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America's War for the Greater Middle East
- A Military History
- Narrated by: Rob Shapiro, Andrew J. Bacevich
- Length: 15 hrs and 7 mins
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Publisher's summary
Retired army colonel and New York Times best-selling author Andrew J. Bacevich provides a searing reassessment of US military policy in the Middle East over the past four decades.
From the end of World War II until 1980, virtually no American soldiers were killed in action while serving in the Greater Middle East. Since 1990, virtually no American soldiers have been killed in action anywhere else. What caused this shift? Andrew J. Bacevich, one of the country's most respected voices on foreign affairs, offers an incisive critical history of this ongoing military enterprise - now more than 30 years old and with no end in sight.
During the 1980s, Bacevich argues, a great transition occurred. As the Cold War wound down, the United States initiated a new conflict - a war for the Greater Middle East - that continues to the present day. The long twilight struggle with the Soviet Union had involved only occasional and sporadic fighting. But as this new war unfolded, hostilities became persistent. From the Balkans and East Africa to the Persian Gulf and Central Asia, US forces embarked upon a seemingly endless series of campaigns across the Islamic world. Few achieved anything remotely like conclusive success. Instead, actions undertaken with expectations of promoting peace and stability produced just the opposite. As a consequence, phrases like permanent war and open-ended war have become part of everyday discourse.
Connecting the dots in a way no other historian has done before, Bacevich weaves a compelling narrative out of episodes as varied as the Beirut bombing of 1983, the Mogadishu firefight of 1993, the invasion of Iraq in 2003, and the rise of ISIS in the present decade. Understanding what America's costly military exertions have wrought requires seeing these seemingly discrete events as parts of a single war. It also requires identifying the errors of judgment made by political leaders in both parties and by senior military officers who share responsibility for what has become a monumental march to folly. This Bacevich unflinchingly does.
A 20-year army veteran who served in Vietnam, Andrew J. Bacevich brings the full weight of his expertise to this vitally important subject. America's War for the Greater Middle East is a bracing after-action report from the front lines of history. It will fundamentally change the way we view America's engagement in the world's most volatile region.
Read by Rob Shapiro, with a Prologue and Note read by the author.
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The relationship between military leaders and political leaders has always been a complicated one, especially in times of war. When the chips are down, who should run the show, the politicians or the generals? In Supreme Command, Eliot Cohen examines four great democratic war statesmen - Abraham Lincoln, Georges Clemenceau, Winston Churchill, and David Ben-Gurion - to reveal the surprising answer - the politicians. The generals may think they know how to win, but the statesmen are the ones who see the big picture.
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Dated material
- By Charlotte R. Shover on 11-21-20
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The Vietnam War: History in an Hour
- By: Neil Smith
- Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble
- Length: 1 hr and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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History for busy people. Listen to a concise history of the Vietnam War in just one hour. War, what is it good for? The Vietnam War: History In an Hour gives a gripping account of the most important Cold War-era conflict, fought between the United States and the Viet Cong, the Vietnam People’s Army and their Communist allies. It was one of the most traumatic military conflicts America has ever been involved in – and provoked a backlash of anti-war protests at home.
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Garbage
- By Michael on 08-06-12
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The Vietnam War
- A Concise International History
- By: Mark Atwood Lawrence
- Narrated by: Peter Berkrot
- Length: 6 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Hailed as a "pithy and compelling account of an intensely relevant topic" ( Kirkus Reviews), this wide-ranging volume offers a superb account of a key moment in modern U.S. and world history. Drawing upon the latest research in archives in China, Russia, and Vietnam, Mark Lawrence creates an extraordinary, panoramic view of all sides of the war.
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Politically Slanting But Enjoyable Narrative
- By Jonathan Hoyle on 04-11-14
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Road to Disaster
- A New History of America’s Descent into Vietnam
- By: Brian VanDeMark
- Narrated by: Ron Butler
- Length: 23 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Many books have been written on the tragic decisions regarding Vietnam made by the stars of the Kennedy and Johnson administrations. Yet despite many words of analysis and reflection, no historian has been able to explain why such decent and previously successful men stumbled so badly. That changes with Road to Disaster. Historian Brian VanDeMark draws upon decades of archival research, his own interviews with many of those involved, and a wealth of previously unheard recordings by Robert McNamara and Clark Clifford, who served as Defense Secretaries for Kennedy and Johnson.
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Vietnam Veteran
- By Jim Rollins on 04-02-19
By: Brian VanDeMark
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The Iraq War
- By: John Keegan
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 8 hrs and 5 mins
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John Keegan, whom the New York Review of Books calls "the best historian of our day", now brings his extraordinary expertise to bear on perhaps the most controversial war of our time. In exclusive interviews with Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and General Tommy Franks, John Keegan has gathered information about the war that adds immeasurably to our grasp of its causes, complications, costs, and consequences.
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A Solid, Quick Overview
- By Charles on 12-08-04
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House of War
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This landmark, myth-shattering work chronicles the most powerful institution in America, the people who created it, and the pathologies it has spawned. Carroll proves a controversial thesis: The Pentagon has, since its founding, operated beyond the control of any force in government or society. It is the biggest, loosest cannon in American history, and no institution has changed this country more.
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A Biased Account
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A Better War
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Neglected by scholars and journalists alike, the years of conflict in Vietnam from 1968 to 1975 offer surprises not only about how the war was fought, but about what was achieved. Drawing on authoritative materials not previously available, including thousands of hours of tape-recorded allied councils of war, award-winning military historian Lewis Sorley has given us what has long been needed - an insightful, factual, and superbly documented history of these important years.
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A thought-provoking history of the war 68-75
- By Rodney W. Schmisseur on 02-05-14
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The Cold War
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Drawing on new and often startling information from newly opened Soviet, Eastern European, and Chinese archives, this thrilling account explores the strategic dynamics that drove the Cold War, provides illuminating portraits of its major personalities, and offers much fresh insight into its most crucial events. Riveting, revelatory, and wise, it tells a story whose lessons it is vitally necessary to understand as America once more faces an implacable ideological enemy.
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WOW
- By Cordell eddings on 10-13-07
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JFK's War with the National Security Establishment: Why Kennedy Was Assassinated
- By: Douglas Horne
- Narrated by: Larry Wayne
- Length: 7 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Ever since researchers and commentators began questioning the conclusions of the Warren Report on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the response has been: Why would the US national-security establishment - that is, the military and the CIA - kill Kennedy? As Douglas P. Horne details in this audiobook, JFK's War with the National Security Establishment: Why Kennedy Was Assassinated, the answer is because Kennedy's ideas about foreign policy collided with those of the US national-security establishment during the height of the Cold War.
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FINALLY THE TRUTH!
- By Helen Williamson on 05-28-16
By: Douglas Horne
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The Future of War
- A History
- By: Lawrence Freedman
- Narrated by: Michael Page
- Length: 12 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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The Future of War - which covers civil wars to as yet unknown nuclear conflicts, proxy wars (real) to the Cold War (not), fashionably small wars to the War to End All Wars (it didn't) - is filled with insight and fascinating nuggets of military history and culture from one of the most brilliant military and strategic historians of his generation.
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A good historical review of the progression of war
- By Ian R. Graham on 06-14-18
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The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Vietnam War
- By: Phillip Jennings
- Narrated by: Tom Weiner
- Length: 6 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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The mainstream media and history books would have you believe that the Vietnam War was tragic and a dismal failure. But Phillip Jennings is here to set the record straight, about one of the bright spots in U.S. military history. In this latest Politically Incorrect Guide, Jennings shatters culturally accepted myths and busts politically incorrect lies that liberal pundits and leftist professors have been telling you for years.
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Politically incorrect is right.
- By Joe Dunckel on 09-29-20
By: Phillip Jennings
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Six Days of War
- June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East
- By: Michael B. Oren
- Narrated by: Robert Whitfield
- Length: 17 hrs and 53 mins
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In Israel and the West, it is called the Six Day War. In the Arab world, it is known as the June War or, simply, as "the Setback". Never has a conflict so short, unforeseen, and largely unwanted by both sides so transformed the world. The Yom Kippur War, the war in Lebanon, the Camp David accords, the controversy over Jerusalem and Jewish settlements in the West Bank, the intifada, and the rise of Palestinian terror are all part of the outcome of those six days.
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Great overview of Middle East troubles
- By Patrick Marstall on 07-23-06
By: Michael B. Oren
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What listeners say about America's War for the Greater Middle East
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- David Tweedie
- 06-15-16
Certainly a New Viewpoint
This book surely tested my view of the wars in the Middle East. Worthwhile listening.
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- John
- 05-04-16
An accurate, long-awaited summary
An accurate and long-awaited summary of US policy and actions in the Greater Middle East
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- Kelly C.
- 08-14-17
Well written and researched, but a lot of criticisms without offering his own solutions.
Very good and interesting book to listen to, and well researched. However, a major flaw is he points out policy mistakes and analysis from all democratic and republican Presidents from Carter to Obama, without providing what they should have done instead. He offers a lot of criticism, but no solutions or other viable options. But is still a well written and researched book that I enjoyed, but found a little wanting on lack of the correct solutions to the foreign policy decisions regarding the Middle East.
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- Gregory E Hause
- 06-12-18
Fantastic work well worth listening
It is an insightful, accurate display of history. I applaud the extensive and thoughtful attention to detail without placing a bias on the subject.
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- James
- 08-26-16
Now you will know why we are in such a mess.
First things first I am an total fan boy of Andrew J. Bacevich. It's rare that a man so thoroughly inside the military machine will defect from the home team, will provide a counter narrative to out interventionist foreign policy, but Bacevich will. It helps that he was never fully engulfed by the beast, and clocked out as a full colonel, not bad, but not all that great either in the scheme of things.
So what does this undistinguished veteran have to say about "The War for the Greater Middle East"? Well it's safe to say he is not entirely happy about how it's worked out since Jimmy Carter laid out the "Carter Doctrine" that has been our underlying philosophy about how to do business in a rather dangerous corner of the world.
More to the point the old peanut farmer is raked over the coals by the author for his feckless formulations and his even more feckless execution. But it's all good when Ronald Regan, Don Reynaldo the Great, the old Gipper steps to the plate, right? Hardly, Regan does not make the same mistakes Carter does, he makes bigger and better ones. All this is laid out in excruciating details with pride of place given to the double dealing done during Iran-Contra and how that managed to infuriate both the Iranians and the Saudis.
Democrats zero for one, ditto for Republicans. Next up is George H. Bush, can he at least tie up the board for Team Republican? Swing and a miss. Bacevich once more goes into the weeds to show that we very much need to pay attention to the man behind the curtain. Gulf War One was less the spectacular win it was presented and more of the ambiguous no decision that our author presents it as.
Team Republican 0-1-1 Next up the sleazy, morally easy Bill Clinton and once more into the breach dear friends with a policy which seems designed to not only fail, but fail spectacularly, which it did. Team Democrat zero for two, Team USA 0-1-2. Can Bush the younger finally put a win on the board?
We know the answer to that question. We are living in the big, nasty, complete failure of W. Bush's attempt to finish the job in Iraq. 0-1-3 Team USA with the war now metastasizing to the bad lands of the Hindu Kush.
Which leads us to the present day and Team Democrat up at the plate again. The war has further spread to not only the Horn of Africa but to Africa proper. Obama is less a commander in chief and more of a fire fighter in chief attempting to put out flash fires all over the world but never asking how all that kindling got there in the first place.
With the end of the book and the present election before us it really does not look like Obama will chalk up a win for the "War for the Greater Middle East" If Hillary gets to sit in the big desk of 1600 Pennsylvania maybe she might right this battered and sinking ship of state. However, if Bacevich is correct in his interpretations and opinion, it does not look like either Team Hillary nor team USA will pull the win. Team Trump? It's not the personalities as Bacevich makes painfully clear. It is the policy, a policy that Trump seems to have no interest in studying, never mind changing.
Bacevich has not written a happy book, more of a j'accuse, but it should be a requirement of any thoughtful citizen to read or listen to this effort. Only by learning the awful errors of the past do we have any chance of finding a correct path out of our disastrous Carter Doctrine in the Near East and beyond.
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- J.B.
- 11-29-16
The U.S., The Middle East and Why We Lose
America's War for the Greater Middle East: A Military History, written by: Andrew J. Bacevich, narrated by: Rob Shapiro. This is a complete, and I do mean complete HISTORY of the United States’ of America’s military and to a lesser extent covert effort to police and set the political values of the entire Middle East family of nations. By the word, history, I mean the academic discipline using the narrative to examine and analyze a sequence of past events; and objectively determine the patterns of cause and what, if any, effect results.
Given that definition of history, this work by Bacevich, is history delivered par excellence.
Actually, this is not a book, but rather a course of study in which each chapter/or lecture depicts an undertaking by the United States to control disparate factors making up the political life of the Middle East. The telling is very well structured and it is exciting to revisit all that history from overthrowing the Iranian democracy in the 1950, to the oil embargos, to the anti-western bombings, and to the ongoing wars and the mistakes of Carter, Reagan, Clinton, Busch and Obama, in attempting to control what was not understood and perhaps not understandable.
More important though it is a look into the psyche of this nation (U.S.) and what it (and its leaders) were looking to obtain and whether their objective (when we were fortunate enough to have a leader that even considered what the objective might be that he/she was trying to achieve) might be and why they thought their chosen course of action would achieve that goal. According to Bacevich, the U.S. and its allies have never secured any of these goals.
The author, I believe has a certain social justice perspective which appears in most of the compilations. The author often notes the injustice heaped upon the lower classes by the upper classes, whether it be this nation against its poor or the Islamic tyrannies against their peoples. His arguments ring out from either the U.S. Progressive Left or the French economist, Thomas Piketty’s One Percent findings. In short, those with the wealth get the riches, while those in need are handed a raw deal. So, if you do not believe in the benefit of wealth redistribution as a benefit to society you may be frustrated in that the author cares for humanity. The injustices though are carefully demonstrated and explained.
Highly Recommended.
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- Eric Wesseldyke
- 11-26-18
Excellent Context for Our (U.S.) Foreign Policy
More than anything else, this book helps to connect the various U.S. interventions in the Greater Middle East to their context. It is an important read for Americans who want to understand our current foreign policy.
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- chetyarbrough.blog
- 08-03-17
AMERICAN TRUTH & INEPTITUDE
To put it mildly, this is a difficult audio book to listen to. It rings with historic truth while revealing American ineptitude. Written by a military historian who retired as a Colonel, served in Vietnam and the Persian Gulf and, tragically, lost a son in Iraq in 2007. Bacevich implies that America’s wars, since WWII, have been failures. (Though he does not mention Korea, one presumes a temporary peace at the 38th parallel is included.)
Bacevich’s latest book focuses on war in the Middle East; a war of attrition and guerrilla warfare that reminds one of Vietnam. America clearly did not win in Vietnam and is facing a similar loss in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, and Syria. To Bacevich, post WWII’ wars are the result of failures of diplomacy, military strategy, and military/civilian intelligence. Bacevich suggests America is in a “no-win” position in the Middle East because of misunderstanding of real-politic and fundamentalist beliefs that fracture nation-state comity.
It may be dis-proportionally unjust for other governments to be other than democratic but who are we to judge or dictate to another sovereign country? America fought its own war to become a democratic republic. It is not perfect, but most Americans want to live in their own country. Diplomacy is Bacevich’s implied solution. One presumes Bacevich is not implying America should become isolationist. He suggests America needs diplomacy, founded on cultural understanding of other nations; not war, to get what the U.S. needs to prosper.
As countries mature, the common needs of humankind become more evident. Like a child growing up, countries grow into adulthood. Some will die in the process; many mistakes will be made, but most will grow into maturity based on their own traditions and adopted foreign influences.
Democracy works for America. American democracy does not work for everyone. Countries need to work with each other based on maturity; not infant tantrum. As nations mature, rages will continue to occur because of internal strife. However, Bacevich infers international diplomacy is a better alternative to war for survival of the species.
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- Andrew
- 07-03-16
Exceptional and Thoughtful
As an early 1970s US Army officer returned to civilian life, I found this book challenging to my thoughts and assumptions on practice, tactics, and policy .
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- Joyce Francis
- 03-27-17
Bacevich's Last Chapter Should Be Required Reading for Congress
Bacevich's histories are well told but may be tedious for those who lived and paid attention through the years since 1980. If so, skim those to refresh your memory, then read the last chapter, ideally several times. There is insight and wisdom there that our country need.
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