5 Star – Page 106 – Public Intelligence Blog

$4 extra avoids abridgement,October 9, 2008

T.E. Lawrence

I own an original first edition (and did not realize its value until recently), but in searching for this book to add a link from within my new book on Irregular Warfare: Waging Peace, I realized the reader is faced with two choices today, one costing $4 more than the other. I believe I found the explanation in the less expensive version, which is described as “severely abridged.” So all things being equal, buy this version instead.

There is no finer summary of this work that I have encountered in my literature search than “T.E. Lawrence And the Mind of An Insurgent” by James J. Schneider, Ph.D., a professor of military theory at the School of Advanced Military Studies, U.S. Command and General Staff College, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Previously published in 2005 in varied works, it can be easily found online by searching for the author and title.

My preliminary research for the new book shows that the Lieutenant Colonels/Commanders and some Colonels/Captains of the Navy get it, but the flags do not. Even the vaunted counterinsurgency handbook avoids dealing with three realities:

1. Absent a moral legitimizing strategy that includes a commitment to sufficiency of presence, no occupation will succeed.

2. Absent a national intelligence community willing and able to jump deep into Multinational, Multiagency, Multidisciplinary, Multidomain Information Sharing and Sense-Making (M4IS2), no commander will succeed.

3. It costs asymmetric irregular warriors $1 for every $500,000 they force us to spend with our present idiotic emphasis on technology as a substitute for both thinking and human presence. They can keep this up forever, we cannot.

IMHO, Dr. Schneider's distillation is utterly brilliant, and if the publisher issues a new edition, I urge the publisher to obtain permission to include Dr. Schneider's distillation as a new professional preface.

Although I have a very very large personal library (photo at oss.net), here are the books I bought today as part of my homework. In the comment I provide the URLs for the pieces I have had printed locally.

Modern irregular warfare: In defense policy and as a military phenomenon
The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism
Counterinsurgency and the Global War on Terror: Military Culture and Irregular War (Stanford Security Studies)
Asymmetric Warfare: Threat and Response in the 21st Century
Guerrilla Warfare: Irregular Warfare in the Twentieth Century (Stackpole Military History Series)
The U.S. Army/Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Field Manual
Never Surrender: A Soldier's Journey to the Crossroads of Faith and Freedom
Kill Bin Laden: A Delta Force Commander's Account of the Hunt for the World's Most Wanted Man

Two other books I already own within my ten link limit:
War of the Flea: The Classic Study of Guerrilla Warfare
Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife: Counterinsurgency Lessons from Malaya and Vietnam

And everything written by H. John Poole, but especially Tactics of the Crescent Moon, Phantom Soldier, One More Bridge to Cross, and Tiger's Way. Also Col Hammes on Sling and Stone, Mao and Che, Max Manwaring's various works including Search for Security, Uncomfortable Wars, and Environmental Security….and on, and on, and on….IRWF is finally “in” now we just have to spend ten years waiting for the current flags to retire.

2008/10/092009/12/04

Review: Modern Warfare–A French View of Counterinsurgency

5 Star, Insurgency & Revolution, War & Face of Battle

Core Source for AWC Paper on Intelligence in Counterinsurgency, October 9, 2008

Roger Trinquier

I was led to this source by the excellent paper on “Intelligence Gathering in a Counterinsurgency” by Captain Daniel J. Smith, U.S. Navy, as posted for public dissemination 15 March 2006. I have pulled the conclusions from that paper, and will be seeking permission to include them in a new book, they are as perfect and holistic as it gets. Capt Sullivan's paper is easily found online.

For a list of the books that I have decided to buy (this is not one of them), see my review and the ten links provided at Seven Pillars of Wisdom: A Triumph. I had to draw the line someplace, and on balance, believe the wisdom of this book is best acquired second hand, while the penchant for torture and other unethical means is best left behind.

For an alternative perspective on how to win hearts and minds (apart from integrity and morality as core), see:
The Search for Security: A U.S. Grand Strategy for the Twenty-First Century
Uncomfortable Wars Revisited
The Unconquerable World: Power, Nonviolence, and the Will of the People
A Power Governments Cannot Suppress
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)
Fixing Failed States: A Framework for Rebuilding a Fractured World
Wilson's Ghost: Reducing the Risk of Conflict, Killing, and Catastrophe in the 21st Century
The leadership of civilization building: Administrative and civilization theory, symbolic dialogue, and citizen skills for the 21st century

The various books I offer free online as well as on Amazon could also be helpful. E Veritate Potens.

2008/10/042009/12/04

Review DVD John Adams (HBO Miniseries)

5 Star, America (Founders, Current Situation), Reviews (DVD Only)

Renters & Buyers Be Alert, October 4, 2008

Paul Giamatti

I rented, and learned that there are three separate disc in Blockbuster, AND a duplicate third disc so if you grab the four that are on display, you end up with three useful and one duplicate. I certainly hope that Best Buy and others are only selling a single disc, but thought to mention, renter or buyer, beware. There are seven parts in all. The first two (disc one) takes you up to his riding off to the first Congress. The second goes through Washington's being elected President, and the last features his own presidency, tragedies, the rise of his son John Quincy to be president himself, and his death, the last of two (Thomas Jefferson the other) to survive, both dying on the 4th of July 50 years after independence.

I was moved by this movie, and think ever more highly of Paul Giamatti for his acting. I received insights I did not have before, and while some may complain about the details, for myself, this was an extraordinary three hours or so watched over the course of three evenings.

