1 comments about The Diaries of John Gregory Bourke: June 1, 1878-June 22, 1880 (Diaries of John Gregory Bourke).

1. Historians of the Apache and Sioux wars have long used the diaries of Lieutenant (later Captain) John Gregory Bourke but until Charles Robinson came along they have been available only at the West Point library, or in microfilm copies at a few university libraries. Bourke maintained a through and careful journal and frequently included the text of offical cables and reports. This is not a great diary from a literary point of view, but Bourke's gradually developing understanding of the Indians he was putting on reservations reflects what was going on in the collective mind of America itself. Before Bourke died he had become one of the proto-anthropologists who recorded the beliefs and customs of Indians who were fast forgetting their own culture. The present volume -- third in the series -- is notable for an extended account of the killing of Crazy Horse in 1877, an unnecessary blunder for which General George Crook, Bourke's hero in both sense of the word, was largely responsible. Bourke does what he can to defend his commander, including many distortions and a few outright lies. This account must be read with care and frequent reference to other accounts by Oglalas interviewed by Eleanor Hinman and Mari Sandoz, and by Billy Garnett, the ubiquitous interpreter, then only 22--years-old; Jesse Lee and Henry Lemly. But Bourke's sensitivity on the point only highlights the importance of his diary; he was in the thick of events, had the character to shed prejudices along the way, and did serious work in preserving knowledge of Indians as they were in the last third of the 19th century. Robinson is the author of many books of frontier military history, including a biography of Crook. His annotations of the Bourke diaries are thorough and reliable. No interested person or serious library should be without these books. Reviewed by Thomas Powers.

5 comments about Patton And Rommel: Men of War in the Twentieth Century.

1. This is not a bad book if you realize what it really is: a nice light-reading history. This is not for those who already have dozens of books about these two men. It is a book for those who haven't read much history, but would like to get a nice introduction to these two great generals. For that, it's a really good book.
   
   I found that the author of this book seems to favor Rommel over Patton. Whereas Rommel is depicted as a competent professional soldier, Patton is often depicted as someone who is more concerned with his career and rank rather than military issues. The author paints Patton as a man on the verge of mental breakdown, and as a bit of a whiner. If you're a Patton fan, you might want to avoid this book.



2. I bought this book at an airport bookstore, and really enjoyed it. For those that don't have the time to read full biographies of Patton and Rommell, this is the book for you. If you've already read separate biographies of the two, I wouldn't necessarily recommend this book.



3. Several others have already commented on the curious and total lack of maps and photos. How can you have a book on battles and omit maps? Plus, the textual descriptions of key battles, like El Alamein, Tobruk, Kasserine Pass and the Allied invasion of Sicily are good but abbreviated. You can find far more detailed accounts elsewhere. For example, there are numerous books devoted to El Alamein or the Battle of the Bulge. Still, Showalter must be clearly aware that his book adds little new to the existing accounts of the battles it describes. Perhaps this was the reason for the omission of maps?
   
   The purported value of the book is in its comparison of the experiences and, to some extent, the personalities and motivations of Patton and Rommel. Here, other reviewers have also remarked that this is quite a hard task. But Showalter seems to have done a reasonable job, including, I presume, interviews with Manfred Rommel, the general's son.
   
   But at least for me, there were a few new snippets that I have not found in other texts. First was the deliberate decision by the US to restrict the size of the army to 90 divisions. In part because the navy and marines have to be built up to fight the Pacific war. But also, this let the US arm as heavily as possible those army divisions. So the US took advantage of its industrial prowess, to minimise its casualties. Fair enough. But in many other accounts of the war, I've never run into mention of this 90 division limit. I'm not saying it's a secret. Undoubtedly, there must be books mentioning it; perhaps even the official histories of the US army. Still it's surprising to know. Especially because Showalter asserts that one consequence was that after Normandy, Eisenhower was restricted in how aggressively he could march across Europe. Whereas with more troops, he might have been able to attack earlier into Germany.
   
