Based on previously unavailable documents and interviews with more than one hundred key players, including General David Petraeus, The Insurgents unfolds against the backdrop of two wars waged against insurgencies in Iraq and Afghanistan. But the main insurgency is the one led at home by a new generation of officers—including Petraeus, John Nagl, David Kilcullen, and H. R. McMaster—who were seized with an idea on how to fight these kinds of "small wars" and who adapted their enemies' techniques to overhaul their own army. Fred Kaplan explains where their idea came from and how the men and women who latched onto this idea created a community (some would refer to themselves as a "cabal") and maneuvered the idea through the highest echelons of power.
This is a cautionary tale about how creative ideas can harden into dogma, how smart strategists—"the best and the brightest" of today—can win bureaucratic battles but still lose the wars. The Insurgents made the U.S. military more adaptive to the conflicts of the post–Cold War era, but their self-confidence led us deeper into wars we shouldn't have fought and couldn't help but lose.
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"Excellent look at the rise and fall of COIN and its proponents; nothing new here to those who've followed the movement, but well-told story regardless." — Matt (4 out of 5 stars)
"Excellent look at the rise and fall of COIN and its proponents; nothing new here to those who've followed the movement, but well-told story regardless."
A fascinating and powerful work by America's wisest national-security reporter about an epic battle. . . . If you love your country, if you care about its soldiers, if you wonder about the wisdom of their commanders, [listen to] this book now.
" Saw the author on CNN. the book is vast and dense in spots but does offer some tidbits worth reading about the war and the way its changed. "
Fred Kaplan is the national-security columnist for Slate and the author of six books, including the bestselling The Insurgents: David Petraeus and the Plot to Change the American Way of War, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. He has also written many articles on politics and culture for the New York Times, Washington Post, New York magazine, The Atlantic, Foreign Policy, and other publications. He graduated from Oberlin College and has a PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Kevin Foley, an Earphones Award–winning narrator, has more than thirty years of experience in radio and television broadcasting, commercial voice-overs, and audiobook narration. He has recorded more than 150 audiobooks, including River Thunder by Gary McCarthy, for which he earned a Spur Award for Best Audiobook from the Western Writers of America.
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