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Blood Year
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Blood Year

The Unraveling of Western Counterterrorism

David Kilcullen
Oxford UP, 2016

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Editorial Rating

8

Recommendation

In this engagingly written overview, counterinsurgency expert David Kilcullen offers a sharp analysis of the Middle East’s decline. He describes himself as a “midlevel player” in these events – as an “Australian professional soldier, as a civilian intelligence officer, then as a US government employee” in the War on Terror. Kilcullen delivers an intriguing look at the Islamic State’s ingenious battle tactics, and warns that its “leaderless resistance” model portends further attacks on the Western world. While always politically neutral, getAbstract recommends Kilcullen’s excellent reporting to those seeking objective insight into a contentious region.

Take-Aways

  • President George W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq in 2003 was “horribly ill-judged,” but his 2007 “Surge” reduced violence by increasing the number of US troops on the ground.
  • Bush ignored expert predictions that removing Saddam Hussein would create conditions ripe for guerrilla warfare and insurgency.
  • After the invasions, US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld waved off Pentagon requests for 400,000 troops to secure Iraq, insisting that far fewer were necessary.

About the Author

Author of Out of the Mountains, The Accidental Guerilla and Counterinsurgency, David Kilcullen is a senior fellow at the New America Foundation and chair of Caerus Associates. He’s served as an “Australian professional soldier, as a civilian intelligence officer, then as a US government employee.” He was General David Petraeus’s senior advisor in Iraq in 2007.

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    A. N. 8 years ago
    If the target and goals we set to achieve seems to be getting impossible, certainly ways and know how we opt to achieve that particular goals is indeed wrong. so we need to change our tactics and strategies at earliest.