   Another useful insight was about how Patton and Rommel were regarded after the war, by the militaries of the US and West Germany. Books on World War 2 tend to end their accounts shortly after the end of the war, naturally. So it was interesting to read that ironically, Patton was more highly regarded than Rommel by the Bundeswehr. While the reverse tended to be true in the US. Typically, it is not easy to get any detailed accounts of the Bundeswehr, written in English. Partly because peacetime militaries generate less interest than wartime. But perhaps also because the Bundeswehr deliberately kept a low profile after the war, to discourage militarism. So Showalter's descriptions of Bundeswehr assessments, if accurate, are quite interesting and fill a gap in the general knowledge.



4. You can see in these 420 pages the author deep knowledge of the history of World War II and a book that provide the right level of information in narrating the lives of two great generals of this war. Both these generals, as you will see, had very different backgrounds, different ways of commands and personalities and it is inevitable to have more sympathy with one them after reading the book. To be a General is a huge responsability which requires several characteristics depending on the job or task, that general will execute. What I admire about Rommel was his previous experience in World War I and for Patton, his knowledge of history and his sense of humor. Patton was an old fashioned soldier, a romantic warrior, with an undoubtedly very peculiar personality. Rommel was an exceptional leader and Feldmarschall that could not flank Hitler's lunatic ideas, finally paying with his life.
   I just have one complain with the book, and it is the absolutely lack of maps or bibliography, at least in the paperback. Despite the later, this is a book to recommend.



5. Although the book is called Patton and Rommel it really is less one book detailing and comparing two of the most famous generals of the Second World War, than it is two biographies, riffled together in one cover.
   It also seems to put far more emphasis on Rommel than Patton rather than treat them as equals. In each man's case it details their lives, experiences and their struggles with the development of mobile warfare following the stalemate of the First World War's trenches. But still the two lives do not interact. In reality the two warriors never faced each other across a battlefield but the author does not draw parallels or conclusions. He merely trots out the lives to be displayed on the pages and lets the reader make his or her conclusions.
   
   In telling Rommel's story Showalter details how Rommel could support Hitler without being a Nazi. He explores Rommel's infamous lack of knowledge in using a staff or logistics in an overall theme of the German army and the development of Rommel's near fatal hubris. While exploring Rommel's success in the western desert he in detail pulls down the popular alternate history theory that Germany could have won the war by invading Russia via Palestine.
   
   With Patton he details Patton's family history and his early growth and development in the prewar, contact ladened army and how Patton's person and married into wealth gave him opportunities and access a less wealthy officer would have missed. The reader is given an explanation for the army's way to choose commanders during the war that leads away from the common view that it was a prejudice against `loose cannon' Patton.
   
   One serious weakness is the fact there is almost no real explanation as to the mental unraveling of Patton from a social butterfly in his early days who was put forward as a scholar and poster boy of the charming army officer to the infamous image of a man who in effect could shoot himself in the foot with this mouth and became viewed by commanders as someone who has to be handled. There is a brief reference to a fall while playing polo and a mid life crisis but otherwise what could be viewed as the single most intriguing element of Patton's life is just passed over with an all too familiar litany of his missteps in his later career.
   
   For the book itself, the editing is bad, this NOT the author's fault but several typos make the reader pause to think "what was that?" There are virtually no footnotes and no bibliography. To guide the reader to see what Showalter's sources were.
   
   Visually the book is very weak. There are no maps. OK we can probably all find France and Germany and Italy on a map but it might help to have a more up close view of parts of Africa where much of the fighting takes place, or Lorraine where Patton's army bogged down or the Italian passes where young Rommel first won his spurs.
   There are no photos apart from the half face shots on the cover. So one is left to wonder what young Rommel looked like with his Blue Max or young socialite Patton who invariably is otherwise imaged like George C Scott. Both generals were popular with reporters and national PR machines and so there is no dearth of material.
   
   The author says he does not want to be academic but approachable; however he often throws out terms in Latin or French that the reader may well not know. "It was retiarus against secutor" springs to mind.
   
   Overall for the reader who did not know anything about the Generals apart from the old movies and odd documentary, this is a good introduction. It spells out the lives and explores and explodes some of the myths around each man but for more experienced scholars it is weak with the author neither drawing conclusions himself or inviting the reader to do so. There is little enough explanation why the two names are together in one book since they are not compared or contrasted. The book could have as easily been Patton and Hodges or Rommel and Kesselring for all the principal subjects are related within the text.

5 comments about Infantry Attacks.

