The "better-war" thesis blames generals for failed wars and misses the crucial role of faulty strategies. William Westmoreland's Vietnam ordeal offers a case in point. He deserves better than this latest assault by Lewis Sorley.
Counterinsurgency is not a cure-all. Local allegiances will always trump the might of the invader. Washington’s insistence that the troops turn Kabul into a functioning democracy will only erode the military's fighting spirit.
Rather surprisingly, William Odom's Collapse of the Soviet Military provides the most comprehensive and serious examination to date of the Soviet military's unexpected passivity during the disintegration of the Soviet Union.
