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Colonel Thomas X. Hammes, USMC (ret.)
is the author of The Sling and the Stone: On War in the 21st Century. Booklist
remarked of the book, “Hammes is a career Marine Corps officer, and with this selection, he argues that the U.S. has
adapted poorly in response to the new generation of guerrilla warfare. Fourth-generation warfare, as Hammes calls it, is what
American forces encounter in Iraq and Afghanistan and Israelis find in Palestine, and it is the way of the future: guerrilla
warfare characterized by political acumen and patience, using communications networks and strategic strikes to demoralize
and exhaust conventionally superior militaries. For many military strategists, including those presently running the Defense
Department, this new world order amounts to a call to newfangled technological arms, but for Hammes, smart bombs and spy drones
are not the answer. The solution is to study our enemies as they have studied us and build a networked, flexible, and, here's
the kicker, less hierarchical military structure that employs humans to fight the humans fighting us. As few as five years
ago, such analysis would have had limited appeal, but in today's political climate, this concise, surprisingly readable
book will attract a broad readership.”
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