1. This book shows the ingenuity of Erwin Rommel, with a wonderfully done intro by his son. With Erwin's devotion to his troops, its easy to see why he became the "desert fox". His service shows not only his character, but his sense of direction. Had the Allies had this general on their side in either world war, a swifter end would have been reached.



2. This book chronicles Rommel's career as an infrantry officer of a Wurttemburg mountain brigade. Ends at the beginning of 1918 in Italy, well before the end of the war. Often displays the equipment inferiority of Germany's foes, mainly Romania and Italy. The French, whom Rommel also fights, are much better armed and led than the others, although the Germans, Rommel included, believe themselves to be superior. Interesting for its portrayal of fighting in the Vosges, a very quiet section of the western front.



3. 
   The principal players of the Second World War paid their dues in the First, and Erwin Rommel was no exception. The man who would later become "the Desert Fox" and win worldwide acclaim as one of the greatest generals of all time began his combat career as a young lieutenant in the army of Wilhelm II, indistinguishable from thousands of others who crossed the French or Belgian frontier in 1914. Four years later he was one of the most decorated soldiers in the Imperial Army, holder of the "Pour le Merite" (the highest Prussian award for bravery) and a firm believer that "positional [i.e. trench] warfare" was for fools. His credo could be summed up in the old Prussian maxim: "Never ask how strong the enemy is, only where he is -- and march to the sound of guns."
   
   Rommel published INFANTRY ATTACKS in 1937, when he was a lieutenant-colonel in the Reichsheer and commandant of the military academy in Weiner Neustadt. At the time he was already famous in the German army for his 1914 - 1918 exploits, but INFANTRY ATTACKS brought him international acclaim, at least in military circles. In Germany the book made him quite wealthy, and in a sense one can see why: compared to the turgid, half-mystical reminiscences of some of his contemporaries, INFANTRY ATTACKS is entirely without introspection. It is simply a recounting of the innumerable small-unit actions in which Rommel participated in during the Great War. The book's methodical, matter-of-fact style reflects the personality of its author, who was not inclined to philosophizing. The "whys" and "wherefores" of war mattered to him not at all. Unlike Ernst Juenger, who also won the Pour le Merite and wrote postwar accounts of his exploits (THE STORM OF STEEL, COPSE 125, WAR AS AN INWARD EXPERIENCE) Rommel wasn't interested in the "inward experience", just the fighting. He was a soldier's soldier.
   
   During the War, Rommel served extensively in France, Rumania and Italy, and INFANTRY ATTACKS recounts in great detail his many offensive exploits, where he distinguished himself not merely with his aggressive style but by his habit (repeated in World War II) of leading from the front. Utterly fearless, possessing unlimited physical stamina and seemingly immune to pain (his gunshot wounds are described merely as events, like losing the sole of a shoe; the only thing that seems to have caused him real discomfort in the whole war was getting a foot smashed by a boulder in the mountains) Rommel was the ideal junior officer under any conditions, and was rightly worshipped by his men - another trait he enjoyed in the '39 - 45 war. He was further distinguished by his nobility and chivalry, qualities which are more responsible than his military genius for making him beloved among his former enemies. Today, Rommel is the only one of the myriad generals who achieved fame in Nazi Germany who is officially honored by the present day German government.
   
   The strength of INFANTRY ATTACKS lies not merely in the nature of what is being described (battle and more battle) but in the fact that Rommel has no artistic pretentions: he simply records what happened without sentimentalizing or succumbing to the Germanic curse of using 1,000 words when two hundred would suffice. This, however, is also the book's great weakness: all these skirmishes, raids, marches, countermarches, midnight conferences, attacks, retirements, hand-grenade fights, machine-gun duels, artillery bombardments, and climbs up mountain slopes in the rain, snow and blazing sun begin to wear down the reader over time. If it is possible for combat to be monotonous, Rommel occasionally manages to make it so, if only by the staggering amount of it he actually experienced. If Juenger was often turgid and romantic, he was also willing to discuss the lighter side of war - the pranks, the drinking, the philosophical bull-sessions and the endless war against rats, boredom and Prussian discipline. Such humanistic moments would have been welcome in this book, but Rommel was not inclined to dwell on them. (The closest thing he displays to a sense of humor is contemptuous jokes at the expense of the French and the Italians, neither of whom seem to have impressed him with their soldierly ability.)
   
