How Did I Get Here?

Quote of the Day: “Not only is the universe stranger than we imagine, it is stranger than we can imagine.”

- Sir Arthur Eddington

Sleep! I got a great night’s sleep.

Oh thank you thank you thank you to the sleeping gods for thou hast bestowed upon me a restful night for the first time in weeks. I felt like I was dubbed with a special gift and jumped out of bed with a smile on my face.

“Wow, that was AWESOME!”

When I got into work, I put on my desert cammies for the first time in months. The sleeves were rolled perfectly and I had taken the time to iron out the who set even though they are “wash and wear.”

The crispness of the uniform and the faint smell of clean and ironed material wafted through the air.

In other news, I got the reading list of what I’m supposed to cover before I go to Saudi Arabia. I’m going to be a busy little reader and if any of you have any of these and want to send them to me, let me know. I’m going to be a friggin’ Saudi Arabian library unto myself!

“Small Unit Leaders Guide to Counterinsurgency” (SULG) v1.2 dtd July 2006 MCCDC (MCIP 3-33.01)

- “Closing Ranks” by Leslie Susser, The Jerusalem Report” dtd 8 January 2007 The Jerusalem Report dtd 8 January 2007

- “Israel’s Lebanese War; A Preliminary Assessment,” by Dr. Martin van Creveld, The RUSI Journal, October 2006 The RUSI Journal, pg 40, dtd Oct 2006

- “Gates of Fire: Epic Novel of the Battle of Thermopylae” Stephen Pressfield

- “Winning the Peace; The Requirement for Full Spectrum Operations” dtd Jul-Aug 2005 by MG Peter Chiarelli, USA (addressed in “A Tentative Manual for Countering Irregular Threats”) Military Review Oct 2006 COIN Reader

- “Learning Counterinsurgency: Observations from Soldiering in Iraq” dtd Jan-Feb 2006 by LTG David Petraeus, USA Military Review Oct 2006 COIN Reader

- “Seven Months in Ar Ramadi: Observations from 2ND Battalion, 4TH Marines” (MCCLL Summary from OIF 04-06 dtd 9 Jan 2006) MCCLL Report OIF 04-06 dtd 9 January 2006

- “Tentative Manual for Countering Irregular Threats: An Updated Approach to Counterinsurgency Operations” (Draft v2.0) MCWL (MCIP 3-33.02)

- “A Bell for Adano” John Hersey

- “The Other Side of the Mountain” Ali Ahmad Jalali

- “The Savage Wars of Peace: Small Wars and the Rise of American Power” Max Boot

- “Soldiers of God: With Islamic Warriors in Afghanistan and Pakistan” Robert Kaplan

- “Afghanistan” Stephan Taylor

- “The Osama Bin Laden I Know: An Oral History” Peter Bergen

- “Charlie Wilson’s War” Christopher Lane

- “Afghanistan: A Military History” Stephen Tanner

- “Culture and Customs of Afghanistan” Hafizullah Emadi

- “War at the Top of the World” Eric Margolis

- “The Soviet Afghan War: How a Superpower Fought and Lost” Russian General Staff

- “Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia” Ahmed Rashid

- “The Punishment of Virtue” Sarah Chayes

- “Afghan Guerrilla Warfare” Jalali

- “The Battle for Peace: A Frontline Vision of America’s Power and Purpose” Gen Tony Zinni

- “What Everyone Needs to Know About Islam” John Esposito

- “The Battle for God” Karen Armstrong

- “The Crisis of Islam: Holy War and Unholy Terror” Bernard Lewis

- “Hatred’s Kingdom” Dore Gold

- “The Age of Sacred Terror: Radical Islam’s War Against America” Daniel Benjamin

- “No god But God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam” Reza Aslan

- “The Idea of Pakistan” Stephen Cohen

- “Understanding Arabs: A Guide for Modern Times” Margaret Nydell

- “The Arab Mind” Raphael Patai

- “The Shia Revival: How Conflicts within Islam Will Shape the Future” Vali Nasr

- “Modern Iran: Roots and Results of Revolution” Nikki Keddie

- “Failure of Political Islam” Oliver Roy

- “Dying to Win: The Stategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism” Robert Pope

- “Jawbreaker: The Attack on Bin Laden and Al Qaeda” Gary Berntsen

- “Global Responses to Terrorism” Mary Buckley

- “All the Shah’s Men” Stephen Kinzer

- “Intelligence in War: Knowledge of the Enemy” John Keegan

- “The Savage Wars of Peace: Small Wars and the Rise of American Power” Max Boot

- “Battle Ready” Tom Clancy

- “The Shia Revival: How Conflicts Within Islam Will Shape the Future” Vali Nasr

- “Modern Iran: Roots and Results of Revolution” Nikki Keddie

- “Failure of Political Islam” Oliver Roy

- “Dying to Win: The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism” Robert Pope

- “A Peace to End All Peace” David Fromkin

- “The Arab Israeli Wars” Chaim Herzog

- “What Went Wrong?” Bernard Lewis

- “The Easter Offensive” Col. G H Turley

- “The Crisis of Islam: Holy War and Unholy Terror” Bernard Lewis

- “MCWP 0-1.1 Componency” (Required Reading for All MCE Assigned Personnel) MCWP 3-40.8

- “USMARCENT Theater Campaign Plan” MARCENT G5

- “A Peace to End All Peace”, David Fromkin: Pretty dense, but will give you a good historical understanding of the modern Middle East following WW I.

- “The Middle East”, Bernard Lewis: This one won’t make any of the “expert’s recommendations” to read. It was recommended to me by a friend because it is to the point (and some don’t like that, they call it biased).

- “Saudi Arabia Exposed”, John R. Bradley: Tells how the Kingdom is in trouble as it struggles with the disparities in the population and the needs of the Wahabbi-sect of Islam.

- “The Battle for Saudi Arabia: Royalty, Fundamentalism, and Global Power” As’ Ad Abu Khalil: A short, easy read. The book is taken from a student’s Masters Thesis while at Columbia University.

- “Power, Faith and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to Present”, Michael B. Oren

- “Desert Warrior”, Memoir of the Joint Forces Commander, Khalid B. Sultan

- “Arabs, Islam and the Middle East”, William G. Baker: Pretty good cultural overview by an Air Force FAO.

DVD’s / Videos:

- PBS Video, “House of Saud” produced by Frontline

- National Geographic, “Inside Mecca”

- PBS Home Video, “Islam Empire of Faith”

Free Advice for Today: “Pack a compass and the Nature Company’s pocket survival tool when hiking in unfamiliar territory.”

- H. Jackson Brown, Jr.