Wow! eBook
Wrong Turn: America s Deadly Embrace of Counterinsurgency
Author(s): Colonel Gian Gentile (Author)
- Publisher: The New Press
- Publication Date: 12 Sept. 2013
- Language: English
- Print length: 208 pages
- ISBN-10: 1595588744
- ISBN-13: 9781595588746
Book Description
In 2008, Col. Gian Gentile exposed a growing rift among military intellectuals with an article titled “Misreading the Surge Threatens U.S. Army’s Conventional Capabilities,” that appeared in World Politics Review. While the years of US strategy in Afghanistan had been dominated by the doctrine of counterinsurgency (COIN), Gentile and a small group of dissident officers and defense analysts began to question the necessity and efficacy of COIN―essentially armed nation-building―in achieving the United States’ limited core policy objective in Afghanistan: the destruction of Al Qaeda.
Drawing both on the author’s experiences as a combat battalion commander in the Iraq War and his research into the application of counterinsurgency in a variety of historical contexts, Wrong Turn is a brilliant summation of Gentile’s views of the failures of COIN, as well as a trenchant reevaluation of US operations in Afghanistan.
“Gentile is convinced that Obama’s ‘surge’ in Afghanistan can’t work. . . . And, if Afghanistan doesn’t turn around soon, the Democrats . . . who have come to embrace the Petraeus-Nagl view of modern warfare . . . may find themselves wondering whether it’s time to go back to the drawing board.” ―The New Republic
Editorial Reviews
Review
―Andrew J. Bacevich, author of Breach of Trust: How Americans Failed Their Soldiers and Their Country
"Colonel Gentile asks us to confront some blisteringly urgent questions. Have COIN tactics ever worked the military magic their proponents claim? Or have they merely provided cover for beating exits from wars that never should have been fought in the first place? . . .
Wrong Turn deserves a wide readership by all who must make these supremely important strategy decisions―as well as those who will live with the consequences."―David M. Kennedy, professor of history, Stanford University, and editor of The Modern American Military
"Counterinsurgency rises over and over again from the ashes of defeat. It is Gian Gentile's ambition to 'drive a stake through its heart,' and in
Wrong Turn he has succeeded―brilliantly."―Marilyn Young, professor of history, New York University
"A brilliant and persuasive book . . . offers by far the most convincing explanation extant of why America has not succeeded recently with COIN.”
―Sir Colin Gray, professor of international relations and strategic studies at the University of Reading
"A lively, provocative and readable book . . . never misses its mark."
―Hew Strachan
"Based on his personal experience in Baghdad as well as some fine historical scholarship, Colonel Gentile takes aim at America's current COIN doctrines and shows how ineffective they really are. An exceptionally courageous book, clearly and forcibly written."
―Martin van Creveld, author of
"Gentile finds the common flaw in our failed strategy as evidenced in our last three military misadventures. . . . We did not lose the Vietnam War―it was never ours to win. Is Afghanistan becoming a repeat performance?"
―Volney Warner, General (Ret), U.S. Army
"How I wish we'd had this telling critique of counterinsurgency warfare before Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan. It would have been far harder to make those tragic mistakes. A must-read for our national security experts, and U.S. citizens."
―Leslie H. Gelb, president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations and former columnist for the
