He is especially effective in the opening essays in the book, "Our Place in History" which was written for this volume, and the above mentioned second essay, "When Devils Walk the Earth: The Mentality and Roots of Terrorism and How to Respond," which was written for a thinktank a month after September 11th, and could easily serve as guidance for President Bush. I suspect Bush has read this essay, although I don't expect him to admit it publically. Peters's Machiavellian advice would not play well in the media and is not the sort of reasoning that heads of state reveal to the public.

In the first essay (also perhaps given as advice to the Commander-in-Chief) Peters calls for an "enlightened" American empire, arguing that given the state of real politics in the world, mainly that we are the only superpower left, we have no choice but to accept the mantle and do our best.

I think there is more truth to this than most people, both here and especially in Europe, would like to admit. He makes the salient point that the American empire (already a partial reality) differs from that of Rome in that "our empire is cultural and economic, a matter of influence and the occasional exercise of military power, and not one of conquests and exploitation." (p. 19) I would add that our battalions take the form of multi-national corporations that serve to direct tribute and lucre to the US through economic power rather than by force of the sword.

In "When Devils..." Peters psychoanalyzes the Islamic Middle East coming up with an indictment that could be summed up with these words from page 46: "We [the vibrant, creative states of the West and the Pacific Rim] are succeeding, the Islamic world is failing, and they hate us for it." This is almost exactly the diagnosis presented (more gently) by Middle Eastern scholar Bernard Lewis in his books, What Went Wrong? Western Impact and Middle Eastern Response (2002) and The Crisis of Islam: Holy War and Holy Terror (2003), and it is one that I think is substantially correct.

The central point of the essay however is to make a distinction between "practical terrorists" who just want to seize power, and "apocalyptic terrorists" who want to destroy our civilization and kill us all. Peters presents a 25-point "take no prisoners" program for dealing with such "monsters." His advice, simply put, is kill them before they kill us. By the way, his contention that apocalyptic Islamic terrorists are typically unable to form lasting, healthy relationships with the opposite sex (p. 33) and are the products of "sexual fears and humiliation as young adults" rings only too true. He recalls that September 11th hijacker Mohammed Atta demanded that "women not be allowed to pollute his grave by their presence." (p. 11)

Also good is the third essay in which Peters emphasizes the strength of free flowing information and how closed societies such as those in Islamic lands and North Korea are at a disadvantage economically and militarily because of their self-imposed ignorance. It is only in the fourth essay, "Heavy Peace," that Peters begins to reveal that in places he is patching over the cracks in his understanding with rhetoric.

I would also like to observe that his central message, that we must meet terror with terror, needs to be thoroughly examined lest we allow the end to justify the means and tumble down the slippery slope to the level of our terrorist enemies.

Beyond Terror is a compilation of superb essays written by the most gifted military theorist of his generation. These essays predominantly examine the current terrorist threat. The reader should be aware that Ralph Peters is one of the very few writers in this arcane area of study that accurately foresaw the possibility of 9/11.

If you want to know why Islamic terrorists attacked the World Trade Center and Pentagon, read this book. If you want to know how such terrorists can best be attacked, read this book. If you want a clearer understanding of the terrorist threat, read this book. If you are tired of academic analysis on terrorism, that says much but clarifies little, read this book.

The author is one of the best traveled of the writers on contemporary terrorism. He knows his subject. A former US Army Intelligence Officer, Peters writes with honesty and conviction. Whether you agree or disagree with his analysis, you won't have any difficulty understanding his positions. Such clarity of thought is rare and valuable.

More importantly, this reviewer believes that Peters more often than not is correct in his assessments. His opinions are based in a multi-disciplinary approach to his subject matter... using the intellectual tools of psychologists, cultural anthropologists, sociologists, and historians. This approach explains much while obfuscating nothing.

Ralph Peters' work is highly recommended because he insists on gaining first-hand experience before writing his opinions... an unusual and laudable characteristic. Beyond Terror is the best of contemporary writings on the critical topic of terrorism.

This is the most original work on strategy and international relations I have ever read. Peters clearly enjoys taking on sacred cows, but what angers academics, I suspect, is the utterly convincing insights he has acquired in his personal experiences around the world--he doesn't rely on other people's research, but goes out and looks at things for himself--then thinks for himself about what he has seen. And what the author has to say just rings true, whether discussing the roots of American strategic power (some surprising views here) or the proper use of the military. This book is great fun to read (I heard Peters lecture last year--he's slyly entertaining and seductive--he ambushes you with ideas--and knows how to laugh at himself, too). It's also worth underlining several times per page. The author's analysis of the root causes of terrorism ring truer than any other propositions I have encountered, and his take on the future potential of the United States as a hegemonic power demonstrates great integrity--Peters refuses to bend to the political left or the right, and he doubtless angers extremists on both sides of the aisle. If I recall correctly, Peters was a career Army officer. Well, if our Army can produce officers who think at this level of originality, the defense of the republic is in very good hands. I suggest giving this book to your friends--but also to any dreary, self-righteous, party-line academics in need of a comeuppance (or a heart attack). And it's written with a sense of humor, too. Try to find that on a campus these days. Serious, extraordinarily original ideas, elegantly presented. The gentleman can write.
This book is first rate in every respect and a valuable contribution to American strategic thought. It will outlast its critics by a very long stretch. Recommended for all citizens not afraid to think for themselves.

