 | Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife: Counterinsurgency Lessons from Malaya and Vietnam by John A. Nagl
Buy new: $11.56 / Used from: $7.09 What to learn from Vietnam and Malaya. Malaya is pretty much the only "victory" Western countries ever had over an insurgency.
Though you could count El Salvador and Indonesia as anti-Communist victories, if you are not too squeamish about the blood baths.
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 | The Sling and the Stone: On War in the 21st Century by Colonel Thomas X. Hammes USMC
Buy new: $11.55 / Used from: $6.00 A political analysis of guerrilla wars after WW2 and how it relates to current US counterinsurgency efforts.
Fascinating dissection of Intifada I vs. Intifada II.
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 | Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001 by Steve Coll
Buy new: $11.70 / Used from: $6.50 Afghanistan vs. Soviets for most of the book. Examines the transitional period from post-Soviet to 2001 as well.
Good primer on Pakistani foreign policy of the time.
Also - CIA likely did not bankroll Osama, despite urban legends.
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 | The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy by John J. Mearsheimer
Buy new: $10.20 / Used from: $4.57 Interesting analysis of what the benefits of supporting Israel are for the US and how Israel gets so much support.
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 | State of Denial: Bush at War, Part III by Bob Woodward
Buy used from: $2.91 Bob Woodward skewers Rumsfeld (and Bush as well). Assertions about Oct 2001 Afghanistan campaign contradict Feith's presentation of why so few troops were used.
An excellent companion book to Feith's self-congratulations.
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 | War and Decision: Inside the Pentagon at the Dawn of the War on Terrorism by Douglas J. Feith
Buy used from: $1.77 Annoying set of self-justifications by one of Rumsfeld's immediate underlings, specifically in charge of post-invasion Iraq.
However, if you are the type that likes to hear different viewpoints, not just your own, this does have some interesting tidbits of info.
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 | A Savage War of Peace: Algeria 1954-1962 (New York Review Books Classics) by Alistair Horne
Buy new: $13.57 / Used from: $5.00 Covers the Algerian War of Liberation. Classic case of incompetent political management by a Western country, despite superior military force. Also successful and calculated use of terror, by the rebels, to provoke the French into pointless bloody reprisals.
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 | The Gulag Archipelago: 1918-1956 by Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn
Buy used from: $7.58 As the Cold War is over and done with, a reminder that all the blood spilled to defeat Communism wasn't just to keep the stockmarket healthy and the poor oppressed, as some apologists would have it.
Relevance here: some ideologies are fundamentally oppressive and need to be resisted. That does not apply to Islam but Salafism is such a beast.
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 | The Assassins' Gate: America in Iraq by George Packer
Buy new: $10.20 / Used from: $0.18 A journalist interacting directly with the Iraqi population offers a different perspective on the initial decision to invade - Saddam was a butchering pig and deserved to be kicked out.
Was it worth the lives of 4000+ US soldiers though?
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 | The Utility of Force: The Art of War in the Modern World (Vintage) by Rupert Smith
Buy new: $10.85 / Used from: $5.50 Top UK commander in Bosnia talks about the challenges of political-military integration in insurgency situations and multinational peacekeeping.
"If you gotta use force, think of what you are trying to achieve".
Short on prescriptions though.
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 | The Rise and Fall of an American Army by Shelby L. Stanton
Buy new: $7.99 / Used from: $0.42 An interesting book that shows how the US really couldn't hang on to Vietnam - it took too many troops and resources away from more critical areas of the Western-Soviet confrontation, at little risk and cost to the Russkies.
Prior to the Iraq Surge and the Sunni Awakening, pretty much where the Bush & Cheney gang were leading the US - costly stagnation.
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 | The Bin Ladens: An Arabian Family in the American Century by Steve Coll
Buy new: $5.30 / Used from: $0.99 Good book, but too narrowly focussed on the Bin Laden family (not even that much on Osama).
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 | Tactics of the Crescent Moon: Militant Muslim Combat Methods by H. John Poole
Buy new: $10.17 / Used from: $7.34 Guerrilla warfare in Muslim countries, mostly Afghanistan.
Poole is no fan of the "fire and forget" crowd. Then again, he runs a consultancy selling training, so...
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 | The Iraq War: The Military Offensive, from Victory in 21 Days to the Insurgent Aftermath by John Keegan
Buy new: $12.00 / Used from: $0.70 Far from Keegan's finest hour, this. Read it for the history primer on Iraq up to 2000.
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 | My War: Killing Time in Iraq by Colby Buzzell
Buy used from: $1.34 A punkster goes to Iraq. Hunter S. Thomson material. Poor guy's just being shipped back there, best of luck to him.
Neither Democrat or Republican.
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 | Des armes pour l'Iran: L'Irangate europeen (Au vif du sujet) (French Edition) by Walter de Bock
Buy used from: $54.65 Read in 1988 IIRC and this is where I learned that, surprise, poor ol' Saddam had attacked Iran first. The opposite of what the French media was telling us every day - "brave Iraqis desiring peace fight barbarous Iranians".
That got me skeptical about the media coverage of complex issues.
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 | Terres trop promises (L'Histoire partagee) (French Edition) by Charles Zorgbibe
Buy used from: $14.40 How everybody was promised Palestine in 1916 and how everybody was screwed over by the Balfour gang after WWI.
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 | Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media by Edward S. Herman
Buy new: $12.89 / Used from: $7.98 Not that I like Chomsky much, but he'll keep you on your toes about placing too much faith in mass media.
i.e. a dead Polish priest is a hero, thousands of El Salvador peasants killed are Communists sympathizers undeserving of any sympathy.
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 | America and Political Islam: Clash of Cultures or Clash of Interests? by Fawaz A. Gerges
Buy new: $16.47 / Used from: $1.32 Not bad, for an academic view into the real-politik driving US policy. A bit light on the Israel angle though. Pre-2001, so the subject feels very different, more theoretical than urgent.
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 | What Went Wrong?: The Clash Between Islam and Modernity in the Middle East by Bernard Lewis
Buy new: $9.20 / Used from: $0.01 Not quite as clever as it would have you believe. Note also that Gerges (America & Political Islam) views Lewis as a East-West clash-of-culture person.
I'm still looking for a book that explains the evolution of Muslim thoughts and doctrine.
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