Ground Truth or Nanny State

Ground Truth: The Future of U. S. Land Power

Author: Thomas Donnelly

"In Ground Truth: The Future of U.S. Land Power, Thomas Donnelly and Frederick W. Kagan pose five urgent questions for policymakers: What is the strategic role of American ground forces? What missions will these forces undertake in the future? What is the nature of land warfare in the twenty-first century? What qualities are necessary to succeed on the battlefields of the Long War? What is the ideal size and configuration of the force - and how much will it cost?" Answers to such questions are long overdue. The stresses of prolonged operations in the Middle East have strained the U.S. Army and Marine Corps; if the United States is to maintain its status as the sole superpower, American land power must be restructured to confront unprecedented challenges.

Margaret Heilbrun - Library Journal

We are used to hearing about "ground forces" in Iraq. Here former House Armed Services Committee staffer Donnelly and former professor of military history at West Point Kagan (respectively, resident fellow and resident scholar in defense & security policy studies, AEI) look at America's military and note that it is functioning according to policy, funding, and organization from the 1980s even as today's counterterrorism and counterinsurgency require a new kind of land warfare. They succinctly lay out the needs for a larger, differently trained and equipped ground force. Of interest to military history buffs as well as the specialists.

Table of Contents:

Introduction 1

1 The Mission 5

How We Got Here 6

The Military's Missions 11

Priorities 14

Enemies 16

Threats 23

Iran 23

China 27

Challenges 28

Requirements 30

2 What Kind of War? 33

The Nature of Conflict and Attempts to Predict the

Nature of Future War 34

The Posture of the U.S. Military Today 37

The Need for a Full-Spectrum Force 40

The Internationalist Chimera 42

The Nature of the War on Terror 45

The Restoration of Military Capability 48

3 Case Studies: New Battlefields 50

The Invasion of Iraq: Speed Kills 52

Tal Afar: Conventional Forces in Irregular War 59

Israel in Lebanon: Serial Surprise 65

Lost and Won: The Fight for Anbar 73

Building Partners: The Abu Sayyaf Campaign 80

4 What Kind of Force? 87

Force Presence and the Institutional Base 89

Information Gathering and Processing 92

Firepower 98

Leader Training 100

Partnership 102

Expansibility 108

5 Costs: Time, People, Money 110

A Ten-Year Commitment 110

Sizing the Force 113

Structuring the Force 122

Equipping the Force 128

Paying for the Force 139

Notes 145

Index 159

Book about: Le Secteur À but non lucratif :un Manuel de Recherche

Nanny State: How Food Fascists, Teetotaling Do-Gooders, Priggish Moralists, and Other Boneheaded Bureaucrats are Turning America into a Nation of Children

Author: David Harsanyi

In certain Massachusetts towns, school-yard tag is now banned. San Francisco has passed laws regulating the amount of water you should use in dog bowls. In New York City it is illegal to sit on an upended milk crate. In some parts of California, smoking is prohibited—outside.

In the name of health, safety, decency, and good intentions, ever-vigilant politicians, bureaucrats, and social activists are dictating what we eat, where we smoke, what we watch and read. Why do bureaucrats know what’s better for us than we do? Have they overstepped their bounds in dictating our behavior through legislation? Are their restrictive measures essential to our health and safety—or exercises in political expediency? Girl Scout cookies, swing sets, cigarettes, alcohol, and gay authors are all in their sights. Nanny State raises a host of questions about the motives and influence of the playground police, food-fascists, anti-porn crusaders, and other “nannies” popping up all over America.

Nanny State provides a rubric for viewing the debate about the size and scope of the state. Drawing on dozens of examples, Harsanyi offers a convincing argument that government intervention in its citizens’ private lives not only denies us freedom of choice, but also erodes our national character by promoting a culture of victimhood and dependence.

Publishers Weekly

Denver Postcolumnist Harsanyi's libertarian opus makes the case that government meddling in private lives demands our full attention. Whether bureaucrats are banning trans fats, trying to reduce drinking or legislating where citizens can smoke, Harsanyi objects. Such regulation, he believes, insults a freeborn citizenry. As he puts it: "the five most frightening words in the English language: something needs to be done." Aiming at predictable targets like New York's Mayor Michael Bloomberg, he finds no meddler too insignificant to escape his contempt, including a Dublin, Calif., councilwoman who tried to further tighten the city's antismoking law. Harsanyi also trashes the religious right for trying to legislate morality. But the book would have benefited from more anecdotes and original reporting, instead of incessantly naming overzealous do-gooders. Moreover, Harsanyi barely considers business's role, as these dangerous do-gooders fight fast food and tobacco companies armed with hundreds of millions of marketing dollars. There's not much new, but fellow libertarians may enjoy getting carried away by the flood of Harsanyi's outrage. (Sept.)

Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information

Kirkus Reviews

Denver Post columnist Harsanyi delivers a podium-thumping screed against micromanaging, moralizing busybodies from both sides of the political divide. According to the author, Americans are in danger of infantilization by legislation. Health-conscious scaremongers have passed laws eroding the freedom to eat a trans-fat-larded monster burger, smoke a post-prandial cigarette indoors or knock back a few beers. Safety-conscious meddlers have passed regulations on sharp toys, oversized gumballs, competitive dodgeball and buckling up when driving. They're also responsible for the inane warning labels affixed to just about everything. Morality-conscious prudes are monitoring provocative cheerleading routines and diverting FBI resources to anti-obscenity squads. Harsanyi bolsters his position with a relentless barrage of reports and statistics on legislation great and small, from the national "Click It or Ticket" seatbelt campaign and pet-care mandates in San Francisco to the federal law lowering the legal blood-alcohol level and licensing exams for florists in Louisiana. Harsanyi's sprightly prose keeps much of this minutia afloat, but he can be awfully glib. On alcohol: "The truth is that alcohol can be as dangerous as other drugs. But primarily, we've learned our limitations." He also reserves a baffling amount of vitriol for seatbelt laws, equated here to being ticketed at home for eating unhealthy foods because "there is no difference in principle when you legislate personal behavior." His specious arguments allege that "nannies" obfuscate and cherry-pick, while he blithely does the same in rebuttal, trotting out examples of people who lost weight eating at McDonald's, reports dismissing thedangers of second-hand smoke and statistics on how seatbelts haven't really saved lives. Sentences here and there hint that picayune pieces of legislation serve as distractions from more egregious matters, but Harsanyi doesn't bother to be any more specific than that. "Let's be adults" is a refreshing message, but the text fails to rise above a retread of libertarian talking points. Agent: Sloan Harris/ICM