The Right Way to Lose a War
America in an Age of Unwinnable Conflicts
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Narrated by:
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Brian Troxell
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By:
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Dominic Tierney
About this listen
A provocative blueprint for how the United States can successfully disengage from failing wars without compromising its core values or interests.
For a century the United States steadily accumulated a string of military triumphs. But since 1945 the onslaught of failures and stalemates in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan has exposed the country's inability to change course after battlefield setbacks - with grave consequences for thousands of American soldiers and our allies.
The Right Way to Lose a War provocatively explains how America can draw failed campaigns to a close without compromising its core values through three specific steps - surge, talk, and leave. The Right Way to Lose a War is an essential guidebook for life in an era of unwinnable conflicts, an audiobook made necessary not only by Iraq and Afghanistan but the future quagmires that may yet come.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your My Library section along with the audio.
©2015 Dominic Tierney (P)2015 Hachette AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Overall
-
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-
Story
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- By: John Lewis Gaddis
- Narrated by: Jay Gregory, Alan Sklar
- Length: 9 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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Balances, Counter-Balances and Traps
- By Joyce U. Olewe on 10-09-17
By: Graham Allison
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Pakistan on the Brink
- The Future of America, Pakistan, and Afghanistan
- By: Ahmed Rashid
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 8 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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What are the possibilities—and hazards—facing America as it withdraws from Afghanistan and reviews its long engagement in Pakistan? Where is the Taliban now in both of these countries? What does the immediate future hold, and what are America’s choices going forward? These are some of the crucial questions that Ahmed Rashid—Pakistan’s preeminent journalist—takes on in this follow-up to his acclaimed Descent into Chaos.
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A Very Long NPR-like Interview and History Lesson
- By Harry Zimmer on 04-23-12
By: Ahmed Rashid
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Kissinger's Shadow
- The Long Reach of America's Most Controversial Statesman
- By: Greg Grandin
- Narrated by: Brian O'Neill
- Length: 7 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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A new account of America's most controversial diplomat that moves beyond praise or condemnation to reveal Kissinger as the architect of America's current imperial stance. In his fascinating new book, acclaimed historian Greg Grandin argues that to understand the crisis of contemporary America - its never-ending wars abroad and political polarization at home - we have to understand Henry Kissinger.
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A Rehash of Rehashes...nothing new
- By A. M. on 10-06-19
By: Greg Grandin
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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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A World of Trouble
- The White House and the Middle East
- By: Patrick Tyler
- Narrated by: Michael Prichard
- Length: 27 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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The Middle East is the beginning and the end of U.S. foreign policy: events there influence our alliances, make or break presidencies, govern the price of oil, and draw us into war. But it was not always so - and as Patrick Tyler shows in this thrilling chronicle of American misadventures in the region, the story of American presidents' dealings there is one of mixed motives, skulduggery, deceit, and outright foolishness, as well as of policymaking and diplomacy.
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Does't deliver
- By Matthew on 02-10-09
By: Patrick Tyler
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Forgotten Ally
- China's World War II, 1937 - 1945
- By: Rana Mitter
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 15 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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For decades, a major piece of World War II history has gone virtually unwritten. The war began in China two full years before Hitler invaded Poland, and China eventually became the fourth great ally, partner to the United States, the Soviet Union, and Great Britain. Yet its drama of invasion, resistance, slaughter, and political intrigue remains little known in the West.
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Bland
- By Rodney on 01-23-14
By: Rana Mitter
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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
By: Neil Smith
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House of War
- The Pentagon and the Disastrous Rise of American Power
- By: James Carroll
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 26 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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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
- By GoTravel1385a on 09-06-07
By: James Carroll
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The American War in Afghanistan
- A History 1st Edition
- By: Carter Malkasian
- Narrated by: Jonathan Todd Ross
- Length: 27 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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The American war in Afghanistan, which began in 2001, is now the longest armed conflict in the nation's history. It is currently winding down, and American troops are likely to leave soon - but only after a stay of nearly two decades.
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A superb summary of the Afghan war
- By Charles Olmsted on 06-18-22
By: Carter Malkasian
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The Return of Marco Polo's World
- War, Strategy, and American Interests in the Twenty-First Century
- By: Robert D. Kaplan
- Narrated by: Eric Jason Martin
- Length: 9 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Drawing on decades of firsthand experience as a foreign correspondent and military embed for The Atlantic, as well as encounters with preeminent realist thinkers, Kaplan outlines the timeless principles that should shape America's role in a turbulent world: a respect for the limits of Western-style democracy; a delineation between American interests and American values; an awareness of the psychological toll of warfare; a projection of power via a strong navy; and more.
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Essays on the Region of the Silk Road
- By Jeff Beardsley on 05-19-18
By: Robert D. Kaplan
What listeners say about The Right Way to Lose a War
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Owen Cook
- 09-15-21
Strong anecdotes, few solutions
The author starts with a seductive premise and catchy title, and offers some very good diagnosis of the problems with recent US military efforts (as well as some foreign ones): short-sightedness, hubris, cultural ignorance, etc. But the book falls apart when it comes to solutions: the author repeats "surge, talk, and leave" like a mantra, but fails to show how such a strategy might have actually worked in real-world scenarios, or to consider alternative approaches. There are many interesting anecdotes, and important questions are posed, but overall the writing was repetitive and intellectually over-ambitious.
The narrator did very well.
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