Knife Fights Read online

  Operation Knight Strike, 16

  Operation Netscape, 75

  organizational learning chart, 38

  Oxford University, 5, 26, 28, 29, 38, 40, 41, 49, 50, 53, 69, 79, 81, 158

  Oxford University Strategic Studies Group (OUSSG), 39

  Pace, Peter, 118, 162, 187

  Packer, George, 129, 183

  Pakistan, 3, 138, 185–87, 193, 197, 199, 201, 206–7, 210, 217, 219, 221, 226–29, 235, 238, 239

  Pakistani Army, 206

  Pakistani Taliban, 206, 228

  Palin, Sarah, 180

  Panetta, Leon, 221, 234

  Paris Peace Talks, 136

  Parker, Jay, 41, 43

  Parks, Sheldon, 65, 72

  Patriquin, Travis, 172

  Patton, George, 42

  Petraeus, David, 41–43, 53, 60–61, 64, 118, 121–26, 121, 156, 163, 166–70, 172–73, 176, 177, 182, 183, 198, 200–205, 209–10, 214–15, 217, 220, 246, 247

  Bremer and, 77

  Broadwell and, 161, 208–9

  counterinsurgency manual and, 128, 129–32, 137, 156, 157

  Keane and, 162

  son of, 103

  Syria and, 234

  Yingling and, 148

  Petraeus, Holly, 203

  Pfaff, Tony, 47

  Philippines, 213, 221

  Pinker, Stephen, 224

  Places in Between, The (Stewart), 194

  population growth, 223, 226, 232

  Powell, Colin, 45–46, 59, 62, 109–10

  Powell-Weinberger Doctrine, 46, 53

  Power, Samantha, 165

  Praeger Press, 52, 92, 120, 132

  Program for the Pacification and Long-Term Development of South Vietnam (PROVN), 36

  Qaddafi, Muammar, 223, 233–34

  Raddatz, Martha, 175

  Ramadi, 67–68, 72, 76, 168

  Rayburn, Joel, 176

  Red Aces, 6–7

  Reidel, Bruce, 190, 192

  Republican Guard, 17

  Revolutionary War, 42, 43

  revolution in military affairs (RMA), 29–30

  Rice, Condoleezza, 109, 143–44

  Rickover, Hyman, 50

  Ricks, Thomas, 149

  Riggs, Scott “Turtle,” 10, 21

  Robinson, Linda, 61

  Rolling Stone, 202

  Romans, 81–82, 237

  Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare), 88

  Roosevelt, Theodore, 248–49

  Rumsfeld, Donald, 61–63, 67, 73, 109–13, 118, 122, 130, 142, 144–46, 148–49, 156, 160–62

  firing of, 148–49, 214

  Saddam Hussein, 3, 5–6, 11, 13, 14, 16, 19, 59, 61, 62, 64, 111, 122, 139, 145, 211, 212, 214, 216, 230, 231, 238

  capture of, 89, 91

  Sadr City, 169

  Saigon, 208, 229

  Sanchez, Ricardo, 112, 113, 117, 139

  Santoriello, Neil, 104–5

  Saudi Arabia, 13, 14, 228, 233

  Scales, Robert, 147

  Schlesinger, Arthur, Jr., 2, 220–21

  Schoomaker, Peter, 113, 119, 122

  Schwarzkopf, H. Norman, 19

  SCUD missiles, 11–12

  Security Forces (SECFOR), 152

  Senate Foreign Relations Committee, 193–94, 216–17

  Sepp, Kalev “Gunnar,” 116–17, 120, 124, 127, 140

  September 11 attacks, 55–56, 111, 117, 159, 218, 221, 227, 229

  Seven Pillars of Wisdom: A Triumph (Lawrence), 31, 239

  Sewall, Sarah, 123–24, 126, 129, 144, 164, 165

  Shakespeare, William, 88

  Shapiro, Jacob, 170

  Sheehan, Michael, 120

  Shias, 73, 77, 96, 139, 149, 162, 168, 176, 217

  Shi’ites, 169

  Shinseki, Ric, 61–62, 108

  Shoemaker, Ted “Shoe,” 8–9, 9, 11, 17–19, 57, 154

  Simpson, Erin, 115

  Singh, Vikram, 144

  Skelton, Ike, 61, 148

  Small, Jesse, 240

  Small Wars Manual (U.S. Marine Corps), 164, 213

  Smith, Brian, 104

  Smith, Jim, 49

  Snider, Don, 47

  Snowden, Edward, 222

  social media, 223, 237

  Solzenitsyn, Alexander, 223

  Somalia, 52, 91, 138, 217, 224

  Sons of Iraq, 172, 176

  Sorley, Bob, 145

  South Korea, 105, 196

  Soviet Union, 3, 135, 212, 223–25, 235

  Afghanistan and, 185, 200, 208, 216, 225, 228

  Cold War, 19, 24, 46, 59, 110, 135–36, 213, 219, 225, 237–38

  Srebrenica, 27

  Stavridis, Jim, 174

  Stewart, Jon, 165–66

  Stewart, Rory, 193–94

  Strongest Tribe, The (West), 175

  Suleiman, Lieutenant Colonel, 96, 98–99, 101, 113

  Summers, Harry, 136, 219

  Sunflower Press, 164

  Sunni Awakening, 167, 173, 214

  Sunnis, 64, 65, 66, 73, 96, 139, 149, 162, 168–69, 173, 217

  Supreme Headquarters of the Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE), 42, 60

  Sustaining U.S. Global Leadership: Priorities for 21st Century Defense, 221

  Swat Valley, 228

  Swisher, Jeff, 66, 67, 69, 71, 72, 84, 88, 91, 104–5

  Syria, 196, 212, 221, 223, 227, 231, 234–36, 239

  Taiwan, 196, 225

  Taji, 140

  Tal Afar, 141, 142, 170

  “Tale of Two Battles, A” (Nagl), 24

  Taliban, 3, 56, 58, 117, 157, 185–87, 194–95, 197–98, 200, 201, 204–8, 210, 216–17, 219, 227–29

  Pakistani, 206, 228

  Tanham, George, 120

  Taqquadam Airfield (TQ), 73, 105

  Teamey, Kyle, 124–25, 127

  Tell Me How This Ends: General David Petraeus and the Search for a Way Out of Iraq (Robinson), 61

  Templer, Gerald, 34, 117, 145, 196

  Terrill, W. Andrew, 59–60

  Thomas, Jim, 114

  Tiananmen Square, 236

  Tibbets, Nate, 180

  Time, 61, 146

  Toffler, Alvin, 136

  Tora Bora Mountains, 186

  Traugott, Chris, 107

  Treaty of Westphalia, 222

  Trinquier, Roger, 120

  Truman, Harry, 215, 224

  Tryneski, John, 163–64

  Tunisia, 232–33

  Turner, Brian, xi

  Turquoise Mountains, 194

  Twain, Mark, 62

  Twitter, 223

  University of Chicago Press, 163–65

  UN Security Council, 233, 236

  urbanization, 223, 226, 237

  U.S. Army/Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Field Manual, The (Sewall, Nagl, Petraeus, and Amos), 124–28, 151, 155–57, 161, 163–67, 245

  Afghanistan and, 201, 203, 205

  campaign design in, 131–32, 131, 138

  Chiarelli/Michaelis diagram in, 133–35, 133

  civilian casualties and, 201

  “clear, hold, and build” technique in, 141, 170

  competitions in learning in, 130

  Daily Show and, 165–66

  on executing counterinsurgency operations, 132–34

  influence of, 138

  information operations not included in, 135

  McChrystal and, 201, 203

  on nonmilitary tasks, 134–35

  review conference on, 128, 129

  on top priority in counterinsurgency, 130

  University of Chicago edition of, 163–65

  U.S. Information Agency (USIA), 135–36

  U.S. military superiority, 223, 225

  Valeriano, Napoleon, 120

  Vann, John Paul, 201

  Varga, Susanne “Susi,” 6, 20–21, 24, 26, 28, 29, 31, 39, 43, 45, 48, 48, 55, 71, 107, 157–58, 173, 244, 248–50, 251

  Jack’s birth and, 56

  marriage of, 25–26, 26, 71

  move to Alexandria, 174

  move to Philadelphia, 251

 
Vietnam War, 3, 13, 15, 16, 19–22, 27, 34–40, 45–47, 52, 55, 61, 69, 85, 86, 92, 101, 103, 113, 120, 136, 143, 145, 162, 177, 201, 211–19, 224, 231–32, 239

  British campaign in Malaya compared with, 31, 32, 34, 37

  Dien Bien Phu, 34, 224

  fall of Saigon, 208, 229

  information technology and, 136–37, 223

  Tet Offensive, 36

  Wadi Al Batin, 9, 11, 14, 16

  Waghelstein, John, 116

  Wall Street Journal, 92, 129

  Walt, Stephen, 230–31

  Washington, George, 42, 43, 60

  Washington Post, 175, 177

  West, Bing, 175, 176

  Westmoreland, William, 35, 36, 145, 213

  West Point, 29, 39–45, 47–50, 86, 88, 103, 107, 122, 169, 198, 199, 243–47, 251

  What It Is Like to Go to War (Marlantes), 16

  Wilson, Doug, 181–82

  Wolfowitz, Paul, 61–62, 108–11, 111, 114, 119, 121–22, 125–26, 142

  “Won’t Get Fooled Again” (Newbold), 61, 146

  World Affairs, 47

  World War I, 31, 55, 136, 154, 224, 237

  World War II, 3, 32, 55, 63, 136, 154, 222, 224, 237, 240

  Yemen, 138, 217, 232, 235, 239

  Yingling, Paul, 44–45, 44, 51, 94, 142, 146–48, 148, 158, 209

  Young, Liz, 45

  * published in the Journal of the Royal United Services Institute, December 2007