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The Fourth Star: Four Generals And The Epic Struggle For The Future Of The United States Army (2009)

by David Cloud(Favorite Author)

3.88 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

0307409066 (ISBN13: 9780307409065)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Crown Publishers, Inc.

review 1: The Fourth Star presents some interesting insights into not only the military leaders of the Iraq war but also the Army culture that produced those leaders. Written in a journalistic tone, it recounts events more than it analyzes, but the inside baseball of who said what to whom, who worked for whom, the personal connections that led to promotions, is all valuable. Of the four generals, only one, John Abizaid, was truly unconventional in his path to four stars. Dave Petraeus rubbed a lot of people the wrong way, and he stepped off the operations track for a few years to teach at West Point, but a quick scan of general officers' biographies demonstrates that he was hardly unusual. He served repeatedly as an aide-de-camp and stayed close to people who could help him. Ge... moreorge Casey rose by the most common route--be the son of a general, work extremely hard, and don't rock the boat, advocate unpopular ideas, or step off the beaten path. Pete Chiarelli just kept slogging his way up the chain of command. I served under all four generals at some point or other, and the impressions conveyed match my own. The observations about counterinsurgency are now the conventional wisdom--Rumsfeld and Casey were wrong to push for an early withdrawal. Chiarelli's aid-based approach and Petraeus's security-based approach were the right answer. Subsequent events should cause us to reassess. In fact there is as much divergence between Petraeus and Chiarelli as between either of them and Casey. Chiarelli's jobs and projects approached achieved some short-term gains but could not transition to Iraqi control. Petraeus's security approach created space for political and economic development, but the U.S. proved completely unwilling/unable to prod the Iraqi government into using that space. Now the results are proving to be equally ephemeral as IS overruns northern Iraq. Of the four, Abizaid had the deepest understanding of the Middle East and harbored the greatest skepticism. History is demonstrating that his instincts were probably correct. Unfortunately, he was unable to translate that understanding to a workable plan that could gain support from the Bush administration.
review 2: I have a new found respect for all of the generals covered in this book. Cloud did a great job of providing an intimate snapshot into what makes these great men tick, of the key events and experiences that made them who they are, and the little known ways that they helped shape our Army into the force it is today. As a veteran of both Iraq and Afghanistan who served under several of these generals, I found the strategic decisions and discussion with Sec. Rumsfeld and other senior leaders fascinating. less

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