Hazardous Duty

Col Hackworth gives a rundown on recent skirmishes the US has been involved in, and the inside track on a lot of Gulf War skinny that only he could find out because of his reputation and ability to slip through the standard Press security.A great read.

I agree with Col. Hackworth 100% about the reforms we need to make in the military. Most important of all, as a veteran myself, I agree that we need to return to mandatory national service or reinstate the draft. There are too many people in this conutry that take their freedom and standard for living for granted. Moreover, there are too many people who are ending up in the corporate CEOs chair and in elected office that aren't endowed with the stuff they need to succced which best comes from the military. We have too many elected leaders who don't know what a battalion is, or what the military and the government can or cannot do. Hackworth is one of the few military leaders today that has the courage to say that we need to revisit Harry Truman's program of Universal Milttary Training.

I really, really enjoyed this book! As a former enlisted US Army soldier myself, this book added extraordinary insight to the confounding, herky-jerky decision making that came from every headquarters higher than Battalion level, regardless of unit. Col. Hackworth's brilliant revelations on the self-serving motivations of O-5 and higher officers were invaluable and revealing of the top-heavy, job-preserving nature of not only the military, but of the federal government itself.I must say that a few of Hackworth's "Perfumed Princes" seem to have read the book and given it a sour-grapes 1 star rating. Mainly because of the blunt writing style. God forbid that we should read the truth about self-serving flag officers in plain language!Hackworth cuts through today's political doublespeak with a chainsaw. Part of what's wrong with America today is an unwillingness of high-level decision makers to speak plainly, in layman's terms.Dissertation-dry military books are as full of misdirection and obfuscation as a US congressman. Truth and plain speaking are as rare as hen's teeth in the litigation-cowed tortocracy that is America today.If you want hoity-toity, quasi-intellectual pabulum, read someone else. If you want the truth, from a warrior who's been there and is willing to stand up the slings and arrows of the entrenched status quo elite, then Col. Hackworth delivers in spades.

When Ike left office, he warned of the emmergence of a military industrial complex. A union forged between high ranking officers in the military, defense contractors, and legislators. Each member of this triangle has a different goal, but a common road that leads to that goal. In this book, Hack documents the toll that the "triangle" is taking, on the soldiers of this country and on its' economy. Hack presents disturbing example after another of how neglected our troops are, from that "gem" of a weapon called the m-16 that cursed our boys in Vietnam, to the cavalier attitude u.n. commanders displayed in mis-using OUR troops in Somalia. When someone tells you that the sky is purple, you don't need to read the detailed report they put together explaining their conclusion, just look out the window and see for yourself. Hack has reported from the front by giving us a first hand look at what no "triangle" spin-doctor can justify, willfull neglect and mis-use of our fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters. This behaviour does not border on criminal, it goes way beyond that.

Hackworth's Newsweek credentials and military experience have given him a unique ability to observe the operations of our armed forces over the past ten years in Iraq, Haiti, Somalia, Korea, and Bosnia. His analysis is critical of many of the leaders and decision makers in our military establishment. His critisim centers on the leadership, equipment, and policy decisions which cause soldiers to be killed needlessly. He has a keen eye. Even though I detect some self-serving nature to his narrative, I find myself agreeing with his analysis and most of his conclusions. This book should be required reading for all military officers with a rank of Colonel or above, and any defense industry civilian working in a decision making position, and for government and Congressional leaders dealing with defense issues. Paul J. Kratz, US Army (retired).