Hearts, Minds, and Hydras - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Hearts, Minds, and Hydras write by William Nester. This book was released on 2012-09-30. Hearts, Minds, and Hydras available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Insurgencies are like the hydra, the many-headed beast of Greek mythology. Once one begins, the measures a government takes to eliminate militantsùto cut off the insurgencyÆs headùcan provoke countless others to join the enemy ranks. Tactical victories often breed strategic de¼feats. Traditional ôsearch, destroy, and withdrawö missions that rely on firepower to wipe out reb¼els frequently destroy the livelihoods and loved ones of innocent people caught in the cross fire. U.S. troops have seen the pattern repeated as their initially successful offensives toppled en¼emy regimes in Afghanistan and Iraq, but soon transformed into grueling guerrilla wars. Hearts, Minds, and Hydras outlines the reasons for these worsening situations. The most cru¼cial were self-defeating decisions made by the George W. Bush administration, whose neocon¼servatism and hubris rather than careful analy¼sis of genuine threats, national interests, and reasonable options shaped its policies. Although the Americans were eventually able to contain and diminish the insurgency in Iraq, the one in Afghanistan not only steadily intensified but also spread into neighboring Pakistan. The near abandonment of the war in Afghanistan and the neoconservative campaign in Iraq were godsends for al Qaeda and all other enemies of the United States. Then, as AmericaÆs position deteriorated in both wars, the neoconservatives became even more determined to stay the course. William Nester analyzes some of the more prom¼inent dilemmas haunting American policymak¼ers now struggling to win in Afghanistan, fight terrorism in the United States, and reshape their relationship with Pakistan. In doing so, he reveals the nature of that all-too-real monster of insur¼gency, what feeds it, and how to starve it.
Hearts and minds
Hearts and minds - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Hearts and minds write by Denis Shuttleworth. This book was released on 1975. Hearts and minds available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle.
The Untold War: Inside the Hearts, Minds, and Souls of Our Soldiers
The Untold War: Inside the Hearts, Minds, and Souls of Our Soldiers - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook The Untold War: Inside the Hearts, Minds, and Souls of Our Soldiers write by Nancy Sherman. This book was released on 2011-08-23. The Untold War: Inside the Hearts, Minds, and Souls of Our Soldiers available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. This unique analysis of the moral weight of warfare today filters complex problems through the lenses of philosophy and psychology.
Napoleon and the Art of Leadership
Napoleon and the Art of Leadership - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Napoleon and the Art of Leadership write by William Nester. This book was released on 2021-03-03. Napoleon and the Art of Leadership available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. This deep dive into the mind of the complex, controversial political and military leader is “a great addition to the field of Napoleonics” (Journal of Military History). No historical figure has provoked more controversy than Napoleon Bonaparte. Was he an enlightened ruler or brutal tyrant? An insatiable warmonger or a defender of France against the aggression of the other great powers? Kind or cruel, farsighted or blinkered, a sophisticate or a philistine, a builder or a destroyer? Napoleon was at once all that his partisans laud, his enemies condemn, and much more. He remains fascinating, because he so dramatically changed the course of history and had such a complex, paradoxical character. One thing is certain: If the art of leadership is about getting what one wants, then Napoleon was among history’s greatest masters. He understood and asserted the dynamic relationship among military, economic, diplomatic, technological, cultural, psychological—and thus political—power. War was the medium through which he was able to demonstrate his innate skills, leading his armies to victories across Europe. He overthrew France’s corrupt republican government in a coup, then asserted near dictatorial powers. Those powers were then wielded with great dexterity in transforming France from feudalism to modernity with a new law code, canals, roads, ports, schools, factories, national bank, currency, and standard weights and measures. With those successes, he convinced the Senate to proclaim him France’s emperor and even got the pope to preside over his coronation. He reorganized swaths of Europe into new states and placed his brothers and sisters on the thrones. This is Napoleon as has never been seen before. No previous book has explored his seething labyrinth of a mind more deeply and broadly or revealed more of its complex, provocative, and paradoxical dimensions. Napoleon has never before spoken so thoroughly about his life and times through the pages of a book, nor has an author so deftly examined the veracity or mendacity of his words. Within are dimensions of Napoleon that may charm, appall, or perplex, many buried for two centuries and brought to light for the first time. Napoleon and the Art of Leadership is a psychologically penetrating study of the man who had such a profound effect on the world around him that the entire era still bears his name.
America’s War against Global Jihad
America’s War against Global Jihad - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook America’s War against Global Jihad write by William R. Nester. This book was released on 2018-03-06. America’s War against Global Jihad available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. A specter haunts America, the specter of Global Jihad, Islamic Holy War. This specter was never more horrific than on September 11, 2001, when nineteen fanatics hijacked four jetliners and used them as guided missiles to destroy the twin World Trade Towers, damage the Pentagon, murder nearly 3,000 people, and cause as much as several hundred billion dollars’ worth of direct and indirect damage to New York City and the national economy. But Jihadists have periodically attacked Americans ever since November 1979, when mobs shouting death to America overran the American embassy in Tehran and held 52 officials hostage for 444 days. President George W. Bush responded to the September 11 atrocities by declaring a global war on terror. Now in its second decade, that war has cost the United States thousands of lives and trillions of dollars. Americans are haunted by horrific televised images from across a swath of the Muslim world of bomb-blasted cities, hundreds of slaughtered bodies, thousands of refugees huddled in squalid camps, and American journalists in orange jump suits kneeling in the desert before the black robed and masked men who will behead them. Americans increasingly question whether the global war on terror has been worth those costs for their own nation and the lands where it is fought. This book analyzes America’s crusade against Jihadism. The key related questions it addresses are these: Looking back, what were the successes and failures of Washington’s counter-Jihadist strategy before and after September 11? Looking ahead, should Americans stay the course or cut their losses in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere? Was the catastrophic September 11 attack a one-time event or could its equivalent or worse in death and destruction happen again? Renowned Harvard professor Samuel Huntington asserted that: “The underlying problem for the West is not Islamic fundamentalism, it is Islam, a different civilization, whose people are convinced of the superiority of their culture and are obsessed with the inferiority of their power.” Is that true? Just what of Muhammad’s words and deeds, if any, justifies the barbarism of al Qaeda, Islamic State, and other Jihadists? Finally, just how corporeal is that specter of global Jihad to the United States? A startling surprise awaits the reader in the final chapter as acclaimed expert William Nester weighs the specter of global Jihad against an array of other national security threats.
