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18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great Writing and Tightly Focused, August 4, 2007
This review is from: Wars of Blood and Faith: The Conflicts That Will Shape the 21st Century (Hardcover)
"Wars of Blood & Faith" is another of Ralph Peters' collections of previously published columns put into book form. On this note, the book is a let-down because there is little new material that a subscription to the New York Post or a monthly check-in with the Armed Forces Journal website hasn't already posted.
But for his fantastic writing he must be given full credit, and as in his previous collections and works he continues to remain tightly focused on his message that globalization isn't bringing the majority of humanity together but apart--save for the new globalized, corporate aristocracy--, life is essentially a Hobbesian struggle, the plague of corruption is a deadly ill that makes other problems even worse, we need to be geopolitically patient and let China, Hugo Chavez and other rogue or less-liked regimes fail on their own while we as a country build ties with other countries who stand to offer a lot more (political) friendship and common cause than such "stalwart," forward-thinking and democracy-loving allies like Saudi Arabia, and that the large swathe of civilization residing in the Islamic heartlands--save the Israelis--is largely in collapse and a hopeless mess. A major theme of his that does not get treated this time around, the emancipation of women around the world, does not get its own section but is mentioned enough throughout the book for the reader to realize this is one of the author's main ideas for securing a better future for humanity.
The articles and columns are indeed thought-provoking, and some of Mr. Peters' predictions and analyses are coming to light if one pays attention to the news. His observation that the Chinese are not liked in Africa and abroad for their callous business dealings with shady regimes, like Sudan or Zimbabwe, is starting to generate small headlines in the global media. Peters offers different views from a different angle on a variety of issues: from his take on globalization as a socially dividing force, to his gritted-teeth note that the global media is now essentially a combatant in war zones that can indeed effect a battlefield victory or defeat based on activist journalism (First Battle of Fallujah, anyone?) and his belief that Europeans may some day pull out their old tricks of genocide and ethnic cleansing to deal with immigrant populations they don't want to assimilate or want, period. Only one essay can only be described as really out of whack: "Plan B for Iraq." Thought-provoking yes, but the whole side comment about Venezuela was a bit much. The controversial "Blood Borders" essay makes an appearance here as well.
The best feature of the book is the author's optimism, cautious in some areas but there nevertheless. There are parts of the world that offer hope and allies, if we approach these areas from a position of mutual respect. Africa is beginning to stand up for itself, though the going will be slow. Latin America offers plenty of allies, we simply have to let the new Caudillos fail on their own while demonstrating that democracy does work (requires work on our part, too). These are more of the alternative viewpoints that the drones in Washington should take into consideration. Again, a bit of a let-down for lack of new material but a tightly-focused effort and worth the time for the author's writing ability alone.
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21 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Ralph Peters' Latest 'Must Read' Book, August 4, 2007
This review is from: Wars of Blood and Faith: The Conflicts That Will Shape the 21st Century (Hardcover)
Wars of Blood and Faith contains 78 carefully-selected, hard-hitting articles the author published in 2006-2007 in the New York Post, Armed Forces Journal, USA Today, Washington Monthly, The Weekly Standard, Military Review, RealClearPolitics.com, and Armchair General magazine. Individually, as originally published, each essay provided plenty of food for thought - now, read as a book in this superb collection by publisher Stackpole, it's a real feast!
Peters', today's most insightful, clear-headed strategic thinker, includes a revelatory introductory essay that, alone, is well worth the price of the book. He shatters the mythology so dear to the hearts of America's "ruling elite" that "all men want peace, with its corollary fantasies of bloodless war and a lawyer's faith in negotiations." These through-the-looking-glass assumptions belong to the now-past Age of Ideology, a two hundred year "aberrant period in history ... a time of unaccountable mass delusion, when human beings convinced themselves that individuals could reason out a better architecture for human societies than human collectives could arrive at organically." Peters perceptively reveals that "we have returned to the historical mainstream, abandoning conflicts over artificial systems of social organizations in favor of strife provoked by those ineradicable causes, religion and ethnicity ... the bleeding over political systems is largely finished; we have returned to the historical norm of wars of blood and belief." The age of wars over "isms" (fascism, nationalism, Communism, Nazism, etc.) is over - it's tribe versus tribe in a war to the death. The enemy's preferred strategy is no longer one of winning hearts and minds; that's been replaced by one calling for a knife to the heart and a bullet to the brain. Our leaders' failure to comprehend that represents little more than national suicide.
Yet, don't assume that the sole value of Wars of Blood and Faith lies only in its sorely-needed wake-up call that we must realize our survival depends upon - quite literally -- killing our enemies before they kill us. Peters' prescient, timely and carefully-crafted articles cover the world, explaining in the author's trademark crystal-clear, Hemingway-esque style the myriad of critical security issues that confront America and the West around the globe. Although many of the book's essays address the Iraq War's military and political issues (including its domestic and international fall-out), Peters razor-sharp analysis looks beyond the front lines in Iraq and Afghanistan to encompass such far-flung places as China, Nigeria, Pakistan, Iran, Israel, Somalia, and Darfur. With continuing worldwide experience in 70 countries, Peters is no stay-at-home "studio pundit" - the book includes first-hand reporting from the front lines in Iraq and Israel's war with Hezbollah. Ralph Peters knows what he's talking about. More important, he's not afraid to "go public" by sharing that unequaled experience with the reading public in his perceptive essays. As a result, Wars of Blood and Faith is a cogent, desperately-needed wake up call to Peters' fellow citizens. Since, as the author notes, our "ruling elite" leaders in Washington seem "afraid to think -- because many of the answers are terrifying," he's taking his case directly to those who elect them. "The goal of the many essays and columns in this book," Peters explains, "is to provoke the complacent, to challenge the (deadly) traditional wisdom, and to encourage Americans to think for themselves." One fervently hopes they will. Clearly, reading Wars of Blood and Faith is a great way to give those complacent brains a much-needed "jump-start." Buy it. Read it. Share it.