In books, consider:
1776
What Kind of Nation: Thomas Jefferson, John Marshall, and the Epic Struggle to Create a United States
The Thirteen American Arguments: Enduring Debates That Define and Inspire Our Country

2008/10/032009/12/04

Review: The Energy Non-Crisis

5 Star, Economics, Environment (Solutions), Politics

Flagging this for update and questions to Sarah Palin, October 3, 2008

Lindsey Williams

With a tip of the hat to a commenter on my review of Crossing the Rubicon: The Decline of the American Empire at the End of the Age of Oil. I have asked for the book to be reprinted and offered immediately, and believe that with or without the reprint, those who are in a position to ask questions of Sarah Palin should make this book the focus: what has she known about why, and what are the possibilities?

Incidentally, taking this book at face value, it helps explain McCain's genius in picking Palin, so as to roll out the “October surprise,” “solving” the energy crisis.

I look forward to buying and reading the updated book.

Here are other books that I have read and reviewed that add to the betrayal of the public trust theme:
Sleeping with the Devil: How Washington Sold Our Soul for Saudi Crude
Resource Wars: The New Landscape of Global Conflict With a New Introduction by the Author
Blood and Oil: The Dangers and Consequences of America's Growing Dependency on Imported Petroleum
Twilight in the Desert: The Coming Saudi Oil Shock and the World Economy
Web of Deceit: The History of Western Complicity in Iraq, from Churchill to Kennedy to George W. Bush
The Coming Economic Collapse: How You Can Thrive When Oil Costs $200 a Barrel
The Long Emergency: Surviving the End of Oil, Climate Change, and Other Converging Catastrophes of the Twenty-First Century

The good news is that the public is aroused now, and realizing we have all been cheated by the combination of Wall Street and the corrupt bi-opoly.
The Tao of Democracy: Using Co-Intelligence to Create a World That Works for All
Society's Breakthrough!: Releasing Essential Wisdom and Virtue in All the People

2008/10/032009/12/04

Review: The Making of a Conservative Environmentalist

5 Star, Capitalism (Good & Bad), Environment (Solutions)

Conservative Capitalism is Maturing!, October 3, 2008

Gordon K. Durnil

As true conservatives start realizing that both parties are evil and both parties have been corrupt in both selling out to Wall Street and in mandating “party line” voting, the tide is turning in favor of common sense and what I have been calling “reality-based” policy and budgeting.

This author deserves very high marks, and I am disappointed that the book has not attracted any reviews at all. Published in 2001, this author was years ahead of the pack, and along with Governor Mitch Daniels, himself rather special as a former Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), I am finding more and more reasons to look to the heartland for common sense.

2008/10/032009/12/04

Review: Opening America’s Market–U.S. Foreign Trade Policy Since 1776 (Luther Hartwell Hodges Series on Business, Society and the State)

5 Star, Capitalism (Good & Bad), Diplomacy

Understood Difference Between FREE Trade and FAIR Trade, October 3, 2008

Alfred E. Jr. Eckes

I give the author high marks for explaining early on the difference between FREE trade and FAIR trade. While he is an avowed protectionist and much of what he offers must be balanced by more progressive views, the tide is turning as “true costs” become established and we all begin to realize that between exporting solid jobs for the middle class and the earnest blue collar trade specialists, and allowing illegal immigration and the Reagan-led destruction of the trade unions, we have put a stake in the heart of THE fundamental source of national power and prosperity: people.

2008/09/272009/12/04

Review: The Fifty Dollar and Up Underground House Book

5 Star, Environment (Solutions), Intelligence (Collective & Quantum), Values, Ethics, Sustainable Evolution

Beyond 5 Stars–Inspirational, Valuable, Practical, September 27, 2008

Mike Oehler

This book is phenomenally wise, useful, easy to read, and plain inspiring. I picked it up this morning intending to get back to it tonight and ended up not putting it down at all.

I have bought and read a number of underground building books as well as log cabin books, and would sort them into three categories:

A Expensive log homes for the really rich

B Moderate earth-covered (not quite underground) homes for the middle

C This book, for those who truly want to integrate innovation and low cost with deep Earth comfort and resilience and all the good stuff that goes with it.

This book, in short, is in a class of its own. Most will notice that it was first offered in 1978. As the USA goes through a major financial crisis that proves nothing has changed–Wall Street and the two “parties” it has bought down to their lost souls are still here, still looting the commonwealth–this book proves that it is timeless.

There is indeed a great deal of land across this great country where one can still afford to “dig in,” and this could not be a better time to be thinking about renting what you have now in the close in fragile areas, and setting up alternative housing with adjacent land for a basic Life Garden.

As I went through each chapter I found the list of materials, the prices, the diagrams, and the text all coherent, concise, and totally “on target.” Black and white photographs throughout, and a handful of color photographs in the middle, round the book out.

The book ends by discreetly recommending a tape series on design as the key element for success, and one that professional architects generally overlook (as we are all learning, the “experts” in finance and other areas are really “credentialed” but NOT experts).

I LIKE THIS BOOK. As an afterthought, it is recommended by just about every major alternative living, green energy, and sanity outpost (Vermont, Oregon, Washington State) reviewer. This book is a “good deal” and inspiring to boot.

Category: 5 Star

Review: Seven Pillars of Wisdom–A Triumph

Review: Modern Warfare–A French View of Counterinsurgency

Review DVD John Adams (HBO Miniseries)

Review: The Energy Non-Crisis

Review: The Making of a Conservative Environmentalist

Review: Opening America’s Market–U.S. Foreign Trade Policy Since 1776 (Luther Hartwell Hodges Series on Business, Society and the State)

Review: The Fifty Dollar and Up Underground House Book