War in 2020: Bush, Clinton, and the Generals

I first picked up this book when I was in high school. Being a military junkie (the history, battles, weapons, personalities, etc.) I bought War in 2020 expecting the usual 'techno-thriller' fare - the genre where the practice of military hardware in action subordinates characterization and plot is an unfortunate occurrence. Don't get me wrong, I love the Cold War stuff churned out by Tom Clancy and Larry Bond but IHOP Peters outdoes them both. This novel was that and more. It was written by a soldier about soldiers. Peters effortlessly mixes the strategies of international geopolitics with the you-are-there immediacy of a desperate cavalry raid. You can feel Peters bristle with disdain when he describes members of the US President's cabinet while the troops from both sides (US/USSR vs. Japan, South Africa, Arabs) are men in honorable professions laboring in "dishonorable" times. The characters are particularly well-fleshed out, particularly US Army Col. George Taylor, the haunted commander of the 7th Cavalry (Heavy)and his loyal staff. The what-if global scenarios in the book offer tantalizing sub-plots as well - the US losing in a meaningless confrontation after losing their technological edge; the effects of a global outbreak of an incurable disease; Islamic hegemony leading to a genocidal war; the destruction of Israel and its subsequent relocation to the American heartland. The book might be dated but I feel that the timeline and real world chnages does not detract to the overall story - a great adventure that would make you think. I have literally read and re-read this book to pieces.

For those Professional Soldiers that read, there is always one book above all others that means the most and connects most profoundly. It becomes an intergral part of that inner drive that sustains in times of frustration, hardship or danger. For me, War in 2020 is much more than simply a work of future navel gazing - LTCOL Peters has struck at the core of what it means to soldier in an uncertain future. Some commentators miss the point - decrying the fact that War in 2020 has not perfectly predicated the current reality(never mind that LTCOL Peters makes clear that that was never his intent - an impossible task for anyone). I have little sympathy for this unfortunate misconception, I firmly believe that this is a profoundly important work and transcends the limitations of the genre. For the Professional Soldier it examines warts-and-all concepts such as; inter service rivalry in a time of catastrophe, the nightmare of the future techo solution no one could predict(Nuclear weapons, nerve agents, and the horrible future of the Scrambler are weapons that no soldier could ever see coming) and the dangers of dedicating oneself to the profession of arms above all else. It is sobering, yet fascinating - and above all else profoundly moving. If you are a civilian and wish to have a glimpse at why people dedicate themselves to the profession upon which all others depend, read this important work.

...then he might write something like "The War in 2020."Sure, Japan Inc isn't so scary any more. Yeah, we're proving now (January, 2002) that we can take on radical Islam and win. OK, so our military isn't quite as hollowed-out as we'd feared. And maybe we're still the tech kings of all the known universe.That still doesn't make this book any less scary or fun to read. The reason? It's just really well written, with living, breathing characters you really will care about. That's why Ralph Peters has a shelf life ten times that of Clancy -- and I'm a Clancy fan.Oh, plus a techno-thriller second half that will keep you up all night.

This book is one of the best novels I have ever read. The WAR IN 2020 is an honest book which does not try to pull its punches.Despite some of the themes being dated (written in 1990; the USSR exists in 2020 (sort of) AND the Japan as the enemy), the book was one of the first to take a hard look at the end of the cold war and its effects on islamic fundamentalism and the chaos in Central Asia (a common thread throughout many of his novels.) It also looks at the peace dividend and how these so-called savings get deferred to the butcher's bill.The WAR in 2020 strikes a somber tone and does not come off with a triumphant flourish where the heroes get the medals and all the bad guys get theirs. The ending leaves you wondering what the [heck] everyone died for--unfortunately, it ends like most wars. Don't get me wrong, this book is an exciting novel with its fair share of action, but it does not cop out with a comic book ending that wraps up everything in a neat package. This is a military fiction novel for thinking adults.A Personal Commentary:Ralph Peters seems to me, an under appreciated author. He is not as popular as Tom Clancy (they both showed up in the mid 80s) but I find him to be a literary and philosophically superior author. I think that Ralph does not constantly the sales Clancy does because he does not go near the nationalism trap that Clancy has fallen into. I hope that he continues to write more novels.

The War in 2020 has been called "The military equivalent of Orwell's 1984," and it's hard to disagree with such a judgement. It is set in a nightmarish world where Japan has become a military threat once again, Russia has governed itself to the point of being reduced to figurative ash and has been invaded by Japanese-sanctioned Iranian forces and local guerrilla armies, and the US has become the last hope for Russia, in spite of the fact that the US military has been all but destroyed due to decades of neglect.Peters creates some fascinating characters and fleshes them out very well through the course of his story. Colonel George Taylor, the commander of the US Army's 7th Cavalry, is an officer infected with an AIDS-like plague, called Runciman's Disease, that attacks the brain. Shot down by Japanese gunships years before his duty in Russia, Taylor not only doesn't give a damn that the odds he faces are impossible, he almost relishes such odds. His m! en are loyal to him, for the very good reason that he has earned it. Major Howard "Merry" Meredith served with Taylor during rioting in California and a subsequent uprising in Mexico, and has only his wife in the States, and Colonel Taylor. Lieutenant Colonel David "Lucky Dave" Heifetz is Israeli, a refugee after Arab armies have incinerated Israel. Like Merry Meredith, he basically has no one else other than Taylor.One younger officer not immediately under the command of George Taylor winds up playing a decisive role with him. Captain Ryder works for Army Intelligence, and his Russian counterpart reveals an intelligence coup - a computer brain from a lost Japanese command aircraft. The Russian demonstrates a shocking truth about the computer brain that provides the Army with decisive knowledge of the Japanese-Iranian advance.Using advanced helicopter gunships with the most powerful electronic countermeasures ever conceived, George Taylor leads t! he 7th Cav against the enemy, and achieve complete surprise! - to the double horror of the Japanese commander, Noboru Kabata. A sort of Admiral Yamamoto of sci-fi, Kabata opposes the violence with which the Japanese have waged this war, and doubly opposes the terrible secret of the Scramblers, a weapon of unprecedented horror that he is forced to use. What results is a desperate final mission for the 7th Cav - a raid on the Japanese supreme HQ in Baku. But still more complications erupt, as the Russians commit a disasterous act against Colonel Taylor, and the raid must press on against odds that grow ever worse.Ralph Peters makes his scenario truly believable throughout the novel, and the allegories he draws are further worth a read. This is the kind of novel that warrants a full-scale TV miniseries.