Let's make this clear I am only posting this because I want to beat ComingAnarchy to the punch. Love those guys. Anyway there's a so-so review of Robert Kaplan's new book, Hog Pilots, Blue Water Grunts: The American Military in the Air at Sea, and on the Ground in WaPost's Bookworld. As much as I like Kaplan I must confess that the conclusion of the review is somewhat on target:
In the 1990s, the peripatetic Kaplan wrote the richly detailed travel narratives that American soldiers read to educate themselves about the exotic locations to which they might deploy. His Balkan Ghosts was all-but-required for every Army officer headed for Bosnia. But a few years ago, he changed tack and decided to write about the troops themselves. Both are worthwhile pursuits, but on the basis of this offering, the former represented a greater value to the nation.
