Imperial Grunts

A fascinating, unprecedented first-hand look at the soldiers on the front lines on the Global War on Terror. Plunging deep into midst of some of the hottest conflicts on the globe, Robert D. Kaplan takes us through mud and jungle, desert and dirt to the men and women on the ground who are leading the charge against threats to American security. These soldiers, fighting in thick Colombian jungles or on dusty Afghani plains, are the forefront of the new American foreign policy, a policy being implemented one soldier at a time. As Kaplan brings us inside their thoughts, feelings, and operations, these modern grunts provide insight and understanding into the War on Terror, bringing the war, which sometimes seems so distant, vividly to life.

Robert D. Kaplan is a correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly and the author of ten previous books on foreign affairs and travel, which have been translated into many languages; these books include Balkan Ghosts, Eastward to Tartary, Warrior Politics, The Coming Anarchy, and The Ends of the Earth. He lives in western Massachusetts.

From the Hardcover edition.

PROLOGUE INJUN COUNTRY

3

(14)

CHAPTER ONE CENTCOM

17

(22)

YEMEN, WINTER 2002

WITH NOTES ON COLOMBIA

"Yemen was vast. And it was only one small country....How to manage such an imperium?"

CHAPTER TWO SOUTHCOM

39

(52)

COLOMBIA, WINTER 2003

WITH NOTES ON EL SALVADOR

"The future of military conflict was better gauged in Colombia than in Iraq....In Colombia I was introduced to the tactics that the U.S. would employ to manage an unruly world."

CHAPTER THREE PACOM

91

(40)

MONGOLIA, SPRING 2003

WITH NOTES ON MACEDONIA, BOSNIA, AND TAJIKISTAN

"Mongolia was a trip wire for judging future Chinese intentions....Col. Wilhelm was determined to make the descendants of Genghis Khan the 'peacekeeping Gurkhas' of the American Empire."

CHAPTER FOUR PACOM

131

(54)

THE PHILIPPINES, SUMMER 2003

WITH NOTES ON THE PHILIPPINES, 1898-1913

"Terrorists used these poor, shantyish, unpoliceable islands as hideouts....Combating Islamic terrorism here carried a secondary benefit: it positioned the U.S. for the containment of China."

CHAPTER FIVE CENTCOM AND SOCOM

185

(72)

AFGHANISTAN, AUTUMN 2003

WITH NOTES ON PAKISTAN'S NORTHWEST FRONTIER

"Because al-Qaeda was a worldwide insurgency, America had to fight a classic worldwide counterinsurgency....here, amid the field mice and the mud-walled flatness of the Helmand desert, there was only constant trial-and-error experimentation in light of the mission at hand."

CHAPTER SIX FROM THE ARMY TO THE MARINES FORT BRAGG AND CAMP LEJEUNE, NORTH CAROLINA

257

(16)

WINTER 2003-2004

"I had entered a world stripped to its bare essentials, the inhabitants of which had taken a veritable monastic vow of poverty."

CHAPTER SEVEN CENTCOM

273

(34)

HORN OF AFRICA, WINTER 2004

WITH NOTES ON EAST AFRICA

Who needs meetings in Washington...Guys in the field will figure out what to do. I took ten guys through eastern Ethiopia. Everywhere people wanted an American presence.' A new paradigm was emerging for the military, one that borrowed more from the French and Indian War and the Lewis and Clark expedition than, from the major conflicts of the twentieth century"

CHAPTER EIGHT CENTCOM

307

(64)

IRAQ, SPRING 2004

WITH NOTES ON NICARAGUA AND VIETNAM

"I looked around in broad daylight to see the roofscape of Al-Fallujah covered with thousands upon thousands of old mufflers and tailpipes, guarded by U.S. Marines, standing atop the city with fixed bayonets....Yet the American Empire depended upon a tissue of intangibles that was threatened, rather than invigorated, by the naked exercise of power."

EPILOGUE THE INTERIOR CONTINENT

371

(2)

Author's Note and Acknowledgments

373

(4)

Glossary

377

(6)

Notes

383

(10)

Index

393

What is included with this book?

The New copy of this book will include any supplemental materials advertised. Please check the title of the book to determine if it should include any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.

The Used, Rental and eBook copies of this book are not guaranteed to include any supplemental materials. Typically, only the book itself is included. This is true even if the title states it includes any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.

FREE SHIPPING

Amazon no longer offers textbook rentals. We do!

Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials