Mark Moyar is director of research at Orbis Operations and the author of Triumph Forsaken: The Vietnam War, 1954–1965 and Phoenix and the Birds of Prey: Counterinsurgency and Counterterrorism in Vietnam.
"Counterinsurgency warfare, as Mark Moyar demonstrates in his
insightful historical study, is neither new nor unfathomable.
Throughout the past, it fails when battlefield leaders do not
understand the enemy and its methods, and succeeds only when
officers can convince local populations why they are better off
helping foreign troops than joining their own insurgents. Not
high-tech weaponry, massive supply, or even training defeats
insurgents. Only men — smart, brave, sensitive, and inquisitive
officers — now and in the past, make the difference. Moyar offers a
clear historical reminder of what defeats insurgencies at a time
when most in the present age are sorely confused."—Victor Davis
Hanson, Stanford University
*Victor Davis Hanson*
"In the burgeoning literature on counterinsurgency prompted by
American experiences in Afghanistan and Iraq, this volume stands
out. Moyar's argument, that the quality of leadership plays a far
larger role in the outcome of such conflicts than is normally
acknowledged, is surely correct; his graceful examination of
conflicts spanning one hundred fifty years is convincing. A book
that makes an important historical argument and, just as important,
will be of use to leaders who will bear responsibility on the
battlefields of the Long War."—Eliot A. Cohen, author of Supreme
Command: Soldiers, Statesmen, and Leadership in Wartime
*Eliot A. Cohen*
"One of the great mistakes we made after the Vietnam War was
forgetting what we learned there. Mark Moyar has ensured that we
don't forget what we learned in Iraq over the last seven years—and
has also re-captured lessons from earlier conflicts."—Thomas E.
Ricks, author of Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq
and The Gamble: General David Petraeus and the American Military
Adventure in Iraq, 2006-2008
*Thomas E. Ricks*
"Mark Moyar convincingly demonstrates that small unit leaders win
counterinsurgencies. His chapter on Afghanistan is especially
disturbing; I hope someone in authority is listening."—Bing West,
author of The Strongest Tribe: War, Politics, and the Endgame in
Iraq
*Bing West*
“A Question of Command stands out because it reaches back quite
far, and to unexpected destinations.” —Wilson Quarterly
*Wilson Quarterly*
“Moyar's study of Vietnam--Triumph Forsaken--is becoming a classic
in counterinsurgency circles. His new case studies--A Question of
Command--are making it to the desks of top military decision
makers.”--George Stephanopoulos, ABC News
*ABC News*
“Moyar is a true pioneer in a field whose importance for national
security has been accepted only reluctantly and belatedly by the
American public. . . . Now we have a vastly improved roadmap for
guidance.”-- John Tierney, Books and Culture
*Books and Culture*
“Terrorism, uniquely horrifying as it is, doesn’t belong to an
entirely separate and containable realm of human experience, like
the one occupied by serial killers. Instead, it’s a tactic whose
aims bleed into the larger, endless struggle of people to control
land, set up governments, and exercise power. History is about
managing that struggle.”--Nicholas Lemann, The New Yorker
*New Yorker*
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