Rating: 
Summary: Looking behind the green curtain?
Review: I've done my time-18 years and two more to go. "Lifting the Fog of War" is a catalogue of all that has gone wrong militarily, compounded by "solutions" to make it all "right". It is a precise, logical, and largely accurate portrayal of "where we have been, where we are today, and where we are going"-the favorite lead-in to all military briefings. This passes the ABC test(Accuracy, Brevity, Clarity) with flying colors. We are moving into a new sphere of capability. For good reason, not least of which is personal experience gained in eighteen years of military service, I have diminished regard for our armed forces in terms of readiness and warrior ethos-both now at a level far below Carter's "hollow military". I have far greater respect for the technology that will be critical to bridge the performance gap. The troubling issue is that these same technologies will be applied across the board. Benjamin Franklin likened government to fire-it is always dangerous to play with fire. Once it is out of control everyone burns. The technology that is touted here as the panacea for low levels of readiness, spare parts, training, fuel and munitions, to say nothing of plummeting morale and esprit de corps, is really nothing more than a top down con job to sell us on the notion that ubiquitous government backed by an omniscient military is good. There is danger here, danger that authors like Reg Whitaker (The End of Privacy), Jerry Furland (Transfer-the end of the beginning), Justin Raimondo, Claire Wolfe, etc. etc., have taken pains to expose. The final justification for any governmental over-reach has consistently been, quite simply, "because we can". In closing, "Lifting the Fog of War" is a fine summary of what the military is likely to become. If you have a care for your own liberty, your right to be left alone, and your privacy, this book will inform you as to how tenuous those cherished rights are becoming. What is used in the military, without fail, migrates first to Federal law enforcement and then spreads it's tenacles to state and local LEAs. These technologies will be applied domestically for both legitimate and extra-constitutional control of the populace. I hope many will read this work and come to understand that this is not good news for their freedom. But then, many people prefer a cage in a zoo to life in a jungle.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting and readable
Review: Surprisingly compelling account of the failure of the US military to prepare for future conflicts. I say "surprising" because the book contains little in the way of exciting futuristic technology, but lots of descriptions of bureaucratic resistance. Particularly interesting are the inside descriptions of absurd interservice rivalry.
Rating: 
Summary: Force on Force warfare is not the future
Review: Technology will not help us to determine the outcome of future conflicts. The wars that are plaguing us today in Afghanistan and Iraq will be the primary threat in the future. The world has watched us over the last decade and has seen that America can not be defeated in open, high intensity conflict. Our enemies in the future will not stand toe to toe with our divisions and corps and fight a fair fight. If they did, they would certainly lose and further, they know this. Our technological dominence is unquestionable.
How our enemies will fight us (and beat us if we listen to Admiral Owens) is through insurgency and terrorism. All the technology in the world will not tell you which people in the crowd of civlians is an insurgent and which is just a civilian. Precision munitions are useless against an enemy who never masses his forces, who operates in small cells and who work independantly towards a common goal.
These tactics will defeat most of our new technological advances much like they have continously defeated all technological advances. Technology will often give you a short term advantage that will quickly be negated by the insurgents changing tactics. Vietnam was not an aberation in american military history but a harbinger of future conflict. Iraq is not another Vietnam but they had one thing in common, insurgencies and terrorism.
Until the US military comes to acknowledge this and develop tactics and strategies to fight this kind of war, we will be doomed to continue to template our army against a soviet style massed mechanized force that no one else in the world is dumb enough to put up against us.
Rating:
Summary: Force on Force warfare is not the future
Review: Technology will not help us to determine the outcome of future conflicts. The wars that are plaguing us today in Afghanistan and Iraq will be the primary threat in the future. The world has watched us over the last decade and has seen that America can not be defeated in open, high intensity conflict. Our enemies in the future will not stand toe to toe with our divisions and corps and fight a fair fight. If they did, they would certainly lose and further, they know this. Our technological dominence is unquestionable.
How our enemies will fight us (and beat us if we listen to Admiral Owens) is through insurgency and terrorism. All the technology in the world will not tell you which people in the crowd of civlians is an insurgent and which is just a civilian. Precision munitions are useless against an enemy who never masses his forces, who operates in small cells and who work independantly towards a common goal.
These tactics will defeat most of our new technological advances much like they have continously defeated all technological advances. Technology will often give you a short term advantage that will quickly be negated by the insurgents changing tactics. Vietnam was not an aberation in american military history but a harbinger of future conflict. Iraq is not another Vietnam but they had one thing in common, insurgencies and terrorism.
Until the US military comes to acknowledge this and develop tactics and strategies to fight this kind of war, we will be doomed to continue to template our army against a soviet style massed mechanized force that no one else in the world is dumb enough to put up against us.
Rating:
Summary: Expensive, Ineffective, Unrealistic, But Interesting
Review: This is a well-intentioned book and the best available manifesto for the "system of systems" that can integrate intelligence, precision strike, and communications technologies by exploiting the Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA). On balance it provides several important contributions, but its core assumption that technology can be a substitute for people is flawed, as is its completely insupportable assumption that our allies might be willing to follow us down this very expensive and dubious interoperability trail. Perhaps even more troubling, the school of thought represented by this book suffers from the severe delusion that everything that needs to be seen can be seen by national technical means, and processed in time to be relevant to the commander. Nothing could be further from the truth-fully 90% of what is needed to succeed in today's environment is not in digital form, not in English, and not collectible by technical means. The most important point made in the whole book, and here I give the author high marks, is its compelling description of why military reform cannot be achieved from within: because there is no decision process by which a "joint" leadership can determine force structure and weapons acquisition without fear of service politics. His approach to reform, shifting from a focus on system stovepipes to joint mission areas, is valuable and could be helpful in defense transformation if it were cleansed of its unhealthy obsession with expensive technology and forced to face the fact that three-quarters of our challenges in this new century are Operations Other Than War (OOTW) that call into question virtually every dollar being spent under existing RMA auspices. The book is also helpful in pointing out the redundancy between the four services, the 12:1 support ratio in personnel, and the need to embed information handling capabilities in all future mobility and weapons systems. Perhaps most disappointingly, this book by a distinguished Admiral and apparent out-of-the-box thinker fails to outline a force structure, including a 450-ship Navy, capable of dealing effectively with all four levels of war in every clime and place.
Rating:
Summary: Expensive, Ineffective, Unrealistic, But Interesting
Review: This is a well-intentioned book and the best available manifesto for the "system of systems" that can integrate intelligence, precision strike, and communications technologies by exploiting the Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA). On balance it provides several important contributions, but its core assumption that technology can be a substitute for people is flawed, as is its completely insupportable assumption that our allies might be willing to follow us down this very expensive and dubious interoperability trail. Perhaps even more troubling, the school of thought represented by this book suffers from the severe delusion that everything that needs to be seen can be seen by national technical means, and processed in time to be relevant to the commander. Nothing could be further from the truth-fully 90% of what is needed to succeed in today's environment is not in digital form, not in English, and not collectible by technical means. The most important point made in the whole book, and here I give the author high marks, is its compelling description of why military reform cannot be achieved from within: because there is no decision process by which a "joint" leadership can determine force structure and weapons acquisition without fear of service politics. His approach to reform, shifting from a focus on system stovepipes to joint mission areas, is valuable and could be helpful in defense transformation if it were cleansed of its unhealthy obsession with expensive technology and forced to face the fact that three-quarters of our challenges in this new century are Operations Other Than War (OOTW) that call into question virtually every dollar being spent under existing RMA auspices. The book is also helpful in pointing out the redundancy between the four services, the 12:1 support ratio in personnel, and the need to embed information handling capabilities in all future mobility and weapons systems. Perhaps most disappointingly, this book by a distinguished Admiral and apparent out-of-the-box thinker fails to outline a force structure, including a 450-ship Navy, capable of dealing effectively with all four levels of war in every clime and place.
Rating:
Summary: Very Interesting Given the Current War in Afghanistan
Review: This was a very interesting book because of both the insights of the author and the details he provides the reader. As the book jacket tells you, the author is the former vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff so he has the experience necessary to make the book credible just on the face of it. What was a pleasant surprise is that the authors have written a very readable and enjoyable book, which can be difficult detailing this subject matter. The main premise of the book is that the US military and the Generals in charge often plan and fight the next war like the last war. This plan many times meets with initial problems and pain. Given this and the reduction in funding the US military could be in trouble if they do not keep moving forward with technology as the base of spending. The author goes on to document that there has been a major shift in whom we will fight and how the fight will take place (due to the fall of the USSR). Because of these changes the American military needs to reorganize and regroup almost from the ground up to meet the new threats and types of warfare that they will face in the future. The author details that the largest revolution in warfare for American is the advantage we have with the high tech weapons we can use. With this advanced technology, the US can go a long way in "Lifting" the fog of war on the battlefield. What is interesting is the author is describing unmanned aircraft that have been so much in the news recently with the current war in Afghanistan. The author details that the US currently has a head start, but we need to continually push forward on the technology side in order to continue to increase / maintain our advantage. The author details the main problems that have come about with the separate military areas for the US and the problems that come up when they are to work together. The book details the different weapons systems that could work together very effectively if only the communication and training for truly "joint" operations was in place. He gives the reader a very convincing argument that the most dangerous issue for the military is this lack of integrated systems and communications that would allow all branches to work together seamlessly. The one advantage of reading this book now is the information we are seeing reported about the current war on terrorism in Afghanistan. It is interesting that some of the reporting supports the authors views and other reporting who make you think the book was a bit over extended in the negative. The author's overly gloomy view of the military if major change is not taken may be a bit much, but he does back a lot of his comments up with thoughtful discussions on the points. Overall the book is an interesting, well-written book that is full of facts. If you are interested in the direction the US military will be taking in the next 10 - 20 years this book may be a large part of the road map.
Rating:
Summary: Very Interesting Given the Current War in Afghanistan
Review: This was a very interesting book because of both the insights of the author and the details he provides the reader. As the book jacket tells you, the author is the former vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff so he has the experience necessary to make the book credible just on the face of it. What was a pleasant surprise is that the authors have written a very readable and enjoyable book, which can be difficult detailing this subject matter. The main premise of the book is that the US military and the Generals in charge often plan and fight the next war like the last war. This plan many times meets with initial problems and pain. Given this and the reduction in funding the US military could be in trouble if they do not keep moving forward with technology as the base of spending. The author goes on to document that there has been a major shift in whom we will fight and how the fight will take place (due to the fall of the USSR). Because of these changes the American military needs to reorganize and regroup almost from the ground up to meet the new threats and types of warfare that they will face in the future. The author details that the largest revolution in warfare for American is the advantage we have with the high tech weapons we can use. With this advanced technology, the US can go a long way in "Lifting" the fog of war on the battlefield. What is interesting is the author is describing unmanned aircraft that have been so much in the news recently with the current war in Afghanistan. The author details that the US currently has a head start, but we need to continually push forward on the technology side in order to continue to increase / maintain our advantage. The author details the main problems that have come about with the separate military areas for the US and the problems that come up when they are to work together. The book details the different weapons systems that could work together very effectively if only the communication and training for truly "joint" operations was in place. He gives the reader a very convincing argument that the most dangerous issue for the military is this lack of integrated systems and communications that would allow all branches to work together seamlessly. The one advantage of reading this book now is the information we are seeing reported about the current war on terrorism in Afghanistan. It is interesting that some of the reporting supports the authors views and other reporting who make you think the book was a bit over extended in the negative. The author's overly gloomy view of the military if major change is not taken may be a bit much, but he does back a lot of his comments up with thoughtful discussions on the points. Overall the book is an interesting, well-written book that is full of facts. If you are interested in the direction the US military will be taking in the next 10 - 20 years this book may be a large part of the road map.
Rating:
Summary: A Revolutionary, Transforming Book
Review: What a shame that the most I can give this outstanding, thought-provoking book is only five stars. It deserves at least twice that many for honestly and publicly discussing the challenges and opportunities that today's U.S. military faces as it struggles to accept and adapt to the revolutionary and transforming environment in which it finds itself. Today's U.S. military faces a post-Soviet Union superpower-rival environment with an asymmetric global terrorism threat, in a rapidly exploding advanced technological computer-networked world, and an administration that respects it and understands today's forces cannot continue to function on yesterday's paradigms and be successful against tomorrow's foes. The authors clearly described these dynamic circumstances, boldly challenged today's defense status quo, and bravely offered compelling alternatives intended to further the revolution in military affairs (a Clinton-era term) or the transformation of the armed forces (today's current term). I read this book after being stationed in the Pentagon for the last two-plus years. I believe it has influenced many of the highest-level transformational studies and initiatives that I have heard about and in which I have participated. I do not necessarily believe everything the authors describe and recommend, but I do believe their insights and vision of what our future forces might be and what they might be able to do are certainly deserving of serious discussion and consideration. If I were the Secretary of Defense for a day, I would make reading this book a requirement for all my staff and a pre-requisite for any assignment or appointment to the Pentagon.
Rating:
Summary: A Revolutionary, Transforming Book
Review: What a shame that the most I can give this outstanding, thought-provoking book is only five stars. It deserves at least twice that many for honestly and publicly discussing the challenges and opportunities that today's U.S. military faces as it struggles to accept and adapt to the revolutionary and transforming environment in which it finds itself. Today's U.S. military faces a post-Soviet Union superpower-rival environment with an asymmetric global terrorism threat, in a rapidly exploding advanced technological computer-networked world, and an administration that respects it and understands today's forces cannot continue to function on yesterday's paradigms and be successful against tomorrow's foes. The authors clearly described these dynamic circumstances, boldly challenged today's defense status quo, and bravely offered compelling alternatives intended to further the revolution in military affairs (a Clinton-era term) or the transformation of the armed forces (today's current term). I read this book after being stationed in the Pentagon for the last two-plus years. I believe it has influenced many of the highest-level transformational studies and initiatives that I have heard about and in which I have participated. I do not necessarily believe everything the authors describe and recommend, but I do believe their insights and vision of what our future forces might be and what they might be able to do are certainly deserving of serious discussion and consideration. If I were the Secretary of Defense for a day, I would make reading this book a requirement for all my staff and a pre-requisite for any assignment or appointment to the Pentagon.
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