   So, if you are looking for a pure combat memior, penned by one of the greatest soldiers ever, INFANTRY ATTACKS is the very definition of the bill. But if you want a look "under the helmet" into the mind and soul of a great fighting man, I would suggest supplementing ATTACKS with Juenger's more layered STORM OF STEEL. After all, nothing is more Prussian than obtaining a "total view" of a military situation!
   
   (Note: INFANTRY ATTACKS was published in Germany as INFANTERIE GRIEFT AN; in English this was originally translated as "ATTACKS" and under that title was published during WW 2. ATTACKS is also for sale on Amazon, but ATTACKS and INFANTRY ATTACKS are the exact same book, though they have different forwards and the translation slightly differs; so if you already have the one, there is no need to buy the other)



4. I gave INFANTRY ATTACKS five stars. I thought I knew Rommel, but this book comprised of after-action reports and observations added a lot to my mental picture of him.
   
   He dedicated his writing to the German soldier, the ordinary Landser he led in the Great War. Unlike other war memoirs, Rommel keeps the attention focused upon his men and their achievements under difficult circumstances. He's the kind of officer most soldiers dream of having.
   
   His book is not literature, like Remarque's ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT, but it certainly gives you a detailed view of World War I and how it was conducted. It also shows aspects of Rommel I hadn't really expected to see.
   
   He observes that there are times when you have to dig in and hold fast. There are other times when you should attack and still others when you should defer an attack because of inadequate reserves to exploit a breakthough.
   
   Rommel's ability to size up a situation quickly and react appropriately is what struck me about this work. If you're interested in World War I, Rommel, or military history, you'll enjoy this book. I gave it five stars.



5. My son, a serving soldier in the National Guard, asked me for a good book on infantry tactics. I went right to the shelf, and pulled down this book.
   
   Rommel served on a variety of fronts during the First World War, and even fought his future Italian allies, a fact he loved to point out to them during the Second World War. His stories, assembled in this book, made him something of a military celebrity between the wars. The book shows the rise of "fire and maneuver" infantry tactics by squads, platoons, and companies. This was a major change from the tactics of the 19th century, where maneuver elements were more often battalions and regiments.
   
   If you watch the scene in the movie "Patton" where George S. Patton attributes his victory over the Germans to reading Rommel's book, this is the book he read.

5 comments about The Sutras of Abu Ghraib: Notes from a Conscientious Objector.

1. I found Aidan Delgado's willingness to share both his evolving convictions as well as his weakness and doubts throughout the Iraq experience to be deeply touching. His transparent honesty is unexpected and moving. This sifting, without pretense, of the humanity out of the horror of Abu Ghraib gives us all a glimpse of our own potential...either way.



2. This well-written book will hold your attention from beginning to end. A true story that reads like a novel with a range of "characters" that you care about - or strongly dislike. Mr. Delgado helps one to understand the situations and attitudes that make the abuse that took place at Abu Gharib (and other places) possible. He can feel proud that he took a stand to live up to his principles.



3. Aidan Delgado's book is not about THE war - my brother's book is about his war.
   
   Filled with some great moments, many comic and dreadful at the same time, Aidan's book shines brightest when he shows us his war, internal and external, through his eyes and then again through his hindsight.
   
   To some, his insights and reflections may initially come off as precocious if not awkward, but as you come to know the writer, come to see him as he no doubt sees himself, you find the juxtaposition appropriate. A young man too smart and too wise for the insanity of the situation and too self-conscious and self-aware to lose himself to THE WAR. In the tradition of books like "The Way of the Peaceful Warrior" a reader growths along side the writer until, at the books conclusion, you feel the mixed relief and emptiness of "what next."
   
   Even in the writing of the book, Aidan seems to recognize this inherent clash between his youth, his paygrade, his growing wisdom and thoughtfulness and the over-wrought social context into which his words fall. Normally, books like this are penned by seasoned men, graying at the temples and we are ready to accept their memories and insights. Despite Aidan's youth, his "voice" is truly captured in his writing.



4. The Sutras of Abu Ghraib is a vivid description of a soldier's life in Iraq, and also of the life that led him to war and brought him back as a conscientious objector. An American Buddhist serving with the U.S. Army in Iraq, Delgado stuck out among his fellow soldiers as well as among Iraqis, and his book highlights the difficulty of a lonely, disassociated soldier trying to disentangle himself from what became for him an intolerably immoral war. Even if often ridiculed for his Buddhist principles, made to feel embarrassed about his application for conscientious objector, and even called a "terrorist sympathizer", Delgado describes how some soldiers - even the ones he least expected - were honestly understanding and even sympathetic, and this was the real love and brotherhood he found in the Army. Ranging from hilarious accounts of the absurdities of life to gloomy and disheartening stories of the real face of war, The Sutras of Abu Ghraib flies the reader from sandy deserts in southern Iraq, to sunny beaches in Florida, back through the dark bowels of Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad, and into the heart and soul of a naïve soldier turned peace activist. A must read for anyone interested in the realities of the war in Iraq and in the hopeful possibility for personal growth and triumph in face of the worst challenges of life.



5. Couldn't put this book down. Delgado tells a touching and troubling story: I was touched by how openly he spoke about his fears and feelings. I was troubled by the reality in Iraq that he revealed. Delgado was relatively fair and honest in portraying his superiors and peers and situation in the Army--it is not easy to talk about such an important moment in your life with objectivity. It shows a great amount of maturity in such a young author.
   
   If you are for or against the war, Buddhist or not---this is a book about the moments in your life that change who you are forever. Delgado's was a beautiful and painful transformation from a confused, naive college student to a Buddhist, veteran and activist.
   
   Everyone should read this book.

2 comments about Sea Wolf of the Confederacy: The Daring Civil War Raids of Naval Lt. Charles W. Read.

1. Although a life-long Civil War buff I had never heard of this attempt by a young Confederate Naval officer to take the war to the seas off New England. Lt. Charles A. Read had previously served on the ironclad "Arkansas" and the commerce raider "Florida" and had seen a lot of hard fighting - which he seemed to relish. In February, of 1863, the "Florida" captured a Union merchant vessel and Read was given permission to take over and convert this captured ship into another commerce raider. Read promptly sailed to the North and with only one small cannon on board began to wreak havoc on the New England fishing industry. The Northern states then began beseeching Washington for more protection - threatening to divert resources from the bloackade of Southern ports. Shipping insurance rates started rising, too.
   
   Shaw skillfully interweaves the two sides of the story - the motives and actions of the protagonist, Read, and his antagonist, Union Secretary of Navy Gideon Welles. The author may have a Northern bias but it does not ruin the story. There are many good accounts of Civil War naval actions - we can add this one to the list.



2. Charles W. Read was an inept student, he graduated last in his class at Annapolis in 1860 just before he re-signed his commission in the US Navy. What he showed (just like US Grant and a lot of other military minds) was that some people do best by doing, not studying. Having lost his steam ram in a battle on the Mississippi River near Vicksburg. He is called to work on a "Raider" out of Mobile Bay.
   
   Once on the open ocean "Florida" sailed into the Caribbean where they attacked Union commerce and merchant marine. Taking a captured ship "Tacony" with one howitzer and some fake (Quaker) wood guns, Read proceeds to damage over twenty ships on his way up to Portland Maine where they are caught but only after they steal a US Revenue Cutter and blow it up. The story is a lot like that of the "Shenandoah" which had two books about it published in 2005; more interesting from an historical point of view but not that thrilling. (How exciting can it be to read about the capture and burning of fishing Schooners?)

5 comments about A-Train: Memoirs of a Tuskegee Airman.

1. I initially bought this book expecting it to be similar to the other slew of WWII books out there ( The ME-109 dove at me out of the sun with guns blazing...). Instead I got an honest account of a man who wanted to fly for his country and be treated with the same respect as any other pilot. Dryden's memories and descriptions of his voyage through training to be a pilot as well as the segregated and de-segregated Air Force are interesting and honest. Dryden't narrative is not the heart-pounding, can't-put-the-book down type but rather the story of a man who, faced with tremendous adversity from his own society and country, persevered. There is no bitterness in Dryden's story, and I put the book down tremendously impressed by his belief in himself, in his religion and his friend. It's a good book



2. Every young African American boy should read this book. It is an inspiration.



3. I meet Col. Dryden when he gave a talk about his experiences and his book. I then read the book a felt a tremendous respect for the author and all the Tuskeegee Airmen. Col. Dryden tells his personal story in a way that made me feel as though I was there with him the whole time. The challanges of blacks in America in his story left a powerful impact on me, the courage the author displayed is an insperation. A-Train is very well written and reads easily. It is an powerful story that left me feeling inadequate and ashamed to be white. I had the oportunity to meet Col. Dryden again and sought him out just to shake his hand again, knowing him from his book, it was hard to hide my emotions.