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27 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
You Can Read This More Than Once, and Learn Each Time, July 22, 2007
This review is from: Wars of Blood and Faith: The Conflicts That Will Shape the 21st Century (Hardcover)
Ralph Peters is one of a handful of individuals whose every work I must read. See some others I recommend at the end of this review. Ralph stands alone as a warrior-philosopher who actually walks the trail, reads the sign, and offers up ground truth.
This book is deep look at the nuances and the dangers of what he calls the wars of blood and faith. The introduction is superb, and frames the book by highlighting these core matters:
* Washington has forgotten how to think.
* The age of ideology is over. Ethnic identity will rule.
* Globalization has contradictory effects. Internet spreads hatred and dangerous knowledge (e.g. how to make an improvised explosive device).
* The post-colonial era has begun.
* Women's freedom is the defining issue of our time.
* There is no way to wage a bloodless war.
* The media can now determine the war's outcome. I don't agree with the author on everything, this is one such case. If the government does not lie, the cause is just, and the endeavor is effectively managed, We the People can be steadfast.
A couple of expansions. I recently posted a list of the top ten timeless books at the request of a Stanford '09, and i7 includes Philip Allott's The Health of Nations: Society and Law beyond the State. Deeper in the book the author has an item on Blood Borders, and it tallies perfectly with Allott's erudite view that the Treaty of Westphalia was a huge mistake--instead of creating artificial states (5000 distinct ethnic groups crammed into 189+ artificial political entities) we should have gone instead with Peoples and especially Indigenous Peoples whose lands and resources could not be stolen, only negotiated for peacefully. Had the USA not squandered a half trillion dollars and so many lives and so much good will, a global truth and reconciliation commission, combined with a free cell phone to every woman among the five billion poor (see next paragraph) could conceivably have achieved a peaceful reinvigoration of the planet with liberty and justice for peoples rather than power and wealth for a handful.
The author's views on the importance of women stem from decades of observation and are supported by Michael O'Hanlon's book, A Half Penny on the Federal Dollar: The Future of Development Aid, in which he documents that the single best return on investment for any dollar is in the education of women. They tend to be secular, appreciate sanitation and nutrition and moderation in all things. The men are more sober, responsible, and productive when their women are educated. THIS, not unilateral militarism, virtual colonialism, and predatory immoral capitalism, should be the heart of our foreign policy.
The book is organized into sections I was not expecting but that both make sense, and add to the whole. Part I is 17 short pieces addressing the Twenty-First Century Military. Here the author focuses on the strategic, lambastes Rumsfeld for not listening, and generally overlooks the fact that all our generals and admirals failed to be loyal to the Constitution and instead accepted illegal orders based on lies.
In Part II, Iraq and Its Neighbors, we have 24 pieces. The best piece by far in terms of provocative strategic value is "Blood Borders: How a Better Middle East Would Look." Curiously he does not address Syria or Lebanon, but I expect he will since the Syrians just evacuated Lebanon and Syria and Iran appear to be planning for a pincer movement on Baghdad after they cut the ground supply line from Kuwait.
A handful of pieces, 5 in all, are grouped in Part III, The Home Front. The best two for me were "Our Strategic Intelligence Problem" in which he points out that more money and more technology are NOT going to make us smarter, it is humans with history, culture, language, and eyes on the target that will tease out the nuances no satellite can handle. He also points out how easily our satellites are deceived. I share his anguish in the piece on "Lynching the Marines." I called and emailed the Colonel at HQMC in charge of the defense, and offered a heat stress defense that I had just learned about from a NASA engineer helping firefighters. If the body gets too hot, the brain starts to fry, and irrational behavior is the norm. The Colonel declined to acknowledge. That told me all I needed to know about how the Marines were all too eager to hang their own.
Part V was the most unfamiliar to me, covering Israel and Hezbollah. In 17 pieces, the author, an avowed supporter of Israel, pulls no punches, tarring and feathering the Israelis for being corrupt (selling off their military supplies on the black market (to whom, one wonders, since the only people in the market are terrorists?) confident the US will resupply them) and militarily and politically incompetent. To which I would add economically stupid and morally challenged--Stealing 50% of the water Israel uses to do farming that is under 5% of the GDP is both nuts and short-sighted. See the brief by Chuck Spinney at OSS.Net.
Part V, The World Beyond, is a philosophical tour of the horizon, from water wars and plagues (see my lists for books on each of the ten threats, twelve policies, and eight challengers), to precision knifing of Russia, France, and Europe. Darfur, one of over 15 genocides being ignored right now (Darfur because Sudan pretends to be helping on terrorism and the US does not have the will or the means to be effective there) is touched on.
The book ends marvelously with a piece on "The Return of the Tribes," a piece that emphasizes the role of religion and the exclusivity of cults and specific localized tribes. They don't want to be integrated nor do they want new members.
Robert Young Pelton's The World's Most Dangerous Places: 5th Edition (Robert Young Pelton the World's Most Dangerous Places)
Sleeping with the Devil: How Washington Sold Our Soul for Saudi Crude
Deliver Us from Evil: Peacekeepers, Warlords and a World of Endless Conflict
Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA
The Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic (The American Empire Project)
The Fifty-Year Wound: How America's Cold War Victory Has Shaped Our World
Resource Wars: The New Landscape of Global Conflict With a New Introduction by the Author
Failed States: The Abuse of Power and the Assault on Democracy
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