-
Susan Glasser commented on the blog post FDL Book Salon Welcomes Thomas E. Ricks, The Generals: American Military Command from World War II to Today
Feel free to skip mine.. Thanks to all! And do read tom’s great book…
-
Susan Glasser commented on the blog post FDL Book Salon Welcomes Thomas E. Ricks, The Generals: American Military Command from World War II to Today
We haven’t mentioned drones yet much in this conversation. But I wonder, tom, whether the rise of this new kind of war has emboldened civilian leaders to engage in more war not less…
-
Susan Glasser commented on the blog post FDL Book Salon Welcomes Thomas E. Ricks, The Generals: American Military Command from World War II to Today
Thanks Tom–your admiration for Marshall comes through in the book. Are there other models of military leaders we should look to? Other generals you discovered in your research who set a good example? thanks, Susan
-
Susan Glasser commented on the blog post FDL Book Salon Welcomes Thomas E. Ricks, The Generals: American Military Command from World War II to Today
So you’re not supportive of the Romney campaign idea that we need to rebuild the U.S. navy and add dramatically to the numbers of ships in our fleet, which, he loved to point out, is at the lowest number since World War I (not accounting of course for the dramatic changes in what KIND of ships we have)?
-
Susan Glasser commented on the blog post FDL Book Salon Welcomes Thomas E. Ricks, The Generals: American Military Command from World War II to Today
Tom–what do you think the long-term effect of the post-9/11 wars will be on the U.S. military? Will we be more reluctant to engage in new small wars, at least in the short term?
-
Susan Glasser commented on the blog post FDL Book Salon Welcomes Thomas E. Ricks, The Generals: American Military Command from World War II to Today
That reminds me of a comment from Col. Yingling that Tom often quotes–to the effect that a private in the U.S. army in Iraq would get in more trouble for losing his rifle than a general officer for mucking up the war…
-
Susan Glasser commented on the blog post FDL Book Salon Welcomes Thomas E. Ricks, The Generals: American Military Command from World War II to Today
What about Obama as a commander in chief? Has he followed the same path? He was very quick to fire Gen. Stanley McChrystal as commander in Afghanistan, and has been reported to be quite unhappy with the initial recommendations he got from the Pentagon for troop levels there, suggesting he felt boxed in to consider a surge of more troops into that country when what he wanted to do was pull out (though the surge is what he ultimately decided on)…
-
Susan Glasser commented on the blog post FDL Book Salon Welcomes Thomas E. Ricks, The Generals: American Military Command from World War II to Today
Tom — picking up on this point, how do you assess the relationship these days between civilian leaders and military leaders? Is Iraq really the fault of bad generalship, or of political decisions by Bush, Rumsfeld et al.?
-
Susan Glasser commented on the blog post FDL Book Salon Welcomes Thomas E. Ricks, The Generals: American Military Command from World War II to Today
Thanks Tom, I think that’s such an important point–reinforcing the notion that instead of fighting in Afghanistan for 11 years, it has been 11 one-year wars… no wonder it’s become the longest war in U.S. history.
Are there any heroes from your investigations of recent U.S. military leadership–i hear a lot of people asking that in the wake of Petraeus’s fall… who can we admire anymore?
-
Susan Glasser commented on the blog post FDL Book Salon Welcomes Thomas E. Ricks, The Generals: American Military Command from World War II to Today
So Tom, if we had fired more generals in Iraq and Afghanistan, how would that have shortened the wars?
-
Susan Glasser commented on the blog post FDL Book Salon Welcomes Thomas E. Ricks, The Generals: American Military Command from World War II to Today
Thanks and welcome to everyone… Here’s a first question to kick things off: Tom, do you think our generals have a culture of impunity these days? What about the incredible privileges they are surrounded by, the personal cook for the chairman of the Joints Chiefs, etc–does that have negative consequences when it comes to making crucial war-fighting decisions?
-
Susan Glasser commented on the blog post Late Late Night FDL: Merry Christmas From The Family
ok, i’m on it now. thanks