4. Charles Dryden's book forces people to see the trials and tribulations encountered by black servicemen and women during WWII. I was shocked to read about the different encounters with 'Jim Crow' that Dryden and his peers waded through during their service years. A must for anybody curious about WWII, the Tuskegee Airmen or about the fight for civil rights in America.



5. I had the opportunity to read this book. From the moment of the first word to the very last word, the book draws you in to read more. The graphic descriptions can take you to the other side of the world and stand next to the author on his travels. You know what it was like be black during the "Jim Crow" days on the trains in the south. Granted that my 25 years never saw the ugly side of America, his visual imagery is just so vivid that I seriously think they should dump "Scarlett Letter" and place this book on the reading lists of High School Students.

1 comments about Through Our Eyes.

1. I bought this book after reading about it on a local blog. I was mainly interested in it because it was written by a fellow South Carolinian and one of the first Marines to enter Iraq. I expected the writing to be rough, and it was. That said, I rank it among the top 2 or 3 books I've read this year.
   
   This is written from the heart by a man who loves his country, his fellow Marines, and his cultural place in the world. Gung ho from the start to the end, Odom describes the intense training and preparation for the war, and the incredible chaos, excitement and boredom of the war itself. As I read of Odom's experiences, I began to feel as if he were writing for catharsis, and indeed he confesses as much midway through the book. I am proud of and horrified by the tales he tells. It was, through most of the book, what I would have expected from a good ol' Southern boy with a deep and abiding love for his country and family.
   
   What I didn't expect was the emotions and impact of the final two chapters. I wept unashamedly and anguished with Odom as he explored the war and its aftermath on him, his family, our nation, and his fellow Marines.
   
   It matters not what your views on the war are. This book will confirm them and cause you to question them simultaneously.

5 comments about Battle Ready (Commander Series).

1. In the summer of 1994, I attended a change-of-command ceremony at Camp Pendleton for the I Marine Expeditionary Force. A new 3-star was about to take command prematurely for someone of his seniority. He hadn't even been a division commander, a 2-star billet. The fast-tracking general was Tony Zinni and the rest of his career continued to rocket. Other reviewers have commented on every aspect of his book, including his lack of support for the invasion of Iraq, so I will focus on two parts that impressed me deeply. I do agree with several others that having Tom Clancy as a co-author was distracting and unnecessary. The alternating first and third-person narratives were uneven at times. Thus the 4-stars. But then again, "Battle Ready" is not a literary selection.
   
   The first part was Zinni's 1967 tour as an adviser (called "co van" for "trusted friend" with the Vietnamese Marine Corps). Many accounts have been published about Marines in Vietnam but only handful has come from advisers; the very best Marine officers were selected for advisory duty. Other "co vans" include Gens. Boomer, Hoar, and Myatt--on the Army side, McCaffrey, Powell and Schwarzkopf. All of these men experienced a different Vietnam War than those who fought in American units.
   
   Why is Zinni's advisory experience relevant now? Marine advisers are mentoring Iraqis, and they could only dream their counterparts fought like the South Vietnamese. There's no hubris in Zinni's observations. He understood the Americans' lack of cultural knowledge, including his own early on: "The advisers' job was not to give the Vietnamese Marines tactical advice (they had more fighting experience than most Americans, and it was their country...American commanders were all in a hurry. They wanted to end the war on their one-year tour of duty. Vietnamese [Marine] commanders realized they would be in it for the duration."
   