If it were in my power I would make this book required reading for every officer in the US Military and every senior leader in the Pentagon and State Department. In "Beyond Terror" Ralph Peters gives us the best and most accurate look at the threats and challenges facing American presently and in the near future. He discusses in detail the background to the war we are fighting now and that our children will fight in years to come. Peters is one of the few authors today who is not afraid to call a spade a spade. His writing is literate, but refreshingly free of the conventions of political correctness that seem to infest present day writings about non-western cultures. He candidly points out the difficulties facing many nations in the underdeveloped (or in the case of the Gulf Arabs; unwisely developed) world. Like a good knowledgable doctor looking at an illness in its advanced stages, some of Peters' prognosis for these societies is quite grim. However, it is accurate. Peters has a natural and conversational writing style that carries the reader along easily. Peters makes his points with wit and charm. There are lines in this book that are laugh out loud funny. Although this is a book about policy and America's place in the world, you don't have to be a wonk to enjoy it. Each of it's 18 essays can be read as a stand alone piece.
This is an honest, funny, informative and ultimately uplifting book to read. Ralph Peters, above everything else, is an American Patriot and he outlines in this book his vision for the New American century. His vision of the world is one to which our leaders should pay attention.

Retired U. S. Army colonel Ralph Peters may be the United States' best strategic military thinker since Admiral Alfred Thayer Mahan. In a series of prescient, and often infuriating, essays written primarily in the 1990's, Peters argues why we have to fight the War on Terror, recognizes possible mistakes in judgement by senior civilian and military leaders, and how this war should be fought. He lays much of the blame for our inability to fight this war well on the Clinton administration; it is an assessment that is unfortunately correct due to Clinton's inability to deal with terrorism (a mission which former advisor Dick Morris urged him to do back in 1996; Morris has noted that this was Clinton's greatest failure, not the Lewinsky sex scandal.). Peters is a brilliant, persuasive, and yes, frequently infuriating writer, who is a splendid prose stylist. I was most intrigued with his observations on Clausewitz's and Sun Tzu's observations on the necessity of waging war. This splendid book should be required reading for all interested in why we are waging war in Iraq and elsewhere against Islamic fundamentalist terrorism.

I should say that I've read nothing else by this author, and none of the other reviews listed here (I'll do that later).

Between what we read of the war in Iraq and elsewhere according to the Bush spin, and the windy, footnoted mea culpa-type "we brought it on ourselves" books on terrorism, this book brings to light many, many facts and things you may not have considered. It defines a lot of the reasons terrorists that do what they do, that America does what it does -- and it never gets into name-calling. Dump those Chomsky and Coulter propaganda flash-in-the-pans. They look like circus barkers compared to this guy.

If you've got questions (and who doesn't) about:
* What did America do to become a terrorist target?
* What should we do now?
* Are we an empire or what? What does that entail?
Than you better read this book. So much of this post-911 literature is so predictable just from the back cover excerpts, but this book really surprised me. The author is obviously very literate, but has the unique distinction of actually having served as an officer in the military, but without being some kind of knee-jerk, Pattonesque patriot. He is very even-handed, and writes with a refreshing style that keeps you reading. With most books, I can put a little pencil mark on half the statements someone makes, with a "unverifiable", "hearsay", "propaganda only" or such. I did a few here, too -- don't get me wrong -- but so often Peters confronts my objection in the very next argument.

Peters early on advocates an "extraterrestrial" view, in the original meaning of "outside earth" to take a look at who's doing what and what's going on. No "Bush is the Antichrist" or "Bush is God" or, in fact, much naming of presidents or people at all. No "Bowling movie" to sell, no talk show -- Peters is the old-fashioned, pre-pundit, experienced analyst telling you how he sees it.

I don't necessarily agree with everything in this book, but for straight historical, political and military knowledge, those academic tomes look like ill-informed propaganda. I didn't come away with any "pro war" or "pro Republican" or whatever impression from this book, although, since it was written by a military man, you can't expect too much "let's all love each other" content. He takes down a lot of the same "peacekeeping" and "liberating" US missions as the rest of them, but man, does he do it better.

This is a collection of essays, and some of them were written before 9-11, but read like they came out yesterday. Can't say that with most terrorism books.

For my money, this is the best book going on the whole America-versus-the-world books. Maybe he's written other stuff that discredits my opinion, but I withhold that decision until I actually read it.

Mr. Peters is a controversial author whose works are studied and debated at, among other places, the Army War College. He has collected a number of essays that were previously published prior to 9-11-01 and included material written after the terrorist attacks of that day.
Three points stand out in my mind. First, Mr. Peters draws a distiniction between "practical terrorists" (think IRA) and "apolalyptic terrorists" (think Osama bin Laden). The author makes the case that since the latter have but one objective, that is to kill us, we have but one choice -to kill them first.
Next, Mr. Peters argues that geographic boundaries have little meaning in the 21st century and should be changed to accomodate ethinic or tribal differences rather than spill blood over maintaining these arbitrary borders. Interestingly, he does not address what the U.S. should do if the Quebec separatist movement is successful (which he believes it ultimately will be) and the Franco-American population of the northern Maine counties vote to go along with them. Or what we might do if the majority of residents of Dade County vote to join Cuba after Castro departs this earth.
Finally, Mr. Peters, who retired from the Army Intelligence branch after promotion to lieutenant colonel, has some very interesting insights into why this country's very costly intelligence apparatus failed us. His thoughts can, in my opinion, be applied to any bureaucracy.
This book should be read by every thoughtful American.