Twilight Warriors: The Soldiers, Spies, & Special Agents Who Are Revolutionizing the American Way of War

After the U.S. invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, those wars evolved into insurgency warfare, which is much harder to deal with than more traditional warfare and doesn't provide the kind of big payoff that Americans desire. Veteran reporter Kitfield (senior fellow, Ctr. for the Study of the Presidency & Congress) relates how some dedicated military professionals strove to meld various military units with the FBI and other intelligence agencies, an organizational and doctrinal shift that took a lot of time and effort. He shows how smaller units and actions were more effective with better intelligence and faster reaction times. He is disgusted that some generals who did so much to change the way that the United States fought wars were brought down by seemingly common human mistakes and bureaucratic opposition. Kitfield warns that while various analyses of the situation may be correct and forward thinking, our national leaders keep making bad decisions because they are politically expedient and not paying the direct price of failure (e.g., dead friends and relatives).