This is an extraordinary book, one that should guide all U.S. and Western infantry training, and in a larger sense, leadership development and acquisition strategy as well.
The author examines, in a careful, objective manner, the many ways in which Asian and Middle Eastern and other “Third World” insurgent infantry are trained in the art of stealth and close quarters infiltration and ambush. The bottom line is as the author ends the book: [Our enemy] prepares its privates to loosely follow orders, outwit enemy technology, and take on many times their number. In contrast, the American military prepares its privates to strictly follow orders, master their own technology, and seek a 3 to 1 advantage.”
In combination with Jonathan Schell's book “Unconquerable World,” and other books about the larger losses of moral status and legitimate alliances that American has suffered since 9-11, this book, at a grass-roots “down in the gutter” level, is daunting, troubling, provocative, and deeply critical.
It has been updated to address the current situation in Iraq, where foreign fighters and indigenous insurgents are slowly grinding down the U.S. occupying forces, while the improvised explosive device and suicidal terrorism techniques of Hezbollah spread rapidly to other countries.
Sad to say, but this book is also a manual for how easily our homeland infrastructure, nuclear and chemical plants, and other key notes, will be penetrated and taken down by a handfull of skilled individuals, most of whom need not die in the endeavor. “The Tiger's Way” is at once an indictment of U.S. military infantry training, and a handbook for just how vulnerable we are across every county in America.
The author is in many ways a complement to Ralph Peters, our own Lawrence of Arabia. The two together offer all that we need to know to transform our military and reassert our morality.
See for the larger context:
The Fifty-Year Wound: How America's Cold War Victory Has Shaped Our World
The Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic (The American Empire Project)
Breaking the Real Axis of Evil: How to Oust the World's Last Dictators by 2025
Sleeping with the Devil: How Washington Sold Our Soul for Saudi Crude
Wilson's Ghost: Reducing the Risk of Conflict, Killing, and Catastrophe in the 21st Century
Web of Deceit: The History of Western Complicity in Iraq, from Churchill to Kennedy to George W. Bush
The Looming Tower: Al Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 (Vintage)
9/11 Synthetic Terror: Made in USA, Fourth Edition
DVD Why We Fight
Vice: Dick Cheney and the Hijacking of the American Presidency
