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What Are You Currently Reading?
- Thread starter CDG
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No apologies necessary. I actually thought it was appropriate. After all, do we really want an SS member at NSA, peering into the more deviant aspects of @AWP s private life?
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Diplomacy by Henry Kissinger.
I've read the first volume of Kissingers' White House Years which is pretty interesting & Diplomacy is an absolute cracker. I'm currently on 'War and Gold. A Five Hundred Year History of Empires, Adventures and Debt.' It's a little patchy though the basic theory is that money is raised for wars and the resulting problems that arise from that. It commences with the Spanish conquest of the Americas and the final chapters are about 1973 and the end of the gold standard, oil, Thatcher & Reagan which I'm looking forward to.
WWI history, eyewitness accounts, documentaries, etc... have always intrigued me.
Just started this---
Below is a link to a press release:
Eden Prairie author pens 3rd World War I book
Just started this---
Below is a link to a press release:
Eden Prairie author pens 3rd World War I book
TheDarkKnight
Unverified
Reading two books right now:
and
and
Reading two books right now:
and
Kasal gave me a signed copy of his book when he was the MEF SgtMaj. I haven t read it yet
Reading two books right now:
That has been on my list, was highly recommended...
I need to Find, Buy & Read!
I didn't know if I should drop this in the CAS thread, but so be it. Hampton has two other books out and is writing another about Lindbergh's flight. The existing books pretty good and are on my list. I've always had a fascination with the Wild Weasel/ Iron Hand missions.
https://www.amazon.com/Hunter-Kille...erous-ebook/dp/B00NLMC92Q/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8
The second is about air combat.
https://www.amazon.com/Lords-Sky-Fighter-Pilots-Combat/dp/0062262092/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8
Last, an interview. I think the bit about using mercenary pilots, plus the company he's with, is...interesting.
USAF's Deadliest F-16 Pilot Talks F-15 Retirement, Syria, and Pilot Shortage
ThunderHorse
Verified Military
Someone at Vice decided to review The Great Gatsby and apparently didn't like it :wall: Actually, 'The Great Gatsby' Is Trash
J.S.
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I recently reread Deployment by Phil Klay and it cemented its place as one of my favorite books.
I obviously cannot speak to the accuracy of its depiction of the GWOT, but the author is a Marine vet with a 2007-2008 deployment to Al Anbar. The book is visceral and written in a very direct manner, which I enjoy. I also appreciate the format of a short story collection with many different perspectives and timelines offered.
I would like to hear some opinions on the book if any vets here have read it. What did you think of it?
I obviously cannot speak to the accuracy of its depiction of the GWOT, but the author is a Marine vet with a 2007-2008 deployment to Al Anbar. The book is visceral and written in a very direct manner, which I enjoy. I also appreciate the format of a short story collection with many different perspectives and timelines offered.
I would like to hear some opinions on the book if any vets here have read it. What did you think of it?
Just finished re-reading Tinker Tailor...and Smiley's People thanks to this thread, and had forgotten just how good they really are.
Next up is Born of the Desert; With the SAS in North Africa, by Malcolm James, their medical officer...A new edition of a book originally published in 1946.
There's a lot to be said for books written by participants while their memories are still fresh.
Next up is Born of the Desert; With the SAS in North Africa, by Malcolm James, their medical officer...A new edition of a book originally published in 1946.
There's a lot to be said for books written by participants while their memories are still fresh.
Red Flag 1
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[Q
Mod Merged.
Mod Merged.
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J.S.
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Completely apologize, must have not been thinking straight. Thank you for merging, will not make this mistake again.
What Money Can't Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets by Michael Sandel. Very thought-provoking book by a Harvard professor. He discusses the evolution of the economics and economically-minded thinking into fields traditionally untouched by regular economists. For example, the concept of the incentive structure and influencing human behavior has been exploding recently, especially in management books and all sorts of things, but he highlights places where research has proven that this fails.
The more interesting parts of the book are where he discusses the use of economic incentives to solve problems: paying kids $2/book to up literacy rates in poor schools, paying people to be healthy to lower insurance rates, concierge doctors, and creating a market for organ transplants. He doesn't land on one-side or the other for any problem but rather acts like an journalist ethics professor that informs you about a given problem and provides different sides of the argument. Most of these problems are considered solved under the auspices of increasing economic efficiency, but even when the "market solution" doesn't fail, there is something missing, and he posits that economic solutions can sometimes corrupt and bastardize the thing that it is trying to solve. For example, say you pay a kid to read for the purposes of learning. Most people that read as adults do so for the intrinsic reward that it provides, but a kid that has been paid to read will replace that intrinsic reward with an external one and only read (and do other things that should be intrinsically motivated as part of our culture and society) when it benefits him externally.