   The last chapter, Chapter Eight titled "The Calling," is a classic leadership primer-observations made over the distinguished 40-year career of Zinni, a Marine warrior, scholar and leader. As a former Marine, I found his last paragraph most touching: "I have been all over this globe and exposed to most of the cultures on it. I am fascinated by them. I love the diversity. I want to understand them and embrace them. I could never understand prejudice or rejection or the sense of superiority that drive the hatemongers of the world. I lived through a tumultuous period of our history when our own minorities broke from second-class citizenship into full participation in this wonderful dream we call America. I have been proud of their accomplishments and contributions. They have proven the bigots wrong and made our nation greater. I hope the dream we have struggled to realize can be extended to the rest of the planet."
   
   General, it was my privilege to serve under commanders like you. Semper fi!



2. While 'In to the storm' elaborate detail of one big battle, and 'Shadow warrior' tells many big events, this 'Battle ready' tells us every single experience of General Zinni from O-2, O-3, O-4, everything till retired from O-10. I think I will be bored but with his sense of humor, General Zinni brings all his tought without make this book boring. (e.g. the HANDCON and took a bus in 'Nam).
   I learn how military and diplomat works in peacemaker process.



3. This book, co written with General Tony Zinni, tells of the methods, means, and the reasons for our military. The last part, when General Zinni pulls no punches, about our approach to war, foreign relations, and when to use and how to use the military [with the help of the civilian authority] to fight smarter battles and when to fight, is an excellent assessment of our current problems in the U.S.. His approach to fight in a "smarter" way, reflecting the new realities of war, e.g., terrorism, and an ever changing world, is the way it should be-and not to declare "victory", if that is the objective, on an aircraft carrier as a photo-op [his words], and to support the ideas that are right and to criticize the ideas that are wrong, even if they are "politically" incorrect. A first rate book.



4. Mr Clancy is one of the best military writers and he is typically on his game in this biography of Marine General Tony Zinni who eventually rose to CINC at CENTCOM, the command that has the heart of the middle east at its core. Clancy deftly switches back and forth between a first-person narrative of his subject and his own overviews of the history and background of each period, whether it be Vietnam or Somalia, Turkey or Pakistan. The only issue I have with Tom Clancy is italics. Everything told verbally by General Zinni is presented in italics so that a 440-page narrative probably contains about 220 pages of italics. If only Mr. Clancy would consult the Chicago Manual which states that italics should be used sparingly and never for more than a paragraph! Tom, I get a different voice in my head when I read the italics and I don't necessarily like that voice.



5. 
   I listened to it, rather than turning pages. The first half was more interesting than the
   second half, which is more politics than personal or military history. That is not to deny
   value to the later portion of the book. It was interesting to compare Zinni's adventures in
   Somalia to the account in "Emergency Sex and Other Desperate Measures -- A True Story From
   Hell On Earth" by Kenneth Cain, Heidi Postlewait, and Andrew Thompson. They can both be true.
   
   Zinni wins my admiration for his patient determination to improve things, a unit or a nation.
   He shows the Somalia warlords as human. It was a disappointment that he took so long to see
   through Yasser Arafat.
   
   Zinni makes much of his "tell it like it is" attitude, and his interest in how to fight effectively.
   I was surprised that he did not mention the statue of John Boyd in the center of the lobby at
   Marine headquarters. Boyd was an Air Force fighter pilot, that taught how to fight effectively,
   and told unpopular truths. Amazon has several books about him.
   
   Zinni did not support the Iraq war. He claims plans for after the battles were won were not done,
   or not done well. Could be. He claims 300,000 troops were needed. I wish he had supplied details
   of that estimate, similar to the detailed plans for the evacuation from Somalia.
   
   This is not one of Clancy's best, but it is still pretty good. I recommend it to those interested
   in military history, whatever their opinions on the current Iraq situation.

2 comments about Thieves of Baghdad: One Marine's Passion to Recover the World's Greatest Stolen Treasures.

1. Matthew Bogdanos' story of the lost antiquities of the Bahgdad Museum is a fascinating and informative account of his experiences with an interagency counterterrorism unit following 9/11. However, its not just about Bahgdad, as he tells us about the challenges he faces growing up in downtown New York, his roots in Greek and Middle Eastern classics, etc. In fact, despite the extraordinary depth of his knowledge of classic literature, arts, and history, there is a certain air of self-promotion throughout the book that the reader just can't overlook. Nonetheless, I found Bogdanos' writing to be sophisticated and interesting and I felt that I finished his book with a better understanding of U.S. efforts to help the Iraqi people help themselves (despite the efforts of their fellow Iraqi's to sell their own heritage to the highest bidders). The beautiful photos add great depth to Bogdanos' account and spark the reader's interest in the history and art of the region. Enjoy this highly unusual account of one man's war time experiences.



