Fred Kaplan - The Insurgents: David Petraeus and the Plot to Change the American Way of War

Additional praise for

THE INSURGENTS

Thrilling reading.... There is no one better equipped to tell the story... than Fred Kaplan, a rare combination of defense intellectual and pugnacious reporter.... He brings genuine expertise to his fine storytelling.... An authoritative, gripping and somewhat terrifying account of how the American military approached two major wars in the combustible Islamic world.

Thanassis Cambaniss, The New York Times Book Review

Serious and insightful.... The Insurgents seems destined to be one of the more significant looks at how the US pursued the war in Iraq and at the complex mind of the general in charge when the tide turned.

Tony Perry, Los Angeles Times

Riveting... essential reading.... Kaplans meticulous account of the ways Petraeus found to bring together and nurture the counterinsurgency cabal might profitably be read by anyone interested in bringing change to a giant bureaucracy.

John Barry, The Daily Beast

Excellent... Poignant and timely.... A good read, rich in texture and never less than wise.

Rosa Brooks, Foreign Policy

Kaplan has a gift for bringing to life what might otherwise seem like arcane strategic debates by linking them to the personalities and biographies of the main participates, and he vividly captures the drama of Petraeus struggle against a Pentagon establishment.

Lawrence Freedman, Foreign Affairs

Compelling

Dexter Filkins, The New Yorker

A very readable, thoroughly reported account of how, in American military circles, counterinsurgency became a policy instead of a dirty word.

Janet Maslin, The New York Times

The books strength lies in the rich detail Kaplan offers the reader as he traces the network of colleagues all dedicated to stopping the violence in Iraq by employing classic counterinsurgency techniques. He untangles the web of professional connections much the same way an intelligence analyst might track down the associates of an al-Qaeda cell.... What emerges is a meticulously researched picture.

Laura Colarusso, The Washington Monthly

A tremendously clear and informative guide to the strengths and weaknesses of the military we have today and to the decisions we are about to make.... Anyone who reads The Insurgents will be better prepared to understand what America has done right and wrong with its military over the past generation.

James Fallows, The American Prospect

A dramatic and also damning analysis.... An absorbing and informative account.

William W. Finan, Jr., Current History

A must-read for military and national security professionals... Prodigious detail... earthy information about the human foibles of the participants.

Gary Anderson, Washington Times

Fascinating... One of the most interesting books Ive read in the past seven years about the US in Iraq and counterinsurgency.... It is also one of the rare books that links personal histories, political maneuvers inside the national-security apparatus, and strategy on the ground.

Stphane Taillat, Alliance Gostratgique

A fascinating... fast-moving, insider account... of how the insurgentssavvy officers with big brains and advanced degrees in history and the social sciencescame to develop a new counterinsurgency doctrine, push the careers of their friends, form alliances across the government, influence the development of the surge in Iraq and generally succeed against the wishes of many in Congress, the Joint Chiefs and the previous theater commanders.

Joseph J. Collins, Armed Forces Journal

A compelling story combined with thoughtful analysis of the development, application and limitations of a new model of applying American military power.

Kirkus Reviews

An illuminating and frequently infuriating examination of how the US views warfare. Measured and meticulous, Kaplans account is informative, detail-laden, and tempered by sharp analysis.

Publishers Weekly

Fred Kaplan has written a dazzling, compulsively readable book. Lets start with the fact that it is so well written, a quality so often lacking in books describing counterinsurgency. Lets also throw in the facts that it is both deeply researched and also devoid of cheerleading for the military or indeed any other kind of political bias. This book will join a small shelf of the most important accounts of the wars America has fought and will likely continue to fight in the twenty-first century.

Peter Bergen, author of Manhunt: The Ten-Year Search for Bin Laden from 9/11 to Abbottabad

Fred Kaplan, one of the best military journalists we have, tells the compelling story of how a cadre of officers and civilians tried to rescue victory from defeat in Iraq and Afghanistan by putting the theory of counterinsurgency into practice, revolutionizing the US Army from within. His narrative is vivid and revelatory, dramatizing a crucial piece of recent history that we shouldnt allow ourselves to forget, however painful the memory.

George Packer, author of The Assassins Gate: America in Iraq

Fred Kaplan is one of the best in the business, a top-notch journalist and military analyst with serious intellectual chops and a killer pen. His new book, The Insurgents, tells the story of the rise and fall of the COINdinistas from Iraq to Afghanistan and beyond, and its not only a great readits a major contribution to one of the most important strategic debates of our time.

Gideon Rose, editor, Foreign Affairs , and author of How Wars End

A fascinating and powerful work by Americas wisest national-security reporter about an epic battle: the Armys search for a way to win the wars of the twenty-first century. If you love your country, if you care about its soldiers, if you wonder about the wisdom of their commanders, read this book now.

Tim Weiner, author of Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA and Enemies: A History of the FBI

(1) General David Petraeus with his troops in Helmand Province, Afghanistan.

(2) As a young paratrooper in the late 1970s, Petraeus read Counterinsurgency Warfare by the retired French officer David Galula , who argued that this sort of war required not just killing the enemy but reforming the government and building up the economy.

(3) Colonel George Abe Lincoln started a Social Science Department at West Point just after World War II, realizing that the Army needed officers educated in politics and economics, not just war. This style of thinking would warm its adherents to Galulas ideas. Lincoln also created a network of Sosh graduates, nicknamed the Lincoln Brigade, which persisted in Army circles for decades.

(4) Petraeus served as General John Galvin s aide-de-camp in the early 80s, then as his assistant in Central America a few years later, his first exposure to insurgency wars.

(5) Lieutenant Colonel John Nagl , one of Petraeuss West Point protgs, wrote a book comparing the British armys victory in Malaya with Americas defeat in Vietnam, then, as a high-level assistant in the Pentagon, lobbied his superiors to adopt a COIN strategy in Iraq.