The Sling and the Stone: On War in the 21st Century | USMC, Colonel Thomas X. Hammes |...

The Sling and the Stone: On War in the 21st Century | USMC, Colonel Thomas X. Hammes | The Sling and The Stone: On War in The 21st Century

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The Sling and the ...

	The Sling and the Stone: On War in the 21st Century USMC, Colonel Thomas X. Hammes Zenith Press, 2006 - 336 pages average customer review:based on 38 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

4GW (Fourth Generation Warfare) is the only kind of war America has ever lost. And we have done so three times ? in Vietnam, Lebanon, and Somalia. This form of warfare has also defeated the French in Vietnam and Algeria, and the USSR in Afghanistan?As the only Goliath left in the world, we should be worried that the world?s Davids have found a sling and stone that work." ? Chapter 1, The Sling and the Stone: On War in the 21st Century. The War in Iraq. The War on Terror. These types of "asymmetrical" warfare are the conflicts of the 21st century ? and show how difficult it is for the world's remaining superpower to battle insurgents and terrorists who will fight unconventionally in the face of superior military power. This change in military conflict may seem sudden.

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Thoughtful, neutral and critical of business as usual

This book joins a number of others (Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife, The Utility of Force,Tactics of the Crescent Moon) that advocate a more carefully thought out, less technology-driven and hopefully more productive approach to fighting terrorism. And, make no mistake, it is very much about winning against terrorism. It is also remarkably neutral in its tone, frankly outlining the smart things America's enemies have done. Interestingly, Bin Laden gets a big 'F' for 9/11 which Hammes sees as an overstretch which mobilized an hitherto passive USA against him.

Those expecting a list of weapons and tactics to fight guerrillas and terrorists will be disappointed.

Instead you get case studies of insurgencies, with a strong emphasis on the socio-political-media, rather than purely military, aspects of these wars. You also get a scathing dissection of how the US military is still structured to fight conventional wars, even as none of its immediate enemies are likely to be foolish enough to engage it on that level.

This is a book that sometimes really gets you to reconsider your world view. For example, like many I'm no fan of the Saudi government. But, if you are a Bin Laden and you want to take over Saudi Arabia, then you need to discredit its government in the eyes of Western voters. All of a sudden, calls to drop support for Saudi Arabia take on a new light: genuine, or manipulation? Hmmm...

One weakness: having made his point that many of the expensive toys being bought by the Pentagon are irrelevant to current wars, Col. Hammes postulates that they would also be near useless in the event of a USA-China conflict. I think that is somewhat overstating his case. Likewise, the F-22 does have some air-to-surface capability, unlike Hammes' contention.

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The Sling and The Stone: On War in The 21st Century

A must read for anyone who studies the evolution of warfare. Col. Hammes focuses on how to win the war rather than just winning the battles. He goes into detail explaining the difference between the type of war we must fight today and the one the Department of Defense has planed.

Dale Stewart
Flat Rock, NC

'We Sleep Safe in Our Beds...'

I have read the many articles Col Hammes wrote for the Marine Corps Gazette over the years, and while I did not always agree with him, I always found his work provocative, interesting, and timely. The same can be said for his work in The Sling and the Stone.

I would not have read this book if not for the course I am taking in pursuit of a master's degree in military history. The book is required reading-not parts of it, but all of it. And in this I heartily concur. This book is timely, well-done, and invaluable to read not only for students of the art of war, of current events in the world, but for anyone who is involved in the 'war on terror.' And that means the entire adult population of the United States and Europe. Whether we like it or not, that is the current situation in the world today and if it is not addressed promptly and correctly, we have only ourselves to blame.

Col Hammes has not only written an excellent analysis of Fourth Generation Warfare, but it is a wake-up call to defend ourselves until the mission is actually accomplished.

The book isn't perfect, nor is the author always correct in his statements and assumptions (an outstanding error Col Hammes committed in his book is in Chapter 6, page 64, where he states that 'We do not have access to North Vietnamese records...' when we do, at least in part. The University of California has assembled the Indochina Archive which has primary source material from both sides of the Vietnam War and a copy of it is available at the Camp Lejuene, North Carolina library. It is interesting reading), but his assessement of the Arab-Israeli conflict, problems in Central America, Al Qaeda, and the western response to terrorism is right on the money.

Col Hammes does have a preoccupation with Mao and his three stages of warfare and does attempt to fit every subsequent unconventional conflict and/or war into that model (which doesn't always fit, though he does correctly assess the different way in which the North Vietnamese applied it), but that does not detract from the overall value of this book.

Unfortunately, the book was published before General Petraeus took command in Iraq, and Colonel Hammes observations on the progress achieved and the overall situation would have been most helpful and enlightening.

Lastly, this is a book from a military professional who was both an observer and a practitioner of what most of us just see in the news as sound bites, and generally from a biased source. As a people, Americans are usually short-sighted and impatient. We need to pay attention to the world around us and those that mean us harm. Col Hammes outstanding work is a step in the right direction and should be mandatory reading in every history class.

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New Warfare

Great book on 4th Generation warfare and GWOT. It also mentions the elements of DIME (ILE students) Would recommend you give it a read. Highly recommend.

Hammes has done better

I was compelled to buy this book after hearing the author lecture at my school. He made excellent points and had great insight into future during that lecture, however the book that I purchased was somewhat lacking in many respects. The author does a good job at using historical examples, however many of these are somewhat undeveloped and it is hard to differentiate what he is saying of his own accord and what is actually based on historical fact. As the book gets more into the characteristics of Fourth Generation Warfare, the author also starts to get incessantly repetitive, making the same arguments over and over again. In the end, I found the book lacking in detail and energy, although most of the assertions put forth by the author were interesting and based on sound logic.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

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