2. Excellent book! An interesting read for anyone who wants to understand other facets of what our troops encounter while deployed. JD

5 comments about A Call to the Sea: Captain Charles Stewart of the USS Constitution.

1. This book reads like an age of sail novel- but it's all true. It's a very informative and very exciting biography. You'll also learn alot about early U.S. Naval history. It amazes me that we have known so little about Charles Stewart!! The auhors have done a great job. I agree with the other Amazon reviewers- you won't be able to put this one down. Extraordinary!!



2. Delia Tudor Parnell, nee Stewart, did not die in 1892 or in Bordentown, New Jersey at Montpelier. She died at Avondale, Wicklow, Ireland (the Parnell home) in 1898 in a terrible accident; her dress caught fire and she died an extremely painful death.
   Charles Stewart, son of Admiral Charles Stewart, did not die in Paris in 1874. He died in Rome, Italy in 1872.
   These factual discrepencies do not give me much comfort that this biography is trustworthy.



3. I finally read this book that had been a Christmas present from my son. I was hesitant to read something marketed as a "real life Jack Aubrey" since I'm a fan of that series, but I was pleasantly surprised that it lived up to the book jacket.
   
   I found three minor faults with the work. First, as another reviewer mentioned, there were a few name/date inaccuracies; for example, in a discussion of the gunboat battle of the Barbary War, the book has 1803 instead of 1804. There were a few occasions in the book when the authors actually discuss various sources and their merits and they actually argue through why some sources and dates don't seem right. That leads me to believe it was either minor oversights or a failure in editing. Second, the authors overused the term "old schoolyard friends" when referring to Stewart, Decatur or Somers. Once or twice would have sufficed. Third, in the narratives about Stewart's facing off against two British fleets (Warren's and Collier's), it would have been helpful to have researched and explored the British perspectives more.
   
   That said, I thought this was a very strong biography in a traditional sense. As a retired Navy officer, I also found it refreshing for a naval biography to be written by two naval officers. They used extensive primary sources and they tell a great story. I had only barely heard of Stewart before reading this, but he led an incredible life. I was familiar with the Barbary Wars and War of 1812, but their telling of his time in the Pacific was entirely new to me - in fact I have not seen it told elsewhere except tangentially by Nathaniel Philbrick in "the Tale of the Whaleship Essex" - and the problems Stewart had with a State Department agent and his wife were almost hilarious had they not been so bad.
   
   If you want to read about the first six decades of the U.S. Navy told through the eyes of one officer's career, this book is it.



4. Fair, somewhat interesting but rather dull. Not well written, reads like it was patched together, same information restated numerous times.



5. Carefully researched and written by two Naval officers, this book is a biography of one man, Charles Stewart, but it tells you almost as much about the Navy as it existed in the early years of our country.
   
   Stewart served in the navy for sixty-three years, from age 19 to 83. He commanded eleven United States Navy ships, more than any other person.
   
   There have been three ships in the navy named for Capt. Stewart. The first USS Stewart (DD-13) was a Bainbridge-class destroyer which served from 1902 until 1919.
   
   The second USS Stewart (DD-224) was a Clemson-class destroyer which was commissioned in 1920. In early 1942 she was damaged by an Japanese air attack. She was further damaged while in dry dock for repairs. Demolition charges were then set off inside the ship and she was hit by another Japanese bomb. She and the drydock sank. The Japanese Navy raised her, repaired her and renamed her Patrol Boat No. 102. She served through the rest of the war, and re-entered the US Navy after the war, at which time there were two USS Stewarts in the Navy. DD-224 was later used as a target ship for aircraft and was sunk in 1946.
   
   The third Stewart (DE-238) was an Edsall-class destroyer escort that served from 1943 to 1947 - She later became a museum ship and was in Galveston, Texas, where she still may be.
   
   But back to the book. These authors have written this book so well that it almost reads like a novel. The thing to keep in mind, however, is that this story is true.