Customer Reviews

Militant Tricks: Battlefield Ruses of the Islamic Insurgent

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4 star:		(1)
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LTC John Poole hits the X-ring again with a book every military officer should be required to read before heading over to the sandbox. No other military writer puts more meat on the table than Poole. The book contains information that is amazingly well researched & is not fluffy and esoteric. "Militant Tricks" is a continuation of his fantastic book called, "The Tigers Way: A US Private's Best Chance for Survival". "The Tigers Way" should be read by all soldiers & marines. I've sent my son at the 82nd Airborne a copy & he has passed it around and he reports that it is well liked. He loved it & now has "Militant Tricks" as well. Besides looking at the war in Iraq, Poole also goes into current tactics of the Afghani guerillas. One Chapter is called, "The Afghan Guerillas Tactical Trends" & it is very current, according to my intelligence sources who have recently spent time in A-Stan.
A common theme in all of Poole's book is that the US military is overly fond of high-tech weaponry & firepower & that our future battles will be fought at the low end of the high-tech sprectrum of war where individual warrior skills (such as combat tracking) will keep a soldier alive better than a Pentagon budget buster computer system! The enemy knows how to get around our superior technology & firepower, but do our Generals know how to properly counter the insurgents? They could, if they read books from LTC Poole such as "Militant Tricks"!!

First off, all John Poole's books should be read by the Secretary of Defense on down to the grunt in the field and more military outfits should go through his course. [...] Secondly, this particular book and his previous work Tactics of the Crescent Moon: Militant Muslim Combat Tactics should be MANDATORY READING for every soldier, sailor, airman, or Marine deploying to Iraq or Afghanistan. If you're headed that way buy these books! Put them in a ziplock bag and place them in your rucksack. If you have a loved one who's deploying to these theaters of operation and they don't know about these books buy them these books! These books may very well save their lives!

This work by LTC (R) Poole is an excellent treatise of not only current events in the Middle East, but also their relevence to ancient military history. In addition, even though some people dismiss the growing trend, "Militant Tricks" explains extensively in detail how Iraq has some unfortunate similarities to Vietnam (e.g. tunneling, over-use of firepower tactics, etc.). His work is both entertaining and enlightening. I would not only recommend this to the lay reader, but also to my fellow servicemen and servicewomen who may deploy to OIF soon.

Militant Tricks provides the most detailed and insightful analysis of Islamic Insurgent warfare available today. The book has greatly helped me prepare for my upcoming deployment to Iraq where I will be an infantry platoon leader. Like all of John Poole's books, Militant Tricks wastes no time in getting directly to the vital information that can help save lives on the battlefield. You will not find a clearer or more comprehensive study of insurgent tactics.

Poole has broken the code again. This book eliminates any doubts about our fanatic enemies.

Militant Tricks is both insightful and realistic. Poole has over 50 years of military experience, both as a Marine leader and as a researcher. He provides a common sense approach on how to counter the insurgency. He has developed the strategies that will enable the small unit leader to train his personnel to defeat the enemy.

I recommend this book to all Americans, and our allies, who are effected by the Global War on Terrorism. As a member of the United States military, I found this book very useful in the training of my personnel and their wellbeing in a combat environment. For all military members, this book is a must read and a must own.

Absolutely outstanding contemporary description of the events, political alliances, intrigues, tactics, and goals in the war on terrorism as fought in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Poole provides a crystal clear, no holds barred description of militant tactics and coalition responses. Moreover, based upon his own rich background, he makes specific recommendations to counter what are "Militant Tricks".

How good is this book? I am sending a copy to a friend's son who is a Captain in the 101st Airborne with the feverent hope that some of the recommendations will be adopted by his unit.

Once again H. John Poole has pulled aside the Middle East veil of mystery to show us how the Muslim militants go about their business. Known as the "War on Terror" aka "4th Generation warfare", radical Muslim militants have worked out the ways to challenge the West collectively, on - and off the battlefield. Thus far, their efforts have cost the U.S.of A., not only lives, but billions of dollars, sowing anxiety and terror. How have they accomplished this with slender resources? Against the most technologically advanced armed forces in the world? Poole tells us how.
The book is divided into three parts:
The initial part updates the reader on the situation in Iraq and Afghanistan to the summer of 2005. How the Muslim militants have survived and continue to succeed against coalition armed forces without tactical victory, hi-tech resources or heavy arms; all the while they suffer heavy casualties and continue to burn through the resources - and resolve of the West - are addressed.
The next part examines, through the lense of ancient oriental texts on the principles of warfare, the stratagems employed by the militants. These are the most illuminating chapters: now the daily events in Iraq and Afghanistan make sense if one understands the militants' operational philosophy. Poole's explanations of tactical actions clarifies how these militants are playing "the Game" against coalition forces. What makes no sense militarily in Western understanding of warfare are perfectly acceptable to furthering these militants' ends.
The final section's chapters provide approaches to dealing with "4th Generation Warfare" situations, which Western military forces are more and more wont to encounter. Many of Poole's recommendations reflect the U.S. Marines' experience with the Combined Action Program (CAP)used in Vietnam during the 1960s. Essentially, special Marine units operated with Vietnamese local forces at the village level to root out and undermine the Viet Cong insurgency. He contrasts this approach to the reliance on hi-tech and heavy fire power, the preferred operational mode of U.S. forces. Further, Poole (pp 278-294) describes the changes in tactical philosophy that must come about if U.S. ground forces are to prevail against their current enemy. This, to my mind, is the best part of the book.
Poole's views on training and tactics in the last chapter, come closer to dealing with military cultural reform than in his previous wotks. While he addresses these subjects in other books, these last pages in MILITANT TRICKS come the furthest to combining these previous discussions into a coherent whole which reflects the grunt's eye-level ground view.
Hopefully, the powers-that-be are reading his works - effecting the necessary changes.

This book is a must read.
The clarity with which John Poole lays out the truth yet hidden for most people is outstanding.
Another five star in his series of books that unravels the politics, strategies, tactics and tricks of the real opponent in the current struggle.

The information provided in this book may be needed by far more people in a short time.
Read it and you might understand some of the current headlines.

Thanks John - you save lives.

J.Poole latest book, is an incredible accomplished piece of work. By far yet his best book yet. His vast military experience from his time in the Marine's , in the far fields of combat duty in Vietnam, to his current world treks of gathering militant terrorist intelligence, is put to work here for the reader.

Militant Tricks book is not ham-strung by political correctness and sanitation. This book is written for the battlefield Grunt, and for the average person who has little or no knowledge on the subject matter.

J.Poole as in his pervious books, always provides an historical background to substance the evolution of combat tactics, methods and beliefs of a militant terrorist, then weaves these facts into current situation(s)

The book gives a good acccount of the various Islamic militant factions and their interactions. The opinions seemed a bit "armchair general" and opinionated at times, but they made several good points. I'd recommend the book although it had the following drawbacks for me:
-The insertion of outside material to back up the author's words made for a sometimes disjointed read
-The sprinkling of "God (Christian) & country", stereotyping, etc. seemed unnecessary
-20% of the material was a repetition/reiteration of a particular point (not sure if this was to beef up the number of pages or to compensate for a shakey arguement)