It's not near as philosophical as I'm making it sound, but it is an easy read that questions the direction that our society is heading in the name of economic efficiency. As someone very interested in economics, this was a somewhat attitude adjusting read that helps reinforce that "don't take everything at face value" concept espoused by many on the site.
The more interesting parts of the book are where he discusses the use of economic incentives to solve problems: paying kids $2/book to up literacy rates in poor schools, paying people to be healthy to lower insurance rates, concierge doctors, and creating a market for organ transplants. He doesn't land on one-side or the other for any problem but rather acts like an journalist ethics professor that informs you about a given problem and provides different sides of the argument. Most of these problems are considered solved under the auspices of increasing economic efficiency, but even when the "market solution" doesn't fail, there is something missing, and he posits that economic solutions can sometimes corrupt and bastardize the thing that it is trying to solve. For example, say you pay a kid to read for the purposes of learning. Most people that read as adults do so for the intrinsic reward that it provides, but a kid that has been paid to read will replace that intrinsic reward with an external one and only read (and do other things that should be intrinsically motivated as part of our culture and society) when it benefits him externally.
It's not near as philosophical as I'm making it sound, but it is an easy read that questions the direction that our society is heading in the name of economic efficiency. As someone very interested in economics, this was a somewhat attitude adjusting read that helps reinforce that "don't take everything at face value" concept espoused by many on the site.
Just finished up the revised and updated edition of Killer Elite. The revision covers the role played by ISA in the hunt for UBL, and some other post 9/11 missions. It was a good read, just like the first time. Now I'm on Skunk Works.
From the development of the U-2 to the Stealth fighter, the never-before-told story behind America's high-stakes quest to dominate the skies Skunk Works is the true story of America's most secret and successful aerospace operation. As recounted by Ben Rich, the operation's brilliant boss for nearly two decades, the chronicle of Lockheed's legendary Skunk Works is a drama of cold war confrontations and Gulf War air combat, of extraordinary feats of engineering and human achievement against fantastic odds. Here are up-close portraits of the maverick band of scientists and engineers who made the Skunk Works so renowned. Filled with telling personal anecdotes and high adventure, with narratives from the CIA and from Air Force pilots who flew the many classified, risky missions, this book is a riveting portrait of the most spectacular aviation triumphs of the twentieth century.
From the development of the U-2 to the Stealth fighter, the never-before-told story behind America's high-stakes quest to dominate the skies Skunk Works is the true story of America's most secret and successful aerospace operation. As recounted by Ben Rich, the operation's brilliant boss for nearly two decades, the chronicle of Lockheed's legendary Skunk Works is a drama of cold war confrontations and Gulf War air combat, of extraordinary feats of engineering and human achievement against fantastic odds. Here are up-close portraits of the maverick band of scientists and engineers who made the Skunk Works so renowned. Filled with telling personal anecdotes and high adventure, with narratives from the CIA and from Air Force pilots who flew the many classified, risky missions, this book is a riveting portrait of the most spectacular aviation triumphs of the twentieth century.
Kraut783
SOF Support
I had put this link up before, worth re-posting for those that missed it. Talk of former U2 pilot....worth watching.
back on target....just starting "Red Platoon" by Clinton Romesha (MOH)
back on target....just starting "Red Platoon" by Clinton Romesha (MOH)
A bit of freeware: Paths to Victory. There's two volumes. I started to kick the tyres, due to an interest in the Tamil Tigers (the LTTE). They're in there plus a metric fuck ton more.
Paths to Victory: Lessons from Modern Insurgencies | RAND
Paths to Victory: Lessons from Modern Insurgencies | RAND
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Every few years or so I re-read Dick Marcinko's Rogue Warrior. Rogue Warrior (book) - Wikipedia
I know he's written plenty of books after that and thought I see if anything looked interesting....yep!
So awesome!
I know he's written plenty of books after that and thought I see if anything looked interesting....yep!
- Dictator's Ransom (2008) - Having read all of Marcinko's books, North Korean leader Kim Jong-il hires him to bring back an illegitimate son who's gone missing. Marcinko's subtly convinced by the CIA to take up the assignment (after initially resisting the temptation of Kim's $64-million reward), but things get muddled when the lover of one of his associates holds the missing child hostage in return for a North Korean nuclear weapon.
- Seize the Day (2009) - When a casual observation of Marcinko leads one to believe that he can pass off for a slightly younger Fidel Castro, the CIA has him as the lead talent in a fake video of Castro's last will and testament and send it to Cuba for circulation, with some insights from one of the former dictator's barbers. However, a deathbed-ridden Castro his own game to play: using Cuban refugees to the US as viral carriers - and Marcinko's own illegitimate son is in the crossfire.
So awesome!
