By Norman Friedman
ISBN 1591142903 Hard cover 304 pages 24 photos
Dr. Norman Friedman is an internationally known strategist and naval historian living in New York City. A monthly columnist for Proceedings magazine, he is the author of twenty-eight books, including the recent award-winning Seapower as Strategy and The Fifty-Year War. His technical history works produced along with AD Baker III are some of the finest ever written.
After reading the monthly columns in Proceedings Magazine since the September 11 terror attacks, I was looking forward to reading this book.
Friedman imparts quite a bit of information on the workings of the tribal mentality still prevalent in the Muslim world. Tribalism in turn usually reflect which version of the Muslim faith is practiced in different areas.
However, this book is a disappointment. Friedman loses credibility with readers when he makes the statement that the US Government does not interfere with working of other governments. This statement is utterly preposterous; Chile, Iran Contra and other events instantly come to mind.
In addition, virtually no coverage is given to the employment of reserve and National Guard forces in Afghanistan and at home for security duties. The tragic bombing of Canadian soldiers conducting a live fire night training exercise by part time US forces in F-16 aircraft is not touched upon.
Greater coverage of the new philosophy for homeland defense should have been undertaken. This has had a dramatic effect on the sea services with both US Navy & Coast Guard forces.
As a big fan of Dr Friedman, I was disappointed in this book. Hopefully a more thorough work will come along soon on this dramatic era in world history. (DS)
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