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Finding The Target: The Transformation of American Military Policy
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$ 26.36
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$ 29.95 |
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$ 3.59 (12%) |
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| Item Number |
393511 |
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Item Description...
Product Description
In Finding the Target, Frederick Kagan describes the three basic transformations within the U.S. military since Vietnam. First was the move to an all-volunteer force and a new generation of weapons systems in the 1970s. Second was the emergence of stealth technology and precision-guided munitions in the 1980s. Third was the information technology that followed the fall of the Soviet Union and the first Golf War. This last could have insured the U.S. continuing military preeminence, but this goal was compromised by Clinton's drawing down of our armed forces in the 1990s and Bush's response to 9/11 and the global war on terror.
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Item Specifications...
Pages 432
Dimensions: Length: 9.1" Width: 6.3" Height: 1.7"
Weight: 1.8 lbs.
Binding Hardcover
Release Date Sep 25, 2006
ISBN 1594031509
EAN 9781594031502
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Availability 0 units.
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Reviews - What do our customers think?
 | Logical and informative Feb 10, 2008 |
This book does two things, and does them well. It gives an overview of military thinking in the US over the last 50 years, and tells when and why that thinking has been effective (and when and why it has not been effective).
If you want to know what we did to make our military so effective after Viet Nam, and why it worked, read this book. If you want to know why we are having so much trouble in Iraq and Afganistan, read this book.
This was the best book I have read on this subject. | | | | Candor and Insight Dec 29, 2007 |
For readers who are tired of over-intellectualizers, Fred Kagan's "Finding the Target: The Transformation of American Military Policy", will be an absolute breath of fresh air. Instructive without being academic, detailed without being tedious, Kagan sweeps the reader into the concepts, personalities, equipment, processes, and applications of "military transformation" and keeps the reader's brain focused on the topic until the very last page. His detailed review of the so-called "Revolution in Military Affairs" provides a much needed body of information to help those interested in the subject master it.
Sincerely,
Bill Hayes
Major, USMC (Ret.)
Retired Samurai | | | | A focused lesson on the spotty history of transforming the military and how it needs to be tied tightly to reality, not theory Aug 13, 2007 |
Frederick Kagan is an influential thinker on the American Military. This book is his history of how our military has come to realize its need to change. He recounts how it has failed, at times, in those adaptations and how it has succeeded in others. It is when the theory of what the military should become gets divorced from the reality of what the actual threat in the world currently is that the greatest failures occur. The problem with these failures is that we can't afford them strategically or financially.
Kagan has pointed out that we have been under funding our military for more than a decade. Now that we are in a hot war in Iraq that shortage of personnel, the aging equipment that has not been replaced is causing a larger net depletion and leaves us less well defended.
While Kagan is disliked in some quarters and hated in others, he is influential because there are those in power who hear his words and appreciate what he is saying. Whether or not you agree with him, his influence requires you to read this book and make your own judgment. I found the history valuable and the arguments involving. Still, I wonder how billions of dollars in new jet fighters are going to help us against IEDs and suicide bombers. I do like his insistence that the military make its transformations intelligently and in light of both history and what we are actually facing around the world. I like his point that no one can prepare for a future war with future weapons because we are always trapped in the present and the future is never what anyone expects it to be.
Interesting book.
| | | | Key to understanding the military's strengths, weaknesses and choices and makes FINDING THE TARGET an important pick. Feb 9, 2007 |
Collections strong in both military history and politics and international relations - particularly at the college level - will find FINDING THE TARGET: THE TRANSFORMATION OF AMERICAN MILITARY POLICY an important guide. It comes from a leading military analyst who reviews the history of U.S. national security strategies and the latest debates about military changes, offering a reasoned guide to analyze the problems facing the American military and the different paths it may take in the future. Such analysis is key to understanding the military's strengths, weaknesses and choices and makes FINDING THE TARGET an important pick.
Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch | | |  | Stick to your level of competence. Jan 15, 2007 |
| Kagan needs to stick with his level of competence which is Napoleonic war. His NeoCon political beliefs have distorted this book beyond belief and he ends up just being another spokesman for American military might well beyond any kind of reality. No wonder he is an ardent proponent of the "surge" in Iraq. Read this bok and you will see just how out of touch with the modern military he is. | | | Write your own review about Finding The Target: The Transformation of American Military Policy
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