Books and
Cooks West
January 2006
Imperial Grunts
by Robert D. Kaplan
Imperial Grunts: The
American Military on the Ground
Robert D. Kaplan
Dawn and Jared's place
Saturday, January 7 at 5:30 PM
Garden patch rigatoni, salad, white whine, chocolate pie
Our rating: 2.75 cups of tea!
From Publishers Weekly
America is no less an imperial power than Britain and Rome in their
times, claims veteran journalist Kaplan (Balkan Ghosts,
etc.)—one that is backed by the same sort of enforcers. To illustrate,
he travels to seven nations and describes how American troops are, if
not ruling the world, working to persuade it to follow our lead. The
author joins elite units (generally marines or special forces) sent to
shore up friendly governments, win people's hearts, train security
forces and defeat terrorism—an increasingly vague term that includes
narco-guerrillas, local warlords, unruly tribes and criminal gangs.
Living among working soldiers, Kaplan makes no secret of his admiration
for their camaraderie, practicality and rational if politically
incorrect views. All roll their eyes when our leaders proclaim that
defeating terrorism requires democratic governments; according to
Kaplan, they believe this is nonsense in Colombia, Kenya, Yemen and the
Philippines—all democracies. Forbidden to fight in these countries,
Americans are building infrastructure and gathering intelligence as
they instruct local units, hoping American-trained leaders will
eventually rise to positions of authority. Military buffs will prefer
the chapters on Iraq and Afghanistan, where the soldiers are slugging
it out. Stabilizing all these nations may take decades, these men and
women say—except in Iraq, where it may take longer.
