Beyond Baghdad: Post Modern War and Peace   , by Ralph Peters           

Stackpole Books: Mechanicsburg , PA 2003                                                                             Back

My negative prejudices were immediately excited by the involvement of General ( Ret.) Barry McCaffrey in this project: the General wrote a foreword to the book. He wrote it rather well, it turned out. My reservations about Gen. McCaffrey stem from his acceptance, after retiring from the military, of the top job in the federal War on Drugs.  He took on a war he could not possibly win.  Up to that point he'd been an exemplary soldier and commander.

I was also soured a bit by the author's breathless citation of Wes Clark as one of those who were "right" about  "inadequate force levels" in the Iraq campaign of 2003.

Two chapters in, I'm soothed a little. Peters clearly knows what it takes to be  Big Picture Guy, wants very much to be one and is trying very hard to. Exciting writer ! His alter-ego, Ralph Peters the novelist, coached him to good effect. Prejudices relaxed, doubt suspended.

Peters makes frequent reference to the "great Western revolution" of the past 50 years in which women became our 'partners' rather than our property; he glories in the great economic advantage this new arrangement has secured for us as, and brings it into evidence as testimony to our wonderful modernity.

How contentious !  Talk about changing the subject. Peters moves the discussion from Baghdad and the war against Islamism back home, to a reprise of 1970's feminist ideology.  He offers no evidence  for  this putative transformation in relations between the sexes. He has nothing to say to the very arguable alternative accounts, for example, one which holds that in fact, women have been reduced in rank from angels to marketplace rivals. Competitors. Maybe this competition does, indeed, yield greater economic production, but what of love ?  Braying in the market for dollars, while productive, is not necessarily endearing.

Surely even Peters has noticed that an awful lot of men and women these days are melancholy with regard to their coupling. 

Peters seems like a pretty cool dude - a kind of Clintonian Tough (But Sensitive) Guy. He's in the "not enough troops" camp, but says very little that comforts a reader concerned about his grasp of military affairs. More troops ? What kind of troops ? Does he want 10,000 more first-line infantry ? How many pastry chefs does it take to support 10,000 warriors ?  How many warriors does it take to provide security for those pastry chefs ? Peters offers no evidence of familiarity with the art and science of force composition.  His position, too, is in direct conflict with that of General Tommy Franks, the overall commander of the Iraq operation, who made it crystal clear in his own book ( American Soldier) that there was never an instance in which forces requested by him or by his subordinates were denied.

McCaffrey, Clark, Peters and others  - rising high in the military hierarchy is often accomplished by relentless men whose advancement strategy is to compensate for their limitations as Big Thinkers by deploying 100% of their resources against the current obstacle to the next promotion, and devil take the aftermath. This, while their more thoughtful colleagues are several moves ahead, preparing to jump through hoops fashioned largely by events beyond their control.

Ralph Peters should stick to fiction, and play more chess. That way, he'll learn to consider the entire board before whining about this bishop or that pawn. In Beyond Baghdad, he seems to have forgotten about several other key regional players, such as Iran, and global pests such as North Korea. 

Tall tales, Ralph.  Tell us some more of those fabulous